11 Content Marketing Knows

It’s easy to jump on a bandwagon. People have a tendency to want to be included. As marketers, we want to stay at the forefront with knowledge of the latest tactics and trends.

These desires are strong, and can lead to rash decisions. In trying to not get left behind, you just jump in and start doing, maybe without looking first to see where you’re going to land.

On the flip side, sometimes we can get so bogged down in the details and the process that it stops us from actually doing anything.

Neither of these is an optimal path for a successful content marketing roadmap. Something that takes so much time and effort to accomplish needs more consideration, or all that time and effort will be wasted.

You just need to know 11 pretty simple things to really get it right.

1) Know your why.

Know what you stand for and why your company exists.

2) Know your brand.

If you’re a conservative company don’t start using slang, text speak or cat memes just because “everyone else” is. It never works in the long run (and usually not in the short either).

3) Know your audience.

Find out who they truly are and what they really care about. I guarantee you will never stop being surprised by what you find out (no matter how well you think you know them).

4) Know your voice.

And know what it is.  Michael Arrington and Kara Swisher both cover the tech and VC worlds, but both have very different voices.

5) Know your reason.

Why are you creating content? Your answer certainly doesn’t have to be altruistic, but you have to be able to answer that question.

6) Know your time.

Do you publish your blog posts, tweets, and other updates at specific times and dates? Or just publish?

7) Know your threshold.

Do you want to just create? Do you truly have faith in yourself and your people to give free rein? What’s your pain tolerance with backlash?  The smaller the company, the easier this one usually is to answer.

8) Know your style.

Simple or sophisticated?

9) Know your enemy.*

What are your competitors doing? Should you care? *The inspiration for this title.

10) Know how to change.

What works for you right now may not work next month. Don’t be afraid of change.

11) Know that sometimes you need to ignore everything you read in columns like this and find out what works for you.

Hey, it’s worked for Mark Cuban, right?

I don’t know the answer to any of these for you or your company. No one should know them better than you. You may not know all of them yet. If that’s the case, take some time to figure them out. Better to delay launching a content marketing strategy than to do it poorly.

I also don’t know if you can ever truly know all of these things at any one point. But I am sure that running through these “knows” on a consistent basis will bring you a lot closer to “Yes.”