Do you remember “old school” marketing? Complex campaigns using marketing pieces that took teams of subject matter–experts, designers, and reviewers months to design, create, and fine tune? Maybe you’re still living old school marketing. If so, you should consider a new approach.
One of the great things about content marketing is that it allows for (some would say “is based on”) quick-hitting interactions designed to keep your products and services top-of-mind with prospects. Now, that doesn’t mean these efforts are poorly conceived or executed. (In fact, quite the opposite is true.) It just means that you don’t have to agonize over every aspect because this campaign may be your only shot at reaching your audience.
Here are some tips for accelerating your development and delivery of content:
- Tighten Your Focus — Stop trying to figure out how your marketing pieces can be all things to all people, as this often results in long, boring, text-heavy documents, web pages, etc. Instead, craft clear, concise, impactful materials targeted at specific buyer personas. You know (or SHOULD know) what each type of prospect is looking for and how they want to receive the information. Give them exactly what they want, exactly the way they want it without all the fluff.
- Embrace Spontaneity — Too often content development processes are over-engineered, with multiple rounds of review, checks, double-checks, triple-checks and final checks! While you want everything you produce to be eye-catching and error-free, start trusting yourself and your team or your agency to produce great work quickly. And if the occasional typo sneaks in, don’t beat yourself up about it.
- Don’t Wait to Recalibrate — OK, so let’s say one of your pieces of content is a dud. The old school approach is to then analyze, assess, and obsess over this “failure.” Phooey! Take a look at the numbers, learn a quick lesson, and move on. You can bet your audience already has. And they are looking forward to your next piece, not forming focus groups to discuss the last one!
With all the data streams fighting for your prospects' attention, old school marketing has no hope of holding their focus long enough to make an impact. But you can provide them with the information they crave in easily-digestible chunks by:
- Targeting smaller, clearly identified groups.
- Releasing your death grip on the content development process.
- Making quick course corrections.
Your audience will thank you for understanding their needs and respecting their time.
