I can hardly think of a major brand or organization that has not demonstrated a renewed appreciation for content marketing within the last year alone. In fact, according to HubSpot and SEMrush (respectively), in 2023 “70% of marketers were actively investing in content marketing”, while “78% of companies [had teams] of one-to-three content specialists.”
It all however begs the question of: What is this trend really about? And given the scale at which some big players have been rolling out new content marketing efforts, one may be further inclined to ask: Is it truly worth the investment of time and resources?
The answers lie in first understanding that content marketing (as part of an organization’s broader Marketing function) is as important a business function as Research & Development, HR, or Finance – though specifically geared towards increasing customer engagement and sales, with engagement serving the purposes of:
Identifying and responding to your customers’ pain points;
Tracking their journey with your product(s) or service(s); and
Satisfaction that ultimately leads to customer buy-in.
But how has this all played out in real time?
Well, according to HubSpot, 91% of marketers were either “somewhat confident” or “very confident” that their companies’ content marketing investments were positively impacting revenue; while Wyzowl reported that 80% of video marketers vouched for a direct correlation between their visual content and increased sales in 2023.
It is therefore safe to say that content marketing is not merely a nice-to-have as part of your brand’s marketing function. It is however a proven marketing tool that when applied correctly, drives major business outcomes.
The Content-Driven Culture
The Content-Driven Culture incorporates three important ideals:
That the benefits of content marketing are understood and embraced at all levels of the organization – corporate, business and functional;
That content creation as a function, is shared and owned by all; and
That there is no “one size fits all” model for effective content marketing.
The first and second ideals are introduced here against the backdrop of misplaced perceptions of the traditional marketing or communications function, and functional silos.
It is not at all uncommon for personnel – particularly at the corporate and functional levels – to resist the idea of being active contributors to their organization’s content marketing efforts. In fact, I have quite literally lost count of how many times I have been posed with the very candid question of: “Shouldn’t communications or marketing be taking care of that?”
Well, in the very likely instance that your content specialists are not endowed with product or service-level expertise, then there are very simply some customer pain points or queries that are best addressed by the experts themselves – usually at the functional or corporate levels.
The content specialist will in such instances bare responsibility solely for editing and publishing – ensuring that the actual substance of the contribution remains unaltered. Such is often the case with Inbound Marketing, defined by HubSpot as:
A business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with content they don’t always want, inbound marketing forms connections they are looking for and solves problems they already have. (HubSpot 2021)
In his 2016 publication, They Ask, You Answer, Marcus Sheridan introduces us to another important content marketing concept – Assignment Selling, defined as:
The process of intentionally using educational content you have created about your products and services to resolve the major concerns and answer the burning questions of prospects so they are much more prepared for a sales appointment. (Marcus Sheridan 2016)
Herein we find yet another important upside of the content-driven culture – where personnel best positioned to address the nuances of a specific product and service, are actively engaged in the customer journey.
The third and final ideal is founded on the premise that business models and organizational structures vary to the extent that the content-driven culture will not necessarily look the same for every organization.
While larger corporations will tend to have very clear delineations between personnel at the corporate, business and functional levels, smaller brands are often more constrained to having multiple functions morphed into a single role.
So whereas the CEO of a small local brand may regularly take on sales appointments while contributing to the company’s blog – given their cross-functional responsibilities – the CEO of a major global brand is not likely to be met with such demands.
The content-driven culture is however not about imposing the responsibility of content creation on anyone – regardless of their role. For at its very core, is an individual’s understanding and appreciation of the benefits of content marketing, and a willingness to contribute in-line with their own expertise – albeit with the necessary technical support.
So as you revise your new content strategy, it will serve your content marketing efforts well to identify the most effective means of energizing and equipping personnel across your organization to contribute at a frequency and quality that supports your business objectives.
I look forward to your testimonials!
Found this article useful? I would be delighted to hear from you. Please CLICK HERE for direct messaging and email options.
Kommentarer