How Much Content Do You Need?

When we talk to clients, they are always sort of perplexed as to why things have flatlined for their company or more specifically, their website. We normally talk to them about content or lack thereof. A lot of discussions have crept up over the last several years about content, engagement, and conversion.  It seems that instead of marketing messages becoming more targeted, it has ended up being very very noisy. 

So what do we do as marketers? How to cut through the useless fluff we have all helped to create?

Here are some tips

1. Remember Who Is Reading It.

This may seem extremely obvious. We spend many hours on branding strategy and editorial calendars alike, but what do we really come away with? Do you walk out of these meetings really understanding who you are talking to? Do you feel confident that you are saying what that customer wants to hear? Do you have a strong “buyer persona” in place? If you haven’t answered yes to any of these questions, go back and start again. Too many marketers don’t take the time to really separate the audience.

2. What Are Your Content Goals? 

When you set out to write or to have someone create content for you, remember to have a goal in mind. Sending out content for the sake of sending out content is stupid and frankly it pisses people off. So think about what you are asking your content to do for you. Is it a sign up style landing page? Is it a newsletter or a blog post.

Make sure you think about what your aim is. If a guy wants to take a lady to the bedroom (sorry, this was the easiest analogy I had), he normally doesn’t just say, “Hey, wanna shag?”, he will first take her out for a coffee maybe, then dinner, then, to bed…if he’s lucky. He has a goal in mind and takes the steps needed to achieve that goal. Same thing goes with content and in particular, inbound marketing. We are leading our audience down a path that makes the most sense for them to take the action we want them to take.

3. Magic Number Of Content

So, here is the answer to the question, “How Much Content Do We Need?”…short answer, there is no magic formula. Depending on your goals and time-lines, you will determine the frequency of pushing out content. For example, if you have a time sensitive project or event, you will obviously need to spend more time creating and sending out useful content. If you are a plumber or HVAC company, sending out one blog post per week is sufficient. For us, our goal is to continue to drive our authoratative voice within the marketing community, so we need to be pushing out a lot more content to satisfy our audience. Remember, it isn’t just about blogs either, you need to make sure you’re spicing it up. Video is content, infographics are content…mix it up. If you are genuinely looking to delight your audience, make sure you keep things interesting. 

Hopefully you feel energized and excited to look at your content now.  Remember we are inundated with a bunch of garbage almost every minute we spend online. Make clear and smart decisions on what you want to say, how often you want to say it, and with which Buyer Persona makes the most sense.  If you need help creating some high quality content, hit us up at www.getawesomecontent.com to connect with some pretty awesome writers!