The first in a series of five content marketing questions any communications strategist should answer:
1. Are we creating content our target market genuinely wants?
In the old push-advertising model, the desirability of our deliverable (the ad) wasn’t an issue — the audience was a captive prisoner and it was enough for our interruptions to be merely tolerable. But in a pull model intended to attract customers actively seeking information, our content must be compelling — if prospects don’t want it, they’re very free to ignore it. That’s why overt self-promotion is a no-no. Instead, our content has to either entertain or inform (or both). “Informing” is especially important for B2B marketers; our materials have to enlighten readers on new trends, show them new technologies, help them solve problems and/or achieve goals — they must be downright useful, one way or another.
Next post: Tapping all your expertise.
Get the content strategy training you need through my in-house content strategy workshop.