When you look upon your area of expertise, what do you wish you had known at the beginning? The Content Marketing Institute asked that very question of its contributors and published the results in 21 Things Content Marketing Experts Wish They Had Known When They Got Started.
[This is part of the CMI's crowd-sourced blog series which include Content Marketing Examples of 2011, 26 Favorite Content Marketing Lessons from 2011, and 27 Content Marketing Quick Tips from the Experts!]
I recommend spending time up front understanding the key terms or words that matter for your content and to your audience. Think how your keywords and phrases can reflect the critical themes of your content strategy. That then helps cascade relevant content.
Here are more tips on getting started with content marketing:
Joe Chernov: realize that "content marketing is a political role. It sits in-between multiple departments and even more functions within each department."
Darryl Praill: understand "How does your content get found?"
Claire McDermott: "Before launching a big project, make sure you have the enthusiasm/ support/ effort from your subject matter experts."
John Bottom: "content does not always have to be detailed and lengthy, it should be high-quality, interesting, and well-planned. Ad-hoc content production — squeezed in around the day job — is not a solid basis for success."
Russ Henneberry: "The content must be distributed and marketed properly to gain traction..."
Amanda Maksymiw: "content marketing is really a mindset that helps shape and enhance all aspects of an overall marketing strategy."
Paula Crerar: "to come up with more content... repurpose as much of our content as possible and encourage user- and employee-generated content."
Ahava Leibtag: be ready to educate clients about the value of testing and iteration in content creation.
Arnie Kuenn: "... to come up with new, engaging content targeted to your audience, ... requires research, thought, and a long-term plan to all be documented in an editorial calendar."
Stephanie Tilton: "You don’t have to create content from scratch to deliver value."
Doug Kessler: cross-promotion is powerful and effective for content marketing
Scott Aughtmon: "The widespread need for content and the importance of creating content for others."
Michael Brenner: appreciate how hard it is to put the audience first in your marketing content.
Wendy Marx: "Content marketing requires an ongoing commitment, an understanding of your buyers, market segmentation and a commitment to use content to help move customers and prospects through the purchase funnel."
Joe Pulizzi: "The best content marketing results come after listening and then continually tweaking the product."
Anna Ritchie: "Content marketing requires a shift in your thinking, from “all about us” to “all about the reader."
Nenad Senic: "Content marketing is not doable in the long-run if it doesn’t include thorough planning."
Jessica Eastman: "Content marketing strategy needs to mold to the company, fitting each need of the business. Content marketing is not cookie-cutter."
Sarah Mitchell: it's important to manage customer expectations around the 'slow burn' aspect of content marketing.
Tom Pisello: "You constantly have to work at producing recent relevant content to fuel the various channels and facilitate the audiences need for more information and intelligence."
Tracy Gold: "Content marketing operates on a combination of strategy, planning, and randomness more than most marketers will admit."
Toby Murdock: designate a managing editor
What do you wish you had known when you got started? What tips would you offer those getting started content marketing?
