2012: A year of content creation

With the New Year come new plans; plans for yourself and your business. I like to start each year off by evaluating what I did the year before, and then implementing a revised plan for the year ahead. Ask yourself which resolutions you kept and which ones you didn’t. Evaluate the ones that you didn’t keep. Were they too lofty, unrealistic or just plain boring? Keep your answers in mind when you create this year’s business resolutions.

Most of us have similar business plans for the New Year. We want to bring in new customers, sell more product, and keep costs down. How can we possibly do it all? Here’s the easiest and most inexpensive solution: content creation.

Content marketing might sound difficult, but it’s not rocket science. All you have to do is come up with a plan and stick to it. This can be done, and should be done, with the help of others.

Start by having an office meeting, bringing together several representatives from each department (or all of your staff if you have a small company). Begin by reviewing last year’s challenges. What kinds of questions have your past and current customers asked about your product or service? Were there problems that needed to be addressed over the year? Write down your answers. You’re going to answer them all later in the content you create.

The next step is to come up with at least 52 ideas – one per week – for interesting content. It might sound like an over-the-top ridiculous number, but it’s not really. Once you get going, you’ll see that there are all sorts of interesting topics you can write about. Your ideas could be shared through:

• Blog posts
• Videos
• Whitepapers
• Case studies
• Surveys
• Reports
• Photographs

Many companies avoid answering cost related questions. They think it deters future clients and provides competitors with intelligence that they want to keep private. Marketing experts refer to this as “fear marketing.” If this question comes up often enough, then it shouldn’t be left unanswered. You don’t have to get specific, but you should still answer the question to the best of your ability. At the very least, provide a price range.

As a team, you should be able to come up with enough content for the entire year. Remember to make sure that certain content fits the season. The next step is to come up with a plan to stay on track. If this means hiring someone to do it for you, then do it. The more information you provide for your customers, the better. Keep in mind; your content doesn’t have to be time-consuming or lengthy, as long as they get the point across. The best thing about content creation as a marketing tactic is that it’s both doable and inexpensive – and it works. So you can stick to your New Year’s business resolution of bringing in new customers, selling more product and keeping costs down.

Make 2012 the year you create something unique and see your business succeed. Happy New Year from all of us at Mach One Communications!