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Why You Should Discuss Content Marketing Strategy Before Tactics
Don Stanley / Content Marketing Institute / January 10, 2014
“What’s the primary reason businesses fail at content marketing?“
Those who ask seem to want, or expect, a complex answer; but the fact of the matter is the answer is really quite simple: Most organizations fail because they jump right into content marketing without first creating an overall content marketing strategy. They know they need to produce content, so they just start producing it. Not much effort is given to why they’re doing it or whom they’re targeting. Sadly, what often happens is these organizations try content marketing for 3 to 6 months and then, when they don’t achieve immediate and monumental success, they declare that it doesn’t work. Unfortunately, without developing a strategic plan, these organizations are destined to fail before they even get started.
To some of you, this may seem like a “duh” moment. After all, taking such a haphazard approach to content marketing is just as counterintuitive as an architect designing a building without giving any consideration to the landscape, climate, and surrounding structural environment.
I can’t stress enough how critical it is to reach agreement on a content marketing strategybefore discussing tactics. Building and then making a smart business case for investing time, dollars, and staff into this new venture should be top priority; after that, an organization can go about generating all the content it wants. But the content needs a purpose, a target. Without this, you will have trouble justifying your investment when the content marketing ROIconversation inevitably comes up.