Use Content To Fuel Marketing Campaigns

It's not surprising that some partners are especially confused about marketing right now. There are marketing experts telling you to build content and make your Web site a prospect magnet. And there are marketing gurus telling you to automate your marketing to run e-mail and ad campaigns flawlessly (what a marketing word). So, which should you do?

Both. To make the most of you marketing content, you should deliver it through your Web site and through regular marketing campaigns.

While that sounds expensive and complicated, it really shouldn't be. Follow some common-sense guidelines and you can manage your own marketing campaigns just fine.

The Realities of Inbound Marketing
The idea behind inbound marketing is that by posting lots of great, keyword-rich content on your Web site, your buyers will find you through their searches. Practically speaking, most partners can't consistently create enough content to appear at the top of search results.

Which is why marketing campaigns are so important. You need to get the content that you create in front of as many eyes as possible. The more systematic and strategic you are about executing campaigns, the more successful you will be.

The Elements of Marketing-Campaign Success
As with any marketing activity, the first step is to define your target audience. A tight focus on a specific group with a specific problem will improve results. For many partners, it makes sense to run a vertical campaign to a targeted vertical audience and run a horizontal campaign to a larger audience.

With your target audience in mind, build your campaign with:

• High-Value Content: If you have the resources to create your own content, great. If you need some help, here is a list of ideas. Whitepapers, articles, infographics, e-books, seminars and webinars can all deliver the information that your prospects need to solve their problems.
  
  
• Contact Lists: Most partners have built significant lists of contacts over the years. With some cleanup and additions, those lists continue to be one of your most valuable marketing assets.
  
  
• Messaging: Through e-mail, blogs and social media, let your prospects know that you have great content to help them decide how to solve their problem. Keep it short and simple.

To be effective, the campaign needs to continue over an extended period of time. Best case, you offer new content that supports the campaign topic each month. Run the campaign for a year or more.

You don't need a big staff or expensive marketing-automation software to run marketing campaigns successfully. Those assets are certainly nice if you can afford them, but you can execute with limited resources and still be effective. Start small and build -- but most importantly, keep it going.

What resources are you using to build marketing campaigns? Add a comment below or send me a note and let's share the knowledge.

Posted by Barb Levisay on February 26, 2014