Content Marketing The Right Way

According to forbes.com the former sales model is broken.

Marketers are trained to think in terms of objectives.  They have a specific goal in mind, such as building awareness, driving sales or increasing loyalty.  They devise strategies in order to achieve those ends and design metrics in order to measure success.  Once those goals are met, they move on to new objectives and a new strategy.

Publishers, on the other hand, begin with an editorial mission.  Think of any great publication, whether it be The Economist, Cosmopolitan or anything in between, and the mission is clear.  They stand for something.  The mission doesn’t change at the end of the quarter or when certain objectives are attained, but only deepens and becomes more salient.

Some brands have also been able to define their mission successfully, such as Red Bull and extreme sports or the American Express Open Forum, which offers insights for small business.  Most, however, have not and their content marketing efforts end up looking like long form ads, which is exactly what they are.

So the first step to successful brand publishing is to stop thinking about content and start thinking about what you have to offer the world.

Most marketers still think in terms of the sales funnel.  You create awareness for your brand and that will create interest which will lead to a sale.  Yet now that model is broken.

Building awareness today is much less likely to result in a sale than it is to lead to searching behavior online, which your competitors will use to retarget your customers.  In effect, by building awareness and walking away, you’ll provide ample lead generation for your industry, but very little sales for yourself.

To read the full article head over to forbes.com

So what do you think? Give me your comments and feedback below. And, oh, by the way, don't forget to tell a friend if you like what you see! xo

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