There’s More to Content Marketing Than Content

Content has a co-king.

“Content is king” has been an accepted axiom for so long that few of us even think about what that pithy phrase means. What’s worse, it’s no longer accurate. 

Why? Here’s one reason: nearly 95% of web pages receive no organic traffic!

So simply putting content out there and expecting it to market your business on its own simply because of its supposed royal status is a recipe for failure. 

That’s not to say that reverting to the old “bullhorn” approach to marketing – spreading the word far and wide (and loudly) about what makes you great – is the answer. B2B consumers today are conditioned to expect content – great content with useful information for their businesses. That expectation makes content a basic cost of entry for nearly all B2B marketers. 

Between those two extremes is a middle ground that is built on a foundation of great content that is supported by promotion. That’s right: you need to market your marketing.

At first glance this sounds ridiculous. And it would be if you were still using the bullhorn approach. (It’s hard to imagine a social media post getting much engagement with a message of, “Be sure to check out our ad in the latest issue of Our Industry Rag.) 

It’s not ridiculous because our modern marketing – content marketing – has value for your prospect all on its own. It focuses on them and their needs rather than on your prospects learning about you. It’s worthy of promotion because there’s value in it for the prospects to whom you are promoting it. 

This begs a few questions about your marketing:

• Does your content provide value to your target audience? 
• Is that value great enough to make promoting it feel legitimate to your prospects?
• Are you promoting it in a way that focuses on the value – the propects’ needs – and not your marketing goals? 

If you aren’t sure about the answers to any of the questions above, review your marketing and get a solid understanding of how much of your resources you devote to developing and publishing content and how much you devote to promoting that content and its value. 

You may just have those priorities inverted. Adjusting your focus could yield big gains in engagement, leads, and sales. 

Occasional large-scale changes can re-invigorate a marketing plan that’s beginning to falter and can provide a blast of inspiration that ripples out through the rest of your marketing. 

By the way, if you’re interested in hearing some of my podcast and radio appearances, you’ll find a few of them listed on the Andigo website.

_{Photo by Carlos N. Cuatzo Meza on Unsplash}