Content Marketing FAQ

How do I know if content marketing makes sense for me?

This is the single most important question for you to figure out for your business. Here are some indicators that would suggest content marketing makes more sense for you:

  1. The problems you solve with your products/services are complex.
  2. There’s interest in learning about the topics that you can create content around.
  3. You have a non-commoditized perspective on the application space.
  4. You like the idea of creating content to share your company’s knowledge / insight.
  5. You’re patient. Nothing in the realm of content marketing happens quickly. If you have no patience, don’t even bother with content marketing. Move on to other methods.

Check out the pros and cons of content marketing for more.

How do I get started with content marketing?

There are 4 main steps to getting started with content marketing:

  1. Content strategy – why are you doing this in the first place? What topics are you going to focus on?
  2. Engagement channels/methods – your content won’t magically engage people. Are you going for social media? SEO? Paid search? Inbound? Account-based engagement? Webinars? Trade shows?
  3. Content creation – it’s super easy to create junky content. Not so easy to create good content.
  4. Analytics – yep. You’ll want to measure how your content is doing; good, bad, and ugly.

Check out Content Marketing for engineering companies for a few tips. Looking for a content marketing service provider? Reach out if you’d like to chat.

What should I write about?

You should write about the things that your customers & potential customers want to know about.

You should not start by writing about the things that you want to tell your customers.

You should not start by writing about all the things that you know about.

How do I create quality content?

Quality content means content that satisfies the intent of the content viewer. Re-read that and let it sink in. This requires a lot of empathy, thoughtfulness, and analysis. Quality content will usually have these attributes:

  1. Fully answers the question that the searcher was looking for an answer to if they were asking a question. If they are looking for a solution to their problem, good content provides a potential (or multiple potential) solution to their problem.
  2. Doesn’t include a lot of fluff/extraneous information.
  3. Aligns with the way the searcher views their world, not the way you view your world.
  4. Anticipates what the next steps would look like and makes it clear how to take those next steps.
  5. Anticipates what other information might be desired and provides links to that information.

How does SEO tie into content marketing?

SEO is intimately coupled with content marketing for content that you want to rank organically (which isn’t all content by the way). You want to know which topics your content is trying to show up for in google. What’s most important here is that you satisfy the search intent of the topic(s) you’re trying to show up for. There are several basics (related to HTML tags, etc) that you want to abide by, as well as several nuances (eg. internal linking, UX, empathy) that you need to pay attention to.

Is content marketing inbound or outbound marketing?

Neither. Content is usually necessary for either, but you can create content for either inbound or outbound marketing methods.

What should a content marketing plan consist of?

Plans are usually awesome, usually. Why? They help solidify the steps to get from point A to point B. However, when it comes to marketing, this can also be deadly because good marketing is more like experimenting & exploring as opposed to something with more of a close-ended process like product development. The problem with a marketing plan (especially for smaller companies of less than ~100 employees) is that it tends to:

  • lull people into a false sense of security,
  • discourage rapid iterations and pivots, and
  • puts the focus on activities over progress.

That being said, if you’re new to this, there can be value in going through a process to get everyone on the same page. The main elements of a content marketing plan should consist of these topics:

  1. The goal(s) for your content (sales enablement, lead generation, building awareness)
  2. The channels you plan to engage your audience in (search, social, email, conferences, webinars)
  3. Competitive landscape
  4. Problem(s) solved by your solution
  5. Solution that solves the problem(s)
  6. Description of your target customer (persona’ish)
  7. Baseline content needed
  8. Testing metrics

Check out The problem with marketing plans for small B2B companies – and what to do instead for more detail.

What’s different about content marketing for B2B services companies?

The two main differences for B2B services content marketing are:

  1. Services are harder to sell than products. What this means is that you have to give away a bigger piece of your brain in the form of content than for companies selling products.
  2. B2B is generally more complex and expensive than B2C. Bigger purchases require more trust-building. Content can facilitate that.

What’s different about content marketing for tech companies?

The main difference for tech companies is that you’ll need to adapt your writing style significantly depending on how technical your buyers are.

If your buyer is technical, you’ll need to be super-technical with your content. This is how you build trust. Show them you know what you’re talking about.

On the other hand, if your buyer is not super technical, you’ll scare them away or make their eyes glaze over if you get too technical. You’ll need to translate complex ideas/solutions into straightforward and succinct messaging. They need to understand what problems your tech solves for them (and they need to believe it), but they don’t need or want to know the details.

Check out Content Marketing for Engineering Companies for more info.

How much do content marketing services cost?

A lot to a little. I don’t mean to be snarky with that, it’s just that it depends on the quality of content you want, the complexity of what you sell, and how much you want someone else to handle.

If you want to drive the content bus yourself and just engage a freelance writer in a limited complexity business, you might find someone to help you create an article for a couple/few hundred dollars (if you’re seeing offers for someone to write you an article for less than $200, be careful. You’ll likely get what you pay for.). In this scenario you’ll generally be handling everything but the core of content creation. That includes:

  • setting the strategy,
  • deciding on and executing engagement mechanisms/channels,
  • analyzing performance, and
  • tying it all in with the bigger picture.

In complex/technical B2B scenarios you’ll usually be heavily involved in the content creation process no matter what. Why? Because you’re the subject matter expert for your business. You’ll need to provide input by being interviewed and/or email, iterate to refine, and then review the content. A good content marketer will be able to drive the bus, but no one should be removing you from the process.

Interested in content marketing services?

Yes, I want help with my content marketing!

If you’re in learning mode, check these out: