Artists know you have to persevere to create your best art. It’s much more than a great idea; you also have to do the work.
The same holds true in athletics. You may be gifted with talent and train hard, but it always comes down to your performance in a competitive event.
Artists and athletes go the distance because stopping just a little short is enough to compromise the result – winning versus losing.
In the world of marketing, the winners are the ones that not only create outstanding content, but then find new outlets for going the distance with it.
Take Your Content Up, Down and Sideways
If you listen to podcasts, and I hope you do, you may have noticed more short, daily podcast shows popping up. One reason for this trend is that many people prefer bitesized content on a more frequent basis than a longer format.
Here’s the good news: For the most part these shows are using content that already exists within books, blogs, and videos. They are simply taking what has proved successful and giving it a ride with another medium.
This job of content marketing starts with an idea to then create something useful from it. It’s the hard part. Once that is accomplished, the smart move is taking it a step further by going up, down, or sideways.
Up
- Blog posts become chapters in a book, training programs or keynote presentations
- Images inspire any longer form content
- Conversations with clients spark ideas for blog posts
Down
- Book and blog post excerpts become short podcasts
- Images from blog posts are featured in Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
- Excerpts from long form podcasts are recorded as short YouTube videos
Sideways
- Book or blog excerpts become long form podcasts
- Previously successful blog posts are updated and retitled
- Newsletter content is retitled and published verbatim as blog posts
Are you getting the idea?
This is what the pros do. ESPN first covers an event by reporting the highlights and statistics. Then they dig in further to profile players, coaches, or controversial circumstances. In the mix will be excerpted video highlights matched up with the previously published content. USA Today does the same thing.
Refine the Workflow and Build Your System
The key to successful content marketing is building, refining, and following a process. Create lists of workflow steps and refine them over time. Do the same with templates.
Once you have your system refined, you are equipped to delegate parts of the process or hire it out. If you hire a media agency without building and refining your process, you will be relegated to adopting their system, whether it fits your organization or not.
Everybody is going all in on content marketing. So, to be noticed yours has to be targeted, high quality content and market the right way, you can outsource marketing from marketing Ottawa. A surefire way to hit that mark is to go the distance with your original ideas by taking them as far as you can.
That’s what will build your audience.
About the Author: Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.
He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+