Maybe your team doesn’t have enough time to create the right assets. Or maybe your company doesn’t even know what content you create in the first place. When they search the web while considering their next purchase, your brand will become a familiar and trustworthy presence to them over time—if your content is useful. Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, you can answer the same set of core questions to learn more. Ignoring freelance talent You can’t expect your content program to thrive if one person is doing all the work. going rate for an article that doesn’t require a ton of research or interviews starts at about $400. You’ll want the solutions in your marketing stack to work well together because it’ll be easier to track how your content performs and how your team can be more efficient. Analyzing the wrong data Bad decision-making can occur if a content team has access to marketing automation programs but hasn’t figured out how to correctly use it. Now, we’re starting to capture data in SalesForce to track response rates for campaigns that feature our content. The point isn’t to drastically alter what you’re creating—it’s to give more visibility to your process and assets.
My friend is a web engineer for a large media company, and whenever we talk shop, I’m always surprised at how big of an impact his tinkering can have on the content we read. From my perspective, he noodles around in some code for an hour, and then the next time I see him, his company’s traffic reaches a new high.
If your marketing team churns out content but you have the nagging sense your process isn’t as efficient as it could be, chances are you’re not grappling with an insurmountable obstacle. Take it from my friend: The hard part is identifying the problem. Because once you do, the solution becomes a lot more tangible.
At Contently, we mapped out the path to content excellence in our Maturity Model. No brand wants their content strategy to stall at Phase 0, a hectic and emotionally stressful state we call content chaos.
Maybe your team doesn’t have enough time to create the right assets. Or maybe your company doesn’t even know what content you create in the first place. Sound familiar? To help you identify the issue before it hurts your team, here are the most common symptoms of content chaos.
1. Ignoring the customer experience
Brands like to pay lip service to the customer experience, but if marketers want their content to make a real impact, they have to commit. Shift away from the scattered ideas your team comes up with on the fly, and focus instead on the problems your audience battles on a daily basis.
Content marketing isn’t just a constant stream of advertisements. You want to anticipate some of the questions that might lead someone to your brand, especially ones that involve the keywords and concepts people search for on Google. When they search the web while considering their next purchase, your brand will become a familiar and trustworthy presence to them over time—if your content is useful.
2. Not defining your target audience
If your target audience is still undefined, take some time to reflect with your team on your mission.
Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, you can answer the same set of core questions to learn more. Who are these consumers, and where do they typically find the articles they read? What are their job titles? What terms do they search? What challenges do they face (at work or home)? What are their…
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