Today, some 15 or so years since the beginning of the web’s widespread adoption as a business communications and marketing tool, we all understand that “build it and they will come” doesn’t work for websites. Most people will tell you it’s because now there’s too much competition and too much noise for anything worthwhile to be found accidentally.
That’s true to some extent, but it’s probably more accurate to think about “the good old days” as the anomaly. Novelty and a sparse landscape of competing content in the new medium made everything both more accessible and more worthy of our limited attention.
The situation we have now, where there’s way to much to do and see and not enough time to take it all in, is much more the norm over the history of most forms of communication. Yes, the pace at which new information is published has increased rapidly, but it has always been a (relative) fire hose of information.
With that backdrop in mind, it’s a bit shocking that for many marketers, content marketing begins and ends with creating content. That simply doesn’t work, even if it’s great content. It doesn’t work even if it’s great content intelligently aligned with your products and services.
So the question is, if you know you can’t attract an audience to your website without promoting it, why would you think you can attract an audience to your content without a plan for promotion?
I can see the smirk forming on your face: the irony here is rich. We engage in content marketing in the first place to promote our firms. And now I’m telling you that your marketing needs marketing of its own.
The need to get your content in front of as large and diverse and audience as possible is one of the reasons that it can be worthwhile to bring in professional help as you dive in to content marketing. Rarely is one person going to be skilled at both content creation and content promotion. (So blithely handing the whole content marketing ball of yarn off to your marketing director, sales intern, or someone else with a bit of free time isn’t the best path to take.)
Content promotion and distribution comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some approaches, like email marketing, are a form of content creation themselves. Others, like creating and nurturing key influencer relationships, require other work in addition to creating great content. Avenues you should consider include:
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Guest posting
- Encouraging comments/interaction with your content
- Key influencers
- Collaborative content
The right mix will depend on your audience and your goals, as well as the kinds of content you are publishing. Creating that mix is vital to seeing a positive return on your content marketing investment.
I hope I’ve piqued your interest enough to allow for a shameless plug. Please join me, Mike Moran and the Biznology team on July 15th at 11am for a more in-depth look at this topic. The webinar is just 30 minutes, and it will be packed with actionable information to help improve your content marketing success.
