Doing content marketing cost effectively

b2ap3 large Search Traffic Position Pie Chart Content marketing can be a very effective method to boost the visibility of an organization and strengthen business outcomes. In a world in which specialization is an increasing fact of life, the terms and phraseology that may be common to one group is often gibberish to others. 'Content marketing' is an example by itself. It's a term web, SEO and digital marketers will be familiar with but may mean nothing to people outside the communications and marketing field. It basically means using content posted to the web to grow an organization's visibility and rank with search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Acronyms are also often industry specific, so 'SEO' stands for 'Search Engine Optimization', which is getting web pages ranked as highly as possible by search engines. Content marketing uses the specialized language common to an industry sector or service niche and turns it into an asset for web marketing, showcasing an organization's strengths and capabilities and why clients should do business with them.

A common challenge we find with clients is that while they may be extremely knowledgeable in their field, they are often poorly equipped to develop and post content that will work effectively on the web. Although strategy is important, we are now also offering cost-effective content development assistance. This is because organizations poorly equipped to do so end up with some or all of the outcomes below:

They spend so much time learning the mechanics of using browser and web-based posting tools that the time they take and the learning curve negatively impacts on their core business functions and responsibilities
They post content that is poorly formatted, displays badly, doesn't use best practices for content marketing, and because of the way it posts, actually creates negative perceptions of the company

These failures detract and negatively impact the effectiveness of content marketing. No matter how good the strategy, if implementation is poor, results will be too. Small businesses, non-profits and state-funded initiatives are often the organizations that can derive the most value from cost-effective solutions to content marketing but often lack the capacity and financial resources to hire for this internally. We are able to address this with a cost-effective service in which we provide a content posting service for them to blogs and website pages and other online outlets.

Because we work with many start-ups and organizations that can derive value from content marketing, but may not be able to afford or cannot justify a full-time in-house staff person, Integrated Media Strategies helps organizations with cost-effective content marketing approach. Working with the client, our approach includes some of the following:

Providing an honest assessment of what they may need to do to their communications infrastructure to be able to develop a content marketing strategy. We look at whether they have a company blog, how it's used, their social media practices and what the status of their current search engine optimization (SEO) is on their website.
We discuss with them who they want to reach. Content should be designed to reach particular audiences.
We develop any infrastructure that may be needed, adding blog sections, social media sites and updating their SEO
We develop a content marketing strategy. Unlike many other media and PR agencies, we don't only look to internal resources, but work with the organization to develop partnerships so that win-win relationships can occur in which content is shared, cross-posted and referenced by business partners and others.
Our content marketing strategy will involve developing a content calendar. Articles or other types of media content are planned that are substantive and which will showcase the organization effectively. Planned content allows internal staff and other partners the time to thoughtfully write, edit and create content that will benefit the business goals of the organization.
We work with the organization to build time into the monthly business practices to discuss and develop content; it also affords an opportunity for us to provide some training and insight to staff about goals, tools, the process, and how we are accomplishing them.
We work with internal staff on writing content - or developing other media - and then use that content as the basis for posts to the web that are properly formatted to display properly and use best practices that include SEO metadata, tagging, using plain English with technical language in the post to ensure wide comprehension of the content, and other tools.
We develop email newsletters, social media and other distribution tools with the client and provide training on how to use them. Where necessary, we will draft and distribute this material on their behalf, ensuring the appropriate oversight is in place to check what is distributed is technically correct for the industry.

Strategy and regular high-level consulting allows us to work with the client initially to set the right path. But we also provide these lower-cost services to help the organization actually get the work done, do the posting and content distribution, blog regularly, and thereby ensure that strategy turns to action and is implemented effectively.