It\u2019s an all too common complaint from marketing and PR professionals: how can we keep up with the demands of producing consistent content designed to achieve outcomes? Unfortunately if you\u2019ve heard someone ask this question (in 2011!) they may already be beyond help.<\/p>\n
The web (and world) by design churn content. Every day, we all have new stories to tell: it\u2019s just a question of if you are going to be a part of that day\u2019s discussions or not.<\/p>\n
Sadly I still think this is lost on most marketers.\u00a0Ian\u00a0visualizes how absurd\u00a0it is, to the point this basic premise of\u00a0modern communications\u00a0is being exploited to sell a simple, but missed concept.<\/p>\n
But how specifically are marketers getting the consistency thing wrong?<\/p>\n
Only thinking in big ideas instead of a consistent, unfolding story told bit by bit<\/strong><\/p>\n The big idea is pretty meaningless unless you already have consistency down.\u00a0Buzz is essential, but also perhaps more important is the stuff in between. Your news, event or product is\u00a0no longer the story. Your ongoing narrative and editorial vision is going to be what wins.<\/p>\n Creating content, but not consistently optimizing and archiving to build equity<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of companies engage in tactics like email marketing or white paper creation and vest a lot of effort to do this. But that content is valuable indefinitely, beyond the distribution. Especially if you are creating unique content to send to your list. If you develop a process to optimize, publish, promote and make accessible: each bit of content should be accruing equity for your company. In fact,\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of your marketing should be designed in a way to build equity, in a manner you can easily draw a clear line from activity to results.<\/p>\n Consistent on a channel like Facebook and Twitter but not their own blog\/domain<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are using outposts like Facebook and Twitter but lack a hub on the web, you\u2019re doing it wrong. Why is this still so difficult to understand? Blogs are a\u00a0much higher<\/em>\u00a0outcome oriented channel for your brand\u00a0than Twitter\u00a0and Facebook where you can easily get lost in the stream. Here are 19 more reasons to\u00a0blog and not just Tweet: there is just so much more value in focusing\u00a0opt in at the source.<\/p>\n Counting on others to tell their story without consistently telling it themselves<\/strong><\/p>\n What many don\u2019t realize is the best way to get others to tell your story is to be consistent publishing stories on a channel you own. This is the place you can\u00a0condition\u00a0your entire industry to go to. Then you truly get to shift your PR from\u00a0push to pull: a\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0more strategic approach. I know it is counter-intuitive, but if you aren\u2019t building a narrative in the world by\u00a0becoming media yourself, how can you expect anyone to consistently spread your messages? You can\u2019t, you\u2019ll just keep paying new money to reach the same audience.<\/p>\n Overthinking\u00a0it instead of achieving a consistent\u00a0flow<\/strong><\/p>\n It used to be expensive to invest in both the creation and distribution of content. If you\u2019re spending obscene amounts of time (or even money) on each bit you publish you\u2019re doing it wrong.\u00a0No one<\/em>\u00a0is as good at predicting success as they think they are, you need to try\u00a0things and iterate\u00a0and stop worrying so much about it.\u00a0If you fail, so what?<\/p>\n The solution? Devote resources, kill the legacy mindsets and scrap your broken plans. Then develop a modern\u00a0digital marketing strategy\u00a0that plays to the way the world actually functions.<\/p>\n In a world where every company is a media company, and all media is social, it\u2019s up to you whether to activate this or not. And it\u2019s a cop out to say things like \u201cwe don\u2019t have the time\u201d or \u201cwe aren\u2019t sure how to track results.\u201d Now you\u2019re just making excuses.<\/p>\n Plenty of people make the time\u00a0personally<\/em>, in their free time\u00a0and actually attract\u00a0more attention\u00a0than entire media brands. They do this because they have\u00a0passion.<\/p>\n To say you can\u2019t be consistent (or competitive) in modern marketing is to say you lack the same passion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s an all too common complaint from marketing and PR professionals: how can we keep up with the demands of … <\/p>\n