For anyone looking to grow their career in academia, the saying ‘publish or perish’ is spot on. Climbing the department ranks to achieve tenure means consistently writing scholarly articles, which are seldom read by anyone besides the author and their peers. This freedom to focus on scholarly work may be fine within the walls of academia, but not elsewhere. Unfortunately, many B2B marketers also feel the pressure of the ‘publish or perish’ mindset. With numerous channels to manage and editorial schedules to follow, many marketers produce a large volume of content—without stopping to consider who will actually want to read it and why.
According to a MarketingProfs study, brands spend 25%-43% of their marketing budget on content, yet according to eMarketer only 23% of CMOs feel they are producing the right information for the right audience, and delivering it at the right time and correct format. This is a very large and very expensive disconnect for brands that otherwise are very results-oriented in virtually every other endeavor. How did this happen? One explanation is that their customers became less and less swayed by traditional sales and marketing efforts and began doing the vast majority of research and due diligence before ever reaching out to a manufacturer or service provider. To maintain their presence in this new self-serve paradigm, brands felt compelled to push out more and more information and so, continue to attract its fair share of leads and new business.
This 180 degree shift in marketing has led to a ‘publish or perish’ mentality across marketing teams and throughout lines of business (LOB). But without developing a clear definition of who their targets are and how, when and through which channels they want to receive information, marketers run the risk of wasting time and money on subpar content. Worse yet, they may further muddy the waters of an already complicated sales process.
For many brands, part of the solution lies in developing definitive buyer personas, mapping that buyers’ content journey, identifying the strengths and gaps – and then using that input to craft a content roadmap to guide development, distribution and amplification. Do you feel that your content roadmap is on course?
For an informative and logical approach to content marketing, download a free copy of The Alchemy of Content.