Content marketing is changing.
Content marketing is the main ingredient in inbound marketing, but the marketing part was never fully there. It’s mostly been content creation. Regardless, content is a vital component to your overall marketing recipe being a success. Where you put that content, and in whatever form it may be (article, white paper, ebook, video, etc.), posting the content you’ve created is simply the first step.
As consumers, we are inundated with content. It’s slightly overwhelming to think about the sheer amount of content out there. What’s worse—most of the content being written is going to waste! Why? Because as companies (and even marketers), we don’t promote it. We pump out new content, but we don’t make the most of the content we’ve already created. We’re making more work for ourselves when we drum up new content ideas, and we create content that doesn’t go anywhere.
So what needs to change?
Like all good baking recipes, you need a leavening agent. What’s going to help your recipe rise? Outbound marketing in the form of promotion. This is not to say that a shotgun approach (where you “spray” your message and hope something hits the mark) is the key to success. No, that’s been tried before, and it stopped working long ago. The focus on advertising has resurfaced, but advertising hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s simply taken a step back, waiting for marketers to realize they need it now more than ever.
Instead of creating new content all the time, make the content you’ve already written work for you. Repurpose it. Republish it. Update it. Especially the content you see getting the most traction. Update those posts to keep them relevant and then pay to promote them. With tools like Facebook advertising, you can pinpoint the audience you want reach.
Then what?
Personalize your advertising. Get specific. Not only can you target people based on demographics, you can target them based on where they are in your sales funnel. Are they new to you and your company/product/service? Treat them differently than you would someone who’s already had a soft introduction to you. With advertising platforms through Facebook and Google Ads, you can specify who sees what based on their activity. Why not show someone something more relevant to them?
At the end of the day, for marketing to be successful, there needs to be a combined effort of inbound and outbound marketing. Once you’ve done the creation portion and have content to use, get into outbound marketing mode. Though organic SEO and marketing efforts can and do work, you need leads to market to. Email marketing converts better than any other marketing effort, so your goal should not be to sell someone immediately. (In baking terms, think of it as putting a bag of flour in the oven. The results aren’t ideal.)
You need to soften the butter. You have to blend the flour, baking soda, and salt. You have to do things in order to create the right conditions for the magic to happen. Even then, the finished product doesn’t always turn out right. But keep trying and tweaking things to fine-tune your own marketing recipe. You won’t know what works for you and your business until you try something. It never hurts to have some marketing experts on your side, either, so if you need some advice, let us know!