Odds are that if you do any kind of marketing, you’ve heard of content marketing. And, with 90 percent of B2C marketers and 94 percent of B2B marketers indicating that they are using content marketing, you’ve more than likely waged campaigns of your own.
But is it enough to simply engage in content marketing? With so many of your competitors employing the same tactics, the answer to that question is probably "no."
Recent research indicates that 73 percent of B2B marketers are producing more content than they were last year, with 41 percent of respondents indicating they are producing “more” and 32 percent indicating they are producing “significantly more” content than they were just 12 months ago. Twenty percent of marketers said they’re producing the same amount, while five percent are producing less and two percent are unsure.
Those figures support results from another recent survey that revealed 70 percent of marketers were planning on increasing their content marketing spending in 2014.
More than ever, customers are consuming content across a variety of platforms. It’s no longer enough to produce content and distribute it. You have to ramp up your efforts without sacrificing quality. Don’t put content production toward the bottom of your to-do list. If you don’t have enough time to create the kind of content you need—that which engages your audience, adds value and keeps them coming back for more—consider delegating that task to an in-house team or even outsourcing it.
When it comes to your content creation strategy, imagine this: You are a fisherman rowing around a lake on a boat by yourself. Sure, you can cast your line a single time, maybe even twice, but odds are you’re not going to get so much as a nibble by doing so. If you sit on the lake for the entire afternoon and repeatedly cast line after line, however, your chances of catching a fish increase exponentially.
So too it goes in the world of content marketing. You could spend long periods of time crafting a small handful of content and hope that it helps you catch some proverbial fish. But it is a numbers game. Instead, when it comes to content creation, your strategy should include a steady, comprehensive approach to production.
Keep in mind that the more quality content you create, the more likely you are to onboard new customers.
