The ‘Continuous Content’ Conundrum

In an age where consumers expect an always-on stream of information to meet their needs, can brands create quality content at scale and in a cost-effective manner?

As Gartner analyst Jake Sorofman wisely observed, “Digital marketing is a content-hungry beast.” In an age where consumers expect an always-on stream of information to meet their needs, can brands create quality content at scale and in a cost-effective manner?

The best content marketers find a way to accomplish both.

Just look at American Express’ OPEN Forum. The site is dedicated to producing content that appeals to potential customers: small business owners. The site features an ongoing stream of pieces dedicated to the issues that small business professionals face. Blog posts discuss everything from how to handle the challenges of business growth and tips on team building and recruiting to tips on how to invest. The site functions like a real daily news site with regularly updated articles, images, and an email newsletter signup. Readers are also invited to click on to read about services that can help solve the particular pain points discussed in the content.

Adobe is also succeeding in content marketing. You’d never know this site, CMO.com, was its branded site unless you look closely at the logo. The site is as good as any B2B news site on marketing and features everything that a marketing audience would want: original interviews with CMOs, thought leadership articles by leading executives, and news stories on the latest campaigns. This brand content hub is an excellent example of a site with content its audience is looking for without being hit over the head with a marketing message.

Procter & Gamble’s P&G Everyday site is another good place to look to get inspired by content marketing. The site aims to be the go-to spot for busy moms online. It features useful tips for these women on everything from gardening and healthy living to cooking and entertaining. The site also offers a steady flow of coupons for P&G’s products, as well as a place to read and share product reviews.

You don’t have to be a large brand to succeed with good content, but you can learn from these companies by following these content strategy tips:

• Establish a high-level message: Brands that have a solid content marketing strategy begin by crafting a content strategy that outlines goals and personas, thereby developing an overarching message based on those goals and personas. For every piece of content that a brand creates, there should be consideration of why the brand is creating it. Each piece of content should map to the key goals of the defined strategy. Brands should understand how the blog post, infographic, or video fits into their overall strategy and persona messaging. Once this high-level message is established, a content marketer can build from it without having to reinvent the wheel every time.

• Create content that supports this message: The right strategy can give way to a continuous stream of content designed to connect with consumers when and where they are searching for answers. For instance, say you want to create content around common pain points that your clients face, such as how to invest or the struggle of deciding what to cook for dinner. By helping your audiences solve their problems, you will not only be at the top of the search engine, but also top of mind when it comes time to selecting products and services.

• Establish a content anchor: Brands can help front load their time investment in content by creating an anchor piece that they can draw from over time. Be it a research report or an e-book, once you create the initial piece of content up front, you can draw from this source for subsequent content. An anchor piece can yield a steady stream of derivative cross-channel content over time. For instance, once you have the large report, you can create blog posts, infographics, videos, event speaker submission forms, and even run ads across channels. The anchor piece can be continually mined for insights.

• Curate external content: Content marketing requires an investment of time and money, but that doesn’t mean that your brand needs to do everything in-house. Brands can take the load off by empowering user-generated content, tapping into social media, or syndicating streams of content from other sources in order to have regularly updated content that they are not producing themselves.

In the end, great content starts with a strategy and then maps back to your key goals. Once you’ve established these goals and a process of building content around them, you’ll be better poised to create ongoing content without taxing all of your time and resources.