You’ve probably heard by now about the rise of content marketing and the wonders it can do for your marketing efforts. Companies are seeing results from positioning themselves as thought-leaders within their industries. Content like white papers, case studies, and blog posts can generate inbound leads that are captured by a marketing automation system and, hopefully, nurtured to a sale. Unfortunately, most marketers are missing the memo on strategy and creating useful content (social media, anyone?). As this article mentions, marketers looking to curate content were surveyed and responded with “66 percent saying a lack of original and quality content is a major drawback.”
The reason for a lack of “original and quality content” is that most marketers are creating content based on the other content they’ve seen or what they think leads are interested in. Generally, marketers communicate by pushing out content and rarely interact with leads and customers. This lack of interaction leaves marketers in the dark on what content could produce the best results. Fortunately, ideas for valuable content can be found within your organization:
- Speak with Sales - If anyone out there is promoting and pushing your content, it’s your sales team. And, chances are, they’re also getting some great insight into what would make valuable content. Take the time to sit down with members of your sales team and find out common issues that arise during sales calls that currently aren’t being addressed. For example, you may come to learn that many prospects are hesitant to implement your product/service because they are about to redesign their website. If your product/service can benefit the website redesign process at all, this would be a great opportunity to create some content.
- Chat with Services/Support - Day in and day out, you have co-workers answering questions, troubleshooting problems, and explaining features to your clients. These are the people that know where your current content is lacking. Taking suggestions from your services/support teams will not only help you produce content for your clients, but also improve your thought-leadership. It’s very likely that there may be knowledge gaps across your entire industry. You may walk away from the conversation with a great idea for a series of blog posts based on your expertise.
