Let’s get our content marketing aligned. (Photo Credit: Relaxing Music)
Happy Friday, content marketers! This week, let’s take a zen approach to content marketing. Just what you need on a Friday afternoon following a busy week, right? Right. Consider Lee Odden, Rebecca Lieb, and Anna Ritchie your spiritual marketing leaders. They’re going to walk you through creating personas for the people they are now (not used to be), taking a path of discovery and ultimately action, and creating harmony and alignment when it comes to content creation. And these articles are worth some serious mediation. So get comfortable, open your mind, and let’s get meditating.
You’ve heard it a million times (including here on the Content Marketeer): targeted content is key for getting buyers to actually consume and engage with your company. But targeted content works because it speaks to the topics that are important to your buyers now–not for 5 years ago, not even for 1 year ago, but for now. This week on CMI, Anna Ritchie shared how she makes sure to stay in tune with her personas. Here’s a little tidbit to get you excited: “While your audience personas can be mapped to different stages in your sales cycle, or to various types of content you are producing, they are serving little valuable purpose if they are static, inflexible, or automatically applied to every piece of content you create.” Get ready to revisit those people we call personas. Via Content Marketing Institute
Just this week, I sat down with members of the sales team for a content check-in. What questions keep coming up when you talk to prospects? What are their biggest concerns when it comes to content marketing?, I asked. One of the most consistent issues (and everyone agreed) was how to centrally manage content that’s created across multiple departments. Luckily, Rebecca Lieb posted a fantastic overview and infographic demonstrating how companies can organize content so “it’s created in harmony with strategic goals, as well as properly resourced across departments and divisions.” For anyone wondering how this whole content marketing thing can actually work at a large organization (or how you it can work for you), check out this post. Via Marketing Land
The way buyers search for information has changed a lot over the past decade, and, as Lee Odden points out, the future of content marketing hangs on the intersection of “information, technology and the human experience with content.” His post this week evaluates the path consumers take on their information journey as they interact with online content, from discovery to consumption to action. As it turns out, the only way content marketers are going to succeed with consumers on any of these levels is by creating truly compelling content: “It’s not enough to create more content on the web. Companies need to look at creating compelling content that contributes to a memorable and compelling customer experience wherever they may be.” Via TopRank Blog
And in case you missed anything this week on the Content Marketeer:
- Building a Strong Foundation for Marketing Automation
- The New Role of Sales (As Dictated by Content)
Did we miss any of your favorite articles from the week? Please share them below so the rest of us can enjoy them, too! Or, tweet at us @kapost, especially if you think something should be included in next week’s roundup.