If you’re the type to make New Year’s Resolutions, here’s one that, as a marketer, you’d do well to put at the top of your list: Create and share content. Because in my opinion, content marketing is the most tool available to marketers for generating quality leads in a cost-effective way.
As I discussed in my last blog, content marketing really took off a few years ago when Google’s Panda search filter update forced marketers to earn high SEO rankings by publishing quality, user-focused content. Since then, the demand among marketers for high-quality content has gone through the roof.
Still Sitting on the Sidelines?
But some companies are still sitting on the content marketing sidelines. This is understandable because creating quality content on a consistent basis takes a lot of time, money or both. Consider blogging, for example.
The frequency at which you should blog depends on your industry (I wrote in detail about this here) but let’s just say you decide to blog once a week, which is pretty typical. That’s 52 original pieces of quality content you’ll need to come up with in a year.
For starters, what are you going to blog about? You’ll need to come up with an editorial calendar so you’re not staring at a blank computer screen every Monday morning thinking, “What on earth am I going to write about this week???”
Next, who’s going to write these blogs? You could divvy up writing responsibilities among managers and department heads, but the task will inevitably fall to the bottom of their priority list and they’ll be late submitting blogs, if they submit them at all. And since department managers aren’t trained writers, the quality of the blogs might not be very high.
Ideally, you (as the marketer) or your staff will write the blogs. In this case, you’ll need to create a blog-writing schedule and assign specific writing responsibilities and deadlines to staffers or yourself. Don’t forget to include time in the schedule for routing, review and editing of each week’s blog.
Hiring a Professional Writer
If your marketing department isn’t staffed to handle weekly blog writing or you don’t have time to do it yourself, you can hire a professional writer to do it for you. Personally speaking, blog writing has become one of my main focuses, accounting for at least half of my current workload. I write weekly, biweekly and monthly blogs for clients on a wide range of financial and business topics.
Your first step, of course, is to find the right writer. There are LOTS of freelance writers today who do blog writing, but you should try to find a writer who specializes in your niche industry. This will significantly reduce the learning curve required for the writer to get up to speed while increasing the chance that you receive the high-quality, industry-focused content you need.
For example, I have written about the business and financial industries for my entire 31-year career, so all the writing I do is focused in these areas. If someone were to ask me to blog for them about travel or food or home repairs, I’d suggest they look for a writer who specializes in these niches. But if they need a business or financial writer, then I’m probably their guy.
Once you’ve found your writer, you’ll need to go through the same exercises noted above: creating an editorial calendar and blog-writing schedule and working out your internal routing, review and editing process. Your writer may be able to help you with the editorial calendar, especially if he or she has the kind of industry expertise you need.
Of course, there’s a cost involved in hiring a professional writer. Fees charged by blog writers will depend on such factors as their level of experience in your industry and the frequency and length of your blogs.
Warning: This is not an area where you want to pinch pennies. Your blog writer will become an extension of your marketing team. Therefore, you should hire a true professional with extensive industry experience and a demonstrated ability to meet deadlines. Require candidates to provide you with samples of relevant industry content so you can gauge their knowledge and writing abilities yourself, and also get a couple of references you can ask about their ability to meet deadlines.
A Comprehensive Content Marketing Program
Blogs are just one component of content marketing. Whitepapers, e-books, newsletters, case studies, info-graphics and social media posts are other types of content assets that comprise a comprehensive content marketing program.
If you’re just getting started with content marketing, don’t let all of this overwhelm you. Start off slowly, focusing on one or two of these types of content first in order to get the ball rolling. For example, you might start with a twice-a-month blog, and then use your first six blogs to create a whitepaper or e-book.
The most important thing is to be consistent with your content marketing initiative. A lack of consistency is the dagger that kills many content marketing programs before they can start to produce real results in terms of generating quality leads and driving new business.