Content Marketing Just Doesn’t Work – Case Study

And what specifically, were you doing in your content marketing, Sam?” “Well, I had 3 blog posts written by a person I found on the web. I sat down with Sam to show him what he could do to make content marketing work for his business. What is content marketing? The tools of content marketing may be more familiar they include; blogs, social media, articles, videos, and infographics. There was a day when posting low quality content might work, but that time has passed. It is still by far the most used CMS (content marketing system), with 59.4% market share. Promote Content This is where Sam didn’t follow through. This post gives you in-depth information about posting on social media. You need to read the article and post a thoughtful response. Sam now understood why posting a few low quality posts on his site didn’t get a any response.

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I was speaking with Sam, a busy business coach, who said to me, “I tried content marketing to promote my business and it didn’t work. It was a big waste of time and money.”

My reaction was to investigate why it didn’t work for Sam. “Really? How long did you try it?”

Sam said, “I gave it three entire months!”

“Hmmm. And what specifically, were you doing in your content marketing, Sam?”

“Well, I had 3 blog posts written by a person I found on the web. That cost me $25 per post. I posted these on my site one per month. And I don’t think anyone even read them. There wasn’t even one comment left.” Sam explained.

I sat down with Sam to show him what he could do to make content marketing work for his business.

What is content marketing?

The first thing to learn is exactly what content marketing is. When I asked Sam what he thought it was, his reply was, “blogging”. That’s not incorrect but blogging is more accurately a tool used in content marketing. As a definition, you may get different answers to this question from different sources. For my definition, I went to the Content Marketing Institute, one of the industries thought leaders.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

The tools of content marketing may be more familiar they include; blogs, social media, articles, videos, and infographics. Since Sam was already familiar with blogging we decided to start there.

The first thing I explained was that blogging is much more than writing a 500-word essay and publishing it on your website. I like to picture the process as a “Blogging Cycle.” This is a simplified cycle for entrepreneurs who are new to blogging.

The Blogging Cycle

Produce Content

Sam told me, “That’s the easy part. Since I’m not good at writing I bought my blog articles online for $25 a piece.”

Any article you can buy for $25 is not going to be “high quality.” To be effective, at a minimum your blog posts must be:

  • Researched
  • Written in-depth
  • Integrated with your blog concept and your branding
  • Have a high-quality image that communicates your concept
  • Well-written with attention to grammar and spelling.

There was a day when posting low quality content might work, but that time has passed. To elicit the response you need to achieve your goals, all content you publish must be high quality.

If you outsource your content production, choose a reputable, experienced professional. Of course, if you are a great writer pen your own blog posts. However, even then you need to have another pair of eyes proof your content before posting it.

Publish Content

So this is a no brainer,…

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