Marketing to important people in your business often involves teaching and helping them keep up with the rapid changes.
You are often dealing with an eager community of learners. To be effective, business content must be informative and not promotional. By simply putting out high-quality content, you can reap the benefits of marketing.
Content topics vary depending on the company and the market. When planning content, try to imagine what your audience is thinking. Ask questions such as…
- What are the most common things people don’t know but should?
- What can you teach your employees that will not only be useful to them but also enhance the reputation of your brand?
- What makes your brand unique?
- What expertise can you share with those you need to connect to in order to generate interest, preference, and demand?
These are the key criteria for determining content-worthy topics. Then, you can apply your imagination and creativity to the specific challenges that your business faces.
The most appropriate actions depend on the company’s competitive position: Are you the top dog in your industry or a newcomer trying to gain credibility and awareness? Is your category fun or very serious? You can make it fun! What do your competitors do? What information is lacking? You can survey your community to find out what they need to know. Are you aware of what your community wants to know?
No one solution fits all.
Content development is a multifaceted process. Content strategy and reuse of content are two that are often overlooked.
First Strategy, then Tactics!
It is important to have a strategy because not all content is good. Fix the communications strategy that doesn’t incorporate competitive differentiation. Then, you can plan content.
Do you own a space in the market’s mind? Al Reis and Jack Trout called this concept “positioning” years ago: How do you define yourself to the market? Does it reflect what you want it to? What can you do to change that perception? What is the desired position?
You can only be a spokesperson for one cause. Strategizing isn’t rocket science. It’s also not a good idea to follow competitors. Read Trout’s Differ or Die to get excellent advice on developing a strategy.
Ask yourself if the topic fits the way the brand wants to be perceived and what information the target audience wants or needs. You could waste a lot of time and money if you don’t have the answers or if the idea does not pass the tests.
You’re not in the education business if you are a marketer. It’s possible to make your brand stand out by focusing on education rather than promotion, especially if you have competitors who aren’t providing valuable information. The people aren’t interested in more advertising. People are hungry for information they can apply to their personal or professional lives.
What services can you offer? What can you provide? Before you begin, make sure to ask yourself these questions.
Share Ideas in Multiple Media
Reusing content is key to getting the most out of ideas and content creation. One piece of content, such as an article, video po, podcast, blog post, or webinar, can be transformed into another, including a blog post, e-mail, video, audio, podcast, and more.
Suppose you think the idea behind your content is valuable in that case. In that case (see the subheading above on Strategy), it should be expressed in a variety of affordable, appropriate media that are available to your company for use.
It’s common for supply chain marketers to assume that topics have become dated because they’ve already used them, but in reality, their audience is just starting to notice. Do not overestimate how quickly people will consume your content. You may be tired of a topic, but that doesn’t necessarily mean other people are.
Recombine
Reuse is combining content previously used or breaking it down into smaller pieces for a more in-depth look at the topic.
Reuse can save you time and money. You can make another delicious dinner from leftovers, saving you a trip to your local market.
Fresh ideas are important, but they shouldn’t come at the expense of reusing key topics – unless your budget is huge and you have a large production team.
Marketing-Based Teaching
Consider content development in the same way that a journalist would consider what will interest and attract readers and viewers. At the same time, keep in mind how your brand can achieve its goals. While it’s not journalism per se, many journalistic skills are applicable.
Do not be afraid to focus on being more informative rather than trying to promote your brand. Be inclusive. Recognize other businesses. Join the community.
