10 Content Marketing Tips

At Infoswell it is our goal to empower publishers, and magazines to build, maintain, and cultivate successful online brands and communities as well as help generate online revenue opportunities. In doing this we are always reading, searching and digging for resources, and opportunities to share that help the pursuit of the above mentioned goals.

With that we came across a great article about marketing content by Joe Pulizzi , It is broken down into 10 steps (5 of which we have included here.) and is a great resource.

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One of the reasons I love my job is the different kinds of people I have the opportunity to interact with. Over the past year, I’ve met with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, agency executives, top marketers, social media gurus, publishing veterans, authors and others – all with particular insights and challenges about how to sell more, do more and be more.

If 2008 was the year social media went mainstream, 2009 should be the year of content marketing, the corporation as media company, the brand as publisher and broadcaster. Why? Because every one of those incredibly intelligent people I met with, in some way or another, told me that the difference for brands who make it versus those that don’t will be relevance. How can we, as brands, be relevant to our customers? How can we create and develop real relationships with them? How do we engage?

As my friend and colleague Kirk Cheyfitz has said over and over – brands can do only two things to create the goal of 100% engagement – we can inform our customers – or give them a good time.

To help, I’ve put together 10 tactics that I believe you need to seriously consider NOW as part of your 2009 content plan (not in any particular order).

1. Tell the Story Differently through Different Media – It’s frustrating to watch the sheer number of marketers tell a great story, but repurpose that story the same way in all their media. Ian Alexander over at Eat Media constantly harps (and rightfully so) on the concept that the story you tell in print versus mobile versus website versus video must be told in a very different manner. Seems obvious, but it’s not done. Most commonly, this mistake is made from taking a print custom program and just putting it online. Do you engage with content in the same way in print as you do the web? Most likely, you don’t. Do not expect more of your customers than yourself.
2. Raid Traditional Media Outlets – As traditional media continues to lay off the best journalists in the world and layoffs and bankruptcies abound, your opportunity to acquire talent has never been greater. Of course, I’m biased a bit that I believe most marketers should outsource their content and find great providers through our service, but this opportunity is too good to be true. First, the talent is available now. Second, expert journalists are very open to working with corporations today. Third, you need great content to survive as a marketer. To do this, you need talent that understands how to tell a story. Go get that talent today while there is still time (and before they all start up their own content marketing businesses).
3. Why Partner with Media Companies, Just Buy Them – Granted, this is for the larger marketers among us, but a great strategy nonetheless. Paul Conley just posted an excellent read on the shape of the media industry, and his #1 prediction was that content marketers may start to buy b-to-b media companies. I’ve agreed with this strategy ever since I was at Penton (when I thought Penton should be purchased by eBay Business – and still think it’s a great idea for both). Remember, a media company is all about connecting buyers and sellers. Corporations need to do that as well, they only want to limit the number of sellers (to one).
4. Time to Start Using Twitter – I will agree with you…I thought Twitter was stupid when I first tried it. Now, it is an indispensable tool, where I’ve increased my network, formed partnerships, and led to new business opportunities. To understand the true power you need to use a tool like TweetDeck, which is the ultimately reputation management tool if you can’t afford a real reputation management tool. And if you are distributing relevant content, try sending your RSS feeds through Twitter by using TwitterFeed.
5. Get Serious about a Content Audit – In all honesty, this is a huge task and very challenging to look for all the pieces of content in an organization from the inside.  If you are serious about performing a content audit, look to an outside expert to execute it.  For example, they will look at all your forms of communication and the information you are sending out in order to make recommendations on how to create and fine tune a consistent and relevant message to your customers and prospects.  This includes all the content you have on the web and what’s circulating around your company.  Just think about your website…is it consistent?  Does it communicate your vision? If you are serious, we have a number of providers in the Junta42 Match system.The results of the content audit will help define the purpose, context, types, topics, voice and style for your content marketing plan.  With this information, you’ll have a good handle on where you are currently, and where you need to be in relation to your customers. Hat’s off to Kristina Halvorson at Brain Traffic for showing me the light on content strategy.

For the remaining 5 steps please visit the original article