Author Joe Pulizzi was in town yesterday. Pulizzi is founder of the Content Marketing Institute and spoke at Smartling’s Content Marketing and Scalability breakfast event at the Beacon Hotel in Boston. He is also an author and wrote the wonderfully helpful and recent Epic Content Marketing. Joined by Smartling’s Nataly Kelly, both offered insights and tips on how to be a more effective and mindful content marketer. An eye-opening stats from Pulizzi: in a recent survey of more than 5000 marketers, only 38 percent said they felt their content marketing was effective. You could perhaps assume that those 38 percent are either very proud of their work or perhaps are successful, but I have a feeling the “effectiveness” quotient of most marketers when it comes to content, might even be lower. Marketers know the impact of a great content marketing program on the “buyer’s journey.” But execution is often another story, says Pulizzi. Getting people to “care” about your content and act because of it, can be a vexing challenge.
How is it done? Pulizzi says it starts with goals. Though nine out of 10 marketing programs now have content marketing components to them, most do not have a plan. If you don’t have goals that are measurable, you cannot be fully effective with your content marketing program. Create a strategy and a structure he says, and then provide budget and resources to carry out your plan.