Here's What's New in Content Marketing

Content Boost

Here's What's New in Content Marketing

By Carrie Majewski (née Schmelkin), Director of Content Marketing, Content Boost  |  December 11, 2014

Here at Content Boost, our job is simple: equipping you with the tactics and strategies needed to master the new content marketing landscape.

We are committed to your education. We produce white papers, create weekly content marketing-specific e-newsletters, and hold a series of webinars. (Will you join us at our Dec. 16 one? You can find details at tmcnet.com/webinar.) But we don’t stop there. Rather, we make it a point to attend as many marketing conferences as we can to bring back critical insights to each and every one of you.

To that end, fall was incredibly busy. We ushered in the new season by heading to Cleveland in September to attend Content Marketing World (#ItWasAwesome). We made time at the end of September to attend an all-day virtual event called Outreach Marketing Virtual Summit; we kicked off October with Search Market Expo in New York City; and we’ve just returned from the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston.

We’re not even tired – just invigorated by the newfound insights we can bring to your program. So what do you need to keep in mind about the content marketing landscape as 2015 fast approaches?

  • Your Competition Is All In: If you think the phrase the early bird catches the worm describes you alone, think again. A core sentiment at these conferences is that spending on content marketing is expected to surge considerably in 2015. Specifically, over half (54 percent) of B2B marketers will be boosting their budgets in 2015, according to the Chief Marketing Officer Council’s eighth annual State of Marketing report. In other words, expect to see a whole lot more blogging, white paper creation, webinars, and social media activity from your competitors. The good news? You can get in the race too. You just have to line up your players – or find your players through a third-party content provider – to get moving.
  • Integration Is Key: The days of putting all your eggs in one marketing basket – be it print advertisement, blogging, or social – are long gone. Today’s marketers are all about an integrated approach, or marrying together complementary marketing tactics for optimal success. This can mean combining a great blogging platform with a cutting-edge email marketing strategy, or spreading the word about your upcoming webinar series through a social media campaign. Identify the platforms that make sense for your business and then think of ways to weave them together.
  • Your Customers Are Tired: Specifically, they are tired from being bombarded by so much content – and bad content at that. As Brian Glover, director of product development for Marketo (News - Alert), explained at the Inbound Marketing Summit on Nov. 11, customers receive 2,900 different marketing messages a day. Therefore, for a brand to stand out, a trusted, valuable relationship must be forged between it and every customer. “Engagement marketing solves this problem,” he stressed. “You need to engage people as individuals and engage with them over time. You need to be everywhere they want to be and have the content they want.”
  • You Have Another Customer Sales: Did you know your sales team is actually a customer of yours? As Peter O’Neill, vice president and research director at Forrester (News - Alert), contended during the Content Marketing World conference, “We in marketing are just as responsible for providing content to and through our sales force as we are for providing it to our potential buyers.” In other words, talk to the people on your sales team and find out what they need to do their jobs better. Maybe they need prospecting emails. They quite possibly need a FAQ sheet. Or perhaps they need a better slide deck. In many ways, sales is your most important customer. So involve your salespeople in the conversation, attend to what they need, and address the gaps.

The theme shared across all these events is quite evident: Content is the future. So how will content fit in to your 2015 road map? Do you have the team, resources, budget and strategies in place to bring your content objectives to life?  Now is one of the most exciting times for marketers, so don’t let your trepidation of this new landscape keep you benched.

Carrie Majewski is director of content marketing for TMC (News - Alert)'s Custom Publishing Division (www.contentboost.com).




Edited by Maurice Nagle
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