Madras Media Marketing

Content Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses

Common Mistake 3: Not Consistent

By

Empty Station

The third mistake most companies make in content marketing is not being consistent.

Most company blogs follow this pattern: an opening “Welcome to our blog!” post, 2-4 mildly interesting posts within a two-month period, then nothing.

For these companies, Content Marketing is just another campaign to try for a while until they realize that it actually takes a lot of work. They rarely push through long enough to see any results. Their content sits on a digital platform somewhere as a signpost to everyone – “We tried this, but it didn’t work.”

These content ghost towns are not only depressing, they’re a huge waste of time and money. [Read more…]

Common Mistake 2: Not Useful

By

Horse with sneakers Small

 

The second common mistake companies make in content marketing is that their content just isn’t useful.

Many companies with an online presence think that blogs, social media pages, and other new media platforms are simply a different kind of amplifier for the same promotional and self-glorifying messages.

The less useful a company’s messages are, the more we try to tune them out. When there was only one show on TV, you had to sit through the commercials. Now, you can change the channel, find a new podcast, unsubscribe from the list, delete the app, unfollow a feed, or a host of other ways to avoid content you have no use for.

Yet some content sources stick around on our devices. We can’t bring ourselves to unsubscribe because we think there might be something we’ll eventually get out of it. When a brand fulfills a promise to make our life better, we are much more willing to stick it out with them and listen to what they have to say.

The content you create should be so useful that when someone starts purging their phone/email/podcast list, yours is never considered for the chopping block. [Read more…]

Common Mistake 1: Not Strategic

By

Surveyor

 

To start our series on common mistakes companies make in their content marketing, let’s begin with a big one: not being strategic.

This is the reason top stakeholders lose patience with content marketing efforts. It’s the reason most efforts fail to show any results within a year. It’s the reason they aren’t sustainable. It never had a purpose to begin with.

“We should have a blog!” is a terrible reason to start a blog. “We need a way to educate our community on the differences between our product and our competitors” is a great reason to start a blog. [Read more…]

Why Most Content Marketing Fails…

By

Grave

 

Ms. Buttons, owner of Better Buttons was talking with her friend Mr. Clips, owner of Better Clips, who was bragging about having 1,000 followers on his company’s Twitter feed.

Not to be outdone, Ms. Buttons announced to her company that Better Buttons would embark into ‘the Social Media’ (announcing this as if ‘the Social Media’ had sent a prestigious invitation letter to the company). They would soon start a Facebook page and a Twitter “something or other”.

Ms. Buttons appointed Jerod from Accounts Receivable to be the new head of this initiative because he was the only employee both under 30 and with an actual Twitter account. To help Jerod, Ms. Buttons told everyone to submit one post to Jerod by the end of the week. [Read more…]

Staffing a Content Marketing Plan

By

Staffing

 

One of the common questions when starting a Content Marketing strategy is how to staff it. Is this something you can do with your current team, or are you going to have to make a lot of expensive hires?

There are five essential roles that need to be fulfilled if you are going to take Content Marketing seriously.

 

1. Champion

This is the person at the top level who really believes that Content Marketing is the right approach to reach the ideal community. They must advocate it and approve the energy, time, and money necessary to make it work. [Read more…]

When do you Start Marketing?

By

When do you add marketing

“Once our [infrastructure/business plan/product line/funding] is finished, then we’ll look into marketing.”

 

This has been the fundamental business approach for 60 years. Marketing is what you do after everything else is in place. Once you have all your ducks in a row, then you can think about spending money on marketing.

This thinking is especially true among start-ups. Marketing is the final frontier they try to conquer after the product is stable, or the board of directors is set, or the office space is furnished.

 

This thinking is outdated, and can cost you a lot of time and money.

[Read more…]

Ready to get started?

Why wait?

Contact