As a writer in a Digital Media Agency, I often find myself in conversation with business owners who have just asked me what I do for a living.
After I tell them that I write articles and content for various clients and our businesses, this is invariably followed by agreement and some variety of the following statements.
“I really should post more”
“We need to create more content”
“We need to work on our online presence”
“I think we have an Instagram account”
“Everything is online these days”
Sadly, these statements are very often then followed up with something like this:
“But who’s got time for that?”
“Facebook doesn’t reward organic posts”
“Likes doesn’t mean customers”
“We don’t have a social media person”
“We ran a campaign but didn’t get any new business”
“We had a social media manager but it never got us anywhere”
Listen To Arnold
“You can have excuses or you can have results, but you can't have both.”
At one point or another, most businesses have engaged in some variety of content marketing, often with little or varied success. They may have committed to posting on Facebook three times a week, started a blog, or assigned someone one in the business ( normally a junior or someone with a range of other jobs they have to do ) to handle ‘social media’ aka content marketing.
Having little to no success, they can understandably come to the conclusion ‘it doesn’t justify ROI’ or that it’s not suitable for their industry etc.
We get it. Times are tough, especially for businesses in an ever-changing economy and landscape. And when you have tried something before and it didn’t work for you, it is easy to be disheartened and decide that this is not for you or your business.
However, we have to recognise this rationale for what it really is – excuses. Plain, good old fashioned excuses that have been around since the dawn of time. It really is the same as your friend who says ‘I’ve tried diets but they don’t work’.
Sure they might say that, but we all know it is not true.
Banish Excuses - Create a Strategy
The reason that your Content Marketing efforts haven’t succeeded to date is that you do not have a documented Content Marketing Strategy. Be honest! Don’t feel too bad, you are certainly not alone. According to the Annual Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report published Content Marketing Institute (CMI):
“67% of B2C marketers and 59%of B2B marketers don’t have a documented content strategy”
Can you imagine an NBA team reaching the finals without a strategy? Or building a home without a blueprint? At worst, without a plan, you are planning to fail. At best, you are simply wasting your time, money and efforts.
When is today a good time to get started?
Even if we could get Arnold Schwarzenegger himself to train you all day, you would still never see any results if you only did this once! The same goes for content marketing. So get your team together and make a plan. Then create interesting, creative content that is valuable for the consumer. Do this for a prolonged period of time, because like the gym, digital marketing rewards consistency, not excuses.
Start here:
Not sure where to begin? Check out our recent article and start making content that works. 5 Fitness Principles For A Successful Content Marketing Strategy
