Is Your Marketing Content Collecting Dust?

By Barbara Pfeiffer, The Partner Marketing Group

In a blog interview with the Content Marketing Institute, Andy Crestodina, the co-founder of Orbit Media, expressed the opinion that it’s common to see people “spend 80% of their time on content and 20% of their time marketing it.”

From my experience with our clients, as well as my blogs and content pieces, I have to admit – that sounds about right. Given how much we invest in creating thought-provoking, original marketing content, why are we not doing everything we can to get the most out of it?

Is it because we’re prioritizing quantity over quality? For most companies I work with, no. Most small to medium resellers and ISVs are not putting out so much content that they can’t distribute it efficiently.  More often, the challenges are lack of planning, creativity and resources.

3 Must-do’s to Deliver Consistent Marketing Content

• Plan, plan, plan. If you don’t have a content distribution plan, you will probably just default to the easiest things (post on your site, on LinkedIn, and publish a blog post). This doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking. A simple checklist that gets pulled out each time new content is created works fine. Just make sure you have different checklists for different types of content – what you would do for a blog is going to be very different than what you’d do for an eBook.

• Get creative. Let’s face it, we’re all moving so fast that staying up to date on new tactics or continuously coming up with new ideas can be exhausting. We “check the boxes” but is it delivering the results we expect? Do whatever it takes to get away from the day-to-day and spend some time thinking about creative new ways you can promote your content and improve results. (Be sure to come back next week when I’ll post 7 Overlooked Ideas for Content Distribution).

• Stay focused. Although you’re probably not publishing so much content that it’s affecting how you can distribute it – you probably ARE still being pulled in too many directions with your marketing overall.  It’s natural to want to move on to the next task after your content is done and posted on your social channels. A plan will help you stay on track but you are still going to need to make the time for distribution and re-distribution as part of your ongoing content marketing strategy. Not taking the time is costing you money and leads so make it a priority.

The Bottom Line on Content

The bottom line? Marketing content deserves the same attention as creating it. You are spending too much time and money on your content not to promote it as effectively and consistently as possible. Distribution is the key to seeing a return from your content investment.