Many people find writing content a time-consuming and tedious activity. Especially if you don't have the task in your job description. But is writing content really such a chore?Today, when much of digital marketing is about content marketing and inbound marketing strategies, content is a very important part of marketing success.It often takes a large amount of text content to be successful in content marketing and inbound marketing. According to HubSpot, companies that publish more than 16 blog posts per month generate 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish 0-4 blog posts per month.Those that write more than 16 blog posts per month get more than 4.5X more leads too!
Best examples of the use of Content Marketing
At Contitude, we help companies succeed with Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing initiatives and have seen many great examples of how companies have succeeded with this work.The companies that are most successful are those where the entire organisation we work with has been on board with the strategy and what the benefits of a working Inbound Marketing and Content Marketing strategy have been. When the whole organisation, i.e. not just the marketing department, is on board, it is easier to succeed with the strategy.Why is it that the companies that get the whole company on board are the most successful? One reason is that more people can help create lots of good content. An organization that is involved also helps with the distribution of the content, which makes it much easier for the company to be seen.Say you are an organization of 70 people. There is a management team, a sales organisation, a marketing team, finance function and consultants/production staff etc. All the different people in the company have different types of expertise and all have a view on different parts of the company and probably also different views on what makes the company unique and creates customer value. These different perspectives appeal to different audiences and stakeholders that your company has and all perspectives are needed. This is particularly important if your business sells a service/product where there are many different decision makers. Therefore, when all parts of a company contribute to creating content and also different types of content, it will create more value for more decision makers and stakeholders that you have at your company.In some cases, we have seen our clients set goals for all employees to write at least one blog post per year. Such targets have had a very good effect. In all honesty, I can say that not EVERYONE has written their blog post by the end of the year but it has evened out as other people have written two or more blog posts.What has been most fascinating is that the sales team have often been the most productive in terms of content creation. We usually recommend that they write blog posts about issues that have come up in customer meetings and this has probably made it easier to find topics to write about. Then I also think they have clearly understood the benefit of succeeding with Inbound and Content Marketing and that ultimately means more LEADS!
Typing cramp and other excuses
When you assign everyone in the company to write a blog post, it means that some will try to wiggle out of it. The most common reason is "writer's block". You probably know the situation where you know you need to write something and you really can't get started. You can't find a flow and you don't know what to write. Often it's about feeling pressure to write something perfect right away. Don't feel that way!
"The Ugly First Draft"
Ann Handley has written the book "Everybody writes" and talks about this phenomenon. She suggests writing an ugly first draft. There you don't have to feel any pressure and you often get more content than you need. Then of course it needs proofreading and checking to make it a really good piece of writing, but at least with the ugly first draft you're off and running! If you're lucky, you'll also have someone who likes proofreading and can help you with that.
SEO and Content
One of the main reasons for creating a blog is that the blog posts should be indexed by search engines and appear high up on e.g. Google so that it drives traffic to the website. Here comes one of the challenges of getting everyone to write content. Because not everyone in the company understands SEO (search engine optimization), our recommendation is to either use a provider who knows SEO and who reviews the blog posts before they are published and optimizes with metadata.Another way is to look at the content that everyone in the staff produces is to see it as deeper content whose purpose is not to drive traffic but instead to engage visitors. In combination with this content, you can then supplement it with content that has the primary purpose of driving traffic and ranking high in search engines. The posts that drive traffic can then link to the staff's posts to go more in-depth on the topic. Creating a combination of in-depth and SEO-friendly content is especially recommended for tech-heavy companies that often have insights themselves that no one else can access. In these cases, different types of content are required. One type that drives traffic and one type that really goes in-depth and shows the expertise that exists within the company and its employees.If you're new to SEO, feel free to read more about how it works in the blog post"What is SEO?"
Summary
If you want to succeed with Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing, it is a great advantage if you can educate and get all your colleagues and employees on why you should work with this. Then it is easier to produce a large amount of content that targets the different stakeholders/target groups that your company has.Also try to implement the culture in your company where everyone helps each other to write content. Consider the statistics that companies that publish more than 16 blog posts per month get on average 3.5x more traffic than those that publish 0-4 blog posts per month and those that publish more than 16 blog posts per month generate 4.5X more leads than those that publish 0-4 blog posts.So let's get writing!Want help getting started with Content Marketing or Inbound Marketing? At Contitude, we'll help you no matter how far along you are!Book an appointment with Contitude
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