Creating a Lot of Content is NOT the Right Strategy

First off, I am a huge fan of creating a lot of content. There is a big debate going on in the content marketing world around whether search engines like long form content or frequent content. So naturally, I come under the latter camp. I don't publish many blog articles, but there are sections like deals which see daily updates.

But creating content for contents’ sake is not a strategy. The content still needs to be high quality (I hate that word too), on-target content that your ideal customer/reader finds interesting.

Needless to say, spraying and praying will not work.

So with that in mind, the content needs to be thoughtful and organized. It needs to align with your brand’s content marketing mission statement.

You need to ask yourself if the content you are creating is something your viewership would want to read and/or watch. To make all of that happen, you will need to spend some time creating your content.

Spreading Content All Over the World

computer, monitor, screen

If you spend a lot of time creating content, do you think sending it out on your 3-4 social media networks does it do justice? No.

If you have brainstormed an idea and researched related articles to include, written and rewritten your article five times, and the message is very powerful, you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of that work.

So broadcasting it to a few social networks once is not going to cut it.

Think about it this way.

If you were to look at all the articles you have created, I bet a number of them were written a few months ago. I bet they are still valid. If so, it would be a travesty for those articles or videos to simply sit around collecting dust.

Give them new energy and push those puppies back on the social media front page. (I mean to a fresh timeline here.)

And it doesn’t end with social media. You also have paid media channels you can use. With the rise of native advertising and branded content, you can pay to have your content distributed in larger publications. Do some guest posting if you can. This will allow you to expand your viewership more quickly.

Yes it’s free, but..

One of the problems I see businesses having with their content marketing plan is that they believe content marketing is a free form of advertising. And for the most part it is.

But there are actually three different types of content marketing distribution channels: paid, earned, and owned. Often businesses only recognize two (owned and earned). But to be successful you need to use them all.

And when you are starting out paid, you can occupy a large portion of your marketing dollars while you build your own fan base. However, while paid channels can help build your fan base, make sure those distribution channels always point back to the mothership: your website. The only place on the Internet you truly own.

In the end it is all about distribution, distribution, and distribution. You need to ensure that your company is milking the content you have spent time and money to create for everything it’s worth.

Happy Blogging!