Content marketing is an important aspect of any integrated marketing campaign. But for content marketing to work, you need to have plenty of content. It can seem daunting to produce enough content to support your marketing team’s needs; however, there are a few steps that can make this process easier.
1. Utilize Previously Written Content
Writing new content from scratch is not always necessary and can be time-consuming if resources and bandwidth are limited. Instead, look at content pieces that you have previously written. Consider these questions as well as those similar to them:
- Do you have a white paper that you can split into a couple of articles?
- What about related blog posts that you can combine to create an eBook?
- Do you have an infographic that you can pull social media graphics from?
Repurposing content is not only cost-effective but also helps to drive traffic to all pieces within a campaign. Plus, the more content that you can repurpose can also help in the sales process. Your sales team can deliver the newly created eBook, from repurposed blog posts, to prospects that are in the stage where an eBook is an appropriate content piece for them to consume.
2. Form Partnerships with Organizations
The phrase “two heads are better than one” is also true in content production. Consider using the resources of another organization in conjunction with your internal resources. In addition to assistance with creating content, partnering with another organization expands the potential audience for your content piece to include your partner’s audience as well.
A successful example of this is the partnership between MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute. These organizations partner to produce an annual industry report, which is then used to generate countless content pieces such as webinars, blogs and infographics that are used by each organization. The content created from this report is also popular to B2B organizations when pulling stats, insights and more to incorporate into the original content that they create.
3. Take Advantage of Internal Resources
Marketing is not the only department responsible for creating content. Your sales team, for instance, is often those who have the most contact with your prospects and usually have insights into common pain points or issues they may have. By leveraging your sales team, you can work together to develop content that will address these pain points and allow you to better reach your prospects. Likewise, your engineering or product team has an in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of your product and would be a great resource for technical content. You can also turn to executives or the leadership team for thought leadership pieces.
When working with other departments, make it as easy as possible for them to participate. Instead of asking them to write an entire article themselves, consider scheduling a short meeting to interview them and then draft content based on what you learned. The information that you gain can be useful for your audiences so ensure that you have a clear focus for the content.
4. Make Content Easily Accessible on Your Website
In addition to building out a library of content, these pieces must be seen by your prospects. If your site visitors find it challenging to find your content, they will likely not revisit your website because they know what experience they will have. This can see your content pieces go to waste. Making content easily accessible, regardless of the stage of the buyer’s journey a prospect may fall, will be of great benefit. An essential website element is having a dedicated “resource center” housing multiple pieces of content. Adding this to your website, if you have not already done so, can improve the user experience and increase the chance of a prospect converting. It is also useful to separate content by topic areas or content type. This will allow someone to easily find content relevant to their interests. Consider adding search functionality. This helps the usability of your resource center.
Build Your Content Library
Building a content library might seem like a daunting task, to begin with. But, repurposing and reusing content can be the first steps to doing so. It’s essential to be creative. A new content topic or piece might not come to mind immediately, but taking the time to brainstorm can help in the creation process.
By following these four steps, you can build out your content library quickly. Once you have a solid content library, you can then develop a plan to integrate your content into your overall marketing plan.