Content Marketing Today

Content Marketing Strategy First…Tactics Second

A Recent Surprise: Web 2.0 Savvy Tech company Skeptical on Content Marketing Value.

I spoke recently with a smart young ceo of a company that has a very cool web based application. His product targets small to medium size businesses and aims to solve a set of very common problems that get in the way of effective team collaboration.

He’s a technology guy who understands the possibilities of the content-driven website, podcasts, webcasts, and Blogs. His company is currently doing regular podcasts which focus on typical challenges faced by his target audience of small to medium size business executives. The podcasts are very brief, just 5 minutes or so, but they focus on business issues first. Only after exploring the challenges and some possible solutions, do they suggest how his company and his products might come to the rescue. That’s a pretty good approach.

What surprised me the most was the CEO’s skepticism on the value of using content marketing to establish themselves as a thought leader–as the go-to guys for solutions in their arena. In effect, although his company is using the web 2.0 tools that facilitate content marketing, they aren’t really buying into the underlying premise of its overwhelming importance. I think part of the problem is that they haven’t developed a clear enough outcome-based strategy. Such a strategy might well have lead them to the importance of developing thought leadreship via compelling content.

It turns out that, we still have a lot of educating to do even among technology companies with very smart, very tech savvy, and very creative leaders. After all, the tactical tools won’t replace a sound content marketing strategy. You need to determine an outcome before you try out a set of tools.

In short: Strategy first. Tactics second.