As I have mentioned many times before, consistency is the key to any successful content marketing strategy. The problem is, far too many businesses treat content marketing as more of an afterthought; it’s something you work on when the other “important” work is done.
The answer is simple: They discovered you through your content. I’d be willing to wager that, if your business has been around for a while, there was a time – either before or after the advent of the internet – you placed a heavy emphasis on content creation for the well-being of your business. It’s time to start thinking that way again.
All Content Matters
Whether it was online ads or exterior signage that helped you match your brochures and catalogs to your overall brand image, you had a sharp, attentive focus on content when your business was new. Then, after your business started running in the black, it became less of a priority. What changed?
Many small, local businesses stop seeing the need for consistency in content creation when they have enough of an influx of business that word of mouth takes over. While there are many great success stories written around and woven into that narrative, over time, things about the story change. Parents become grandparents, their kids have their own kids, and the grandkids are now the new customer in town. That customer’s needs aren’t even in the same ballpark with their parents’ or grandparents’.
An Ever-Shifting (Yet Predictable) Market
Each generation demands something different when it comes to how they respond to a company’s marketing efforts. Those of us with baby boomer parents know they liked to listen to (or watch) their favorite celebrities hawking products on radio or TV. A good product and a celebrity endorsement were enough to make a sale. Businesses knew that they needed to convey credibility. They also understood the concept of involving the consumer in the process of selling. It was necessary to get inside their heads, develop relationships (usually through celebrity endorsements), and appeal to their sense of trust in their product’s spokesperson.
By the time people my age were cognizant of advertising, the focus had shifted a bit. Consumers were becoming more interested in how real people interacted with products. Forget about Lucy hawking cigarettes. Let’s get an ordinary housewife type to sell some dish soap. “You’re soaking in it…”
If you’re over 40, that last quote probably means something to you. If you’re a little younger, you’ve at least heard it before. That line, and others like it, is a testament to the fact that people want your advertising to be more personal. Real people sitting at the counter of the neighborhood diner, a real-looking middle-aged waitress hobnobs with the regulars and touts the virtues of brand-name paper towels. Even the spokespeople’s names were pure Americana: Madge, Betty, Mrs. Olson, Mr. Whipple, and the list goes on from there.
Why do we remember these people so well? Who can name one slogan for one product pitched by a radio celebrity around 1940 or 1950? And yet, just a generation later, we have advertisers identifying their markets so well that another generation later we remember commercial jingles from the 1970s and ’80s better than any that came out just last year.
Fast forward again to a world that has now spent more than two decades on the internet, and you get an audience that demands an even more personal approach to your content. That means that everything from your ads to your email blasts to the images you select for your blog posts need to be customer-centric. They need to steer consumers toward the emotional reaction you desire from them when they interact with your brand.
Strategize Your Content Creation
So… is there a point to all of this? Yes, yes, there is – and this is it:
If you want to be one of those businesses that thrive for generations, with a following that can say they remember you from way back when, keep this in mind: The only way to get there is to create an anchor in people’s minds between your content and your brand. That anchor comes in the form of delivering fresh content at regular intervals with no lags and no excuses. But how do you do that? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Prioritize content creation in your (and your staff’s) work schedule. Start giving it the time and effort it deserves.
2. Identify current members of your team who exhibit talent in various areas of content creation and delegate some of the work in-house.
3. Identify the tasks that cannot get done in-house and reach out to freelancers and other content creation professionals (like custom writing services, graphic designers, photographers, video production professionals, etc.) for help.
4. Invest in some automation software for social media and email and either learn how to use them or outsource them – whichever maximizes their effectiveness.
5. Maintain a content creation schedule that integrates the efforts of every member of your content creation team, tracks progress, and keeps things consistent.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “If you’re really talking about small business, you have to know that what you’re suggesting is impossible.”
OK, I know it sounds like a huge undertaking, but keep a few things in mind here:
First, your “team” could consist of three freelancers or one content marketing company that charge a flat rate for the services they perform. It could also consist of a dozen people scattered over three continents. It all depends on what you want to do and how much you are able to spend and see a reasonable ROI.
At a minimum, I would recommend working with a copywriter or copywriting company that knows the current trends and best practices for SEO and who can deliver outstanding written content for social media, blogging, ads, and webpage content. You can start off with stock images, but it is important to work your way up to branded visuals, too. That is where custom photography and video production come into play. If it seems too rich for your company’s blood right now, skip it. Focus on the basics and build as you go.