Content Marketing Essentials
When I served on the AIM board, I occasionally had dealings with Bryant Duhon, the organization’s editor and community manger. I always found Bryant to be sharp, focused, and a person who is good at grasping and presenting the essentials of complex topics in a way that makes them useful to his readership. Bryant’s latest post is a great example. Titled Content Marketing: 3 Essentials, the article boils down the complex subject of content marketing into three essential components.
Essential 1: Create your content with a purpose.
Essential 2: Write well.
Essential 3: Distribute appropriately.
I can’t argue with this simple yet profound way of summarizing the content marketing process, but will expand on each of the points. To meet the requirements of the first essential, you need to make sure the content you are creating always answers this fundamental question: How does this particular piece of content support and/or enhance my brand? If the answer is “it doesn’t,” best to spend your time elsewhere. Thought leadership is a precious commodity and you can’t afford wasted or misguided efforts.
Essential number two sounds obvious, but how does writing well manifest itself in the context of content marketing? Good content writing is interesting, compelling and relevant. And when I say relevant, I mean the content has meaning to the reader – not just to the writer. You should also write in a way that establishes thought leadership by differentiating you from the many others who are vying for your prospects’ attention. And while you endeavor to write well, proofread carefully when you’re done. It will have an impact on your credibility. I also recommend that you write in a voice that sounds like one individual speaking to another, not a corporation talking to a corporation.
Essential three is just as important as the first two. You can create your content with a purpose and do a great job of writing, but all this is for naught if you don’t get your share of marketplace eyeballs. That means that you need to be aggressive in propagating your content as far and wide as possible while making sure to hit the most appropriate social media channels.
You should keep these three essentials in mind to make sure your content marketing supports your lead generation, awareness and web optimization goals.
