The only thing that has grown faster than Content Marketing is the number of "Content Marketing Experts."
Googling "content marketing experts" returns 104,200,000 results. You might as well Google "story tellers"! Though that only returned 2,380,000 results...
At its root, content marketing starts with story telling. Every business has a story to tell. And who can tell the story of your business and the problems you solve for your customers better than you?
That's not to say your story can't be edited, reformatted for social media, slideshare, YouTube, etc., and presented differently than your first draft. It can, and in most cases should be. But don't believe that anyone is going to be a better content marketing expert for your company than you are!
So here's the hitch: How do you find time to tell your story on top of everything else you have to do?
You don't have to!
"Well, wait a minute, Jon," you say, "You just told me no one is better at telling my story than I am and now you tell me I don't have to tell it?"
Exactly! And unless you are trained writer and/or marketer, I would suggest in most cases that you don't.
Does it seem like I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth here? Well, I'm not. Let me explain.
Content marketing requires strategy, tactics and measurement. Skip any of those three peices and you might as well scrap the whole thing. The part you play as expert of your own company is in working to help develop the strategy.
Here are the pieces you need to bring to a content marketing partner's table:
- A definition of your ideal customer(s).
- An outline of your business goals.
- A definition of your value proposition.
- A series of success stories.
- The Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) you measure or want to measure.
With this information, any content marketing partner worth her salt has more than enough to begin telling your story.
By the end of 2014, content marketing can be a major contributor to your business success. Don't let your lack of knowledge of content marketing keep you from getting started. You're already a content marketing expert, whether you know it or not!
