The State of Content: It’s Everywhere, It’s Important, Here’s How to Deal

Lauren Owens - August 26, 2015

If you’re waiting for someone to come ‘round and declare the end of content, today is not that day. Rather, today is the day to come to terms with the simple truth that content isn’t going anywhere. It can’t. Otherwise, what would anyone read, watch or listen to?

See? This stuff we call content, and this thing we call content marketing, really isn’t going away, so it’s time to make peace with it. To put a content marketing strategy in place. To show the world you really know a thing or two about… what ever it is that you do.

Ready to get started? OK, here’s how:

Answer a Party Question: If Your Content Was a Superhero, What Superhero Would It Be?

The content you create can do anything – drive traffic, generate leads, build brand awareness, answer questions, entertain, or all of the above – the question is, what do you want it to do? What do you need it to do?

To answer this question, you might have to do some digging. Specifically, ask yourself:

• What kind of content would best serve your customers?
• What kind of content are your competitors creating?
• Is there a void within your industry that content can fill?

Remember that this doesn’t have to be written content. It can be video content, image content, it can be a new mobile app, it can be a brand new website. Don’t be afraid. It’s time to dream.

Building a Strategy

Once you have some idea of what kind of content you should be creating, it’s time to get realistic, at least in the short term. Specifically, what do you need to do first?

For most companies, this process usually begins with creating an in-depth content strategy that seeks to:

1. Identify where your content should live. On your website? A blog? A separate site?
2. Identify how your content will fulfill its promise, or stated goal. Specifically how will your content drive leads, answer questions, build brand awareness, etc.?
3. Identify what specific content you will create and who will create it.
4. Create a plan for moving forward. Specifically, who will lead the project? What’s your timeline? What’s your budget?

Building a Team

Now it’s time for a hard truth. Many content strategies fail because they don’t have the right team behind them. At the end of the day, most businesses are busy doing the thing that they do, and they don’t have a lot of extra time to devote to the whole content thing. But, just a few minutes ago, you made peace with the fact that content isn’t going away. Right? Right.

So, how do you put that team in place? You have a few options:

1. Hire a few smart people, who work well together, know what they’re doing, and who are entirely devoted to making your content dreams a reality.
2. Hire a single person who can move the needle inch by inch every day.
3. Outsource your content marketing activities.
4. Build a team out of some combination of the above, making use of outsourced talent where needed.

You feel better already, don’t you?