Content Marketing: Every Marketing Department is a News Room
Lately I’ve been hearing from Marketing Directors who comment how hard it is to “feed the beast” – a reference once used by newspapers and TV stations about the daily grind of cranking out news stories. Today, marketers are struggling to find good content for their Web sites, Twitter feeds, email and mobile campaigns.
To rank higher in search engines, it helps if you add new content, and existing content needs is up-to-date. That’s quite a challenge for busy marketers with deep Web sites where content is aging every day. We’re all starting to realize that we’ve created a hungry monster that craves good, fresh content.
At Priority, we now have teams helping clients manage their content channels. In addition to creating content strategies and custom content, we’re helping clients maintain it. Think of your content channels as a large salad bar at a restaurant. We’re the ones who bring out the fresh salad, check on the soup and refill the croutons – so your customers are happy and don’t turn into monsters who Tweet their friends.
Content is Consumable in Almost Any Form
Custom publishing is marketing’s niche category that has always been centered on content, not direct advertising. According to the Custom Publishing Council, 68% of consumers who read custom publications say it helps them make better purchasing decisions and the total number of custom publication copies distributed increased 7.4 percent over last year. Since the survey was first conducted in 1999, circulation volume has grown 228.3 percent, from 11.9 billion units to 41.6 billion.
What’s even more interesting is that the Custom Publishing Council recently announced it’s changing its name to the Custom Content Council. They’ve recognized that good content is at the core of any medium — print, online, mobile or social media – it’s not exclusive to custom magazines.
Think of your marketing department as a news room. Every day you’re producing content in the form of blog posts, video, feature stories etc. because the search engines (and your customers!) are hungry for what’s new.
