10 “Musts” for Enterprise-Level Content Marketing
10 “Musts” for Enterprise-Level Content Marketing
Content marketing has come to the enterprise, and the enterprise is the natural next frontier as content marketing matures.
What should you expect when launching a content marketing effort within your company? In other words, how do you know if you’re doing it right?
Here are a few markers to identify along the way:
It must be grounded in the challenges, obstacles, and questions faced by the people we want to reach. You must be able to see the world through the eyes of the people you want to reach.
It must be interdisciplinary and cross divisions. Good content marketing thrives at the intersection of communications, publishing, marketing, and technology. These very different disciplines must collaborate and co-create together.
It must be process-driven. If you don’t have a process, you won’t execute consistently.
It must be focused on outcomes. Any enterprise-level activity that doesn’t understand how it drives, supports, or creates revenue is a waste of time. Businesses and organizations exist to generate revenue.
It must blend the mobile and desktop experience and see them as one in the same. The temptation is to go mobile-only or desktop-only. What we produce should be optimized for both.
It must be in sync with the business development goals of the organization. Content marketing should provide one consistent drumbeat.
It must be anchored in a publishing process that ensures quality, consistently, and frequency. Just like a relationship, you have to be consistently you if you want anyone to trust you.
It must be constantly evaluated. Just because it was successful last time doesn’t mean we should do it again. Just because it wasn’t successful last time doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it again.
It must be accomplished in a way that doesn’t create more work for the people it is intended to help. We shouldn’t expect others in the organization to provide the final product. Those responsible for content marketing should make it easy for the best ideas from the best people to be shared through a variety of relevant content channels.
It must be invested in through adequate budget allocation. You can’t make bricks without straw. As content marketing comes into its own at the enterprise level, the barrier of entry will continue to rise. Allocate incrementally more over time (based on results) and you’ll ensure you have the ability to continue to compete using content marketing at the enterprise level.
As content marketing goes corporate, you can expect the barrier of entry to continue to rise. It’s best to get in while you can still afford to figure out what content marketing looks like within your organization.
What has been your biggest obstacles with content marketing at the enterprise level?
Ben Stroup is Chief Growth Architect and President at Velocity Strategy Solutions where he helps leaders design, develop, and deploy smarter business growth strategies. Ben is a futurist, disruptor, and data champion. He leads a team that takes a structured learning approach to business challenges, which allows them to assist leaders in bridging the gap between ideas, innovation, and revenue—taking ideas from mind to market.
Velocity Strategy Solutions is an on-demand, next-generation business strategy and management consulting firm which provides clients with a relentless focus on data, execution, and results that positively impact the bottom line. Velocity delivers integrated people and revenue strategies combined with a disciplined approach to growth architecture that elevates the capacity of leaders, teams, and organizations to succeed and win more.