10 Reasons Why You Won't Do Content Marketing (and continue doing the same thing)

I had an amazing conversation this week with an agency that was trying to convince their client to invest in a content strategy and full content marketing program.  Just to give you the quick take, the client's goal was to reach certain consumer segments in the southeastern states.  They had a budget of $2.5 million dollars for marketing spend for the campaign.

The client's VP of Marketing didn't think anything could be done with a marketing budget that small.

That client is thinking about the world we used to live in.  The world of radio, television and placed media. It's hard to believe, but most of the marketing world still live in this reality.

Just think what kind of impact we could make with a $2 million dollar content marketing budget.  Boy, hire a few expert journalists to crank out some amazing content and you still have almost $1.9 million dollars left.

The conversation made me realize that, even though content marketing is certainly a legitimate and growing field today, there are still so many reasons why (we, you, I) don't do it.

Here are ten reasons.  I think it's helpful to know the reasons why we don't do something, which then may help us pull the trigger. Now here's a "Top 10" you don't want to be on.

Top 10 Reasons Why You Won't Do Content Marketing

1. Your company is set up to sell products or services, not to provide relevant and valuable information to customers and prospects. It takes a real mindset change to start thinking about your customers' informational needs as part of your marketing strategy.
2. You have well-worn marketing paths that are easy to follow.  Going off the beaten path into uncharted territory is intimidating.
3. You have strong relationships with media partners that may go back decades.  It's not easy to break those relationships by pursuing a brand-new content marketing strategy.
4. The reduced effectiveness of traditional marketing may have occurred so slowly that no alarm bells have gone off within your organization. You also may think things will come back at some point.
5. Many companies (possibly yours) aren’t measuring their marketing, so you may not even be sure what is and what is not effective. Hard to make any changes when you don't know.
6. You lack both the right people and the right processes to implement a new kind of marketing.
7. You are reluctant to abandon traditional marketing tactics for what they may believe to be unproven content marketing or new media practices.
8. You lack content marketing role models from whom they can learn best practices.
9. You place very little value in marketing versus other aspects of the organization (operations, product development). Little do you know, that every part of the organization is affected by (or actually is) marketing.
10. Even though I'd hate to think this one is true, I've seen it first hand...You have some real idiots running marketing for your company that don't have a clue about the needs of your customers or what to do about it. Before you can even look at content marketing, you have to ditch the idiots.

And Bonus #11 - It's hard.  It's more difficult to consistently create valuable and relevant content to our customers than place media. It's easier to just place an ad.  Listening, creating, co-creating, commenting, and actually having real customer conversations is harder.  Higher payoff, but harder none-the-less.

#12 (from Jonathan Kranz): You don't know how to connect your knowledge/experience/expertise with the hopes, fears, desires and objectives of your target market.

What did we miss?

In order for a company to alter their mindset toward one of new media or content marketing, they need one of a few things to happen:

• Business gets so bad that they start trying new things.
• Voluntary or involuntary turnover creates new thinking in the organization.
• A culture change in sparked in the organization, through an internal champion, external customer demands, or the merging of a new business culture through an actual merger or buyout.

The opportunity to become the expert industry source for your customers is there, right now.  How you take advantage of this opportunity is up to you.

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Comments

[Jonathan Kranz]

Awesome! Here's my suggestion for number 12: You don't know how to connect your knowledge/experience/expertise with the hopes, fears, desires and objectives of your target market.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Jonathan...added as #12. Thanks

[Byron White]

Small world. Big ideas. Joe-- spoke with you today for the first time. Jonathan-- spoke with you about 10 years ago the last time. "Great Content" has brought us together in yet another magical way. Really powerful post hear guys. Now that the obstacles are clearly identified, we can sell like hell.

[Erica Stritch]

Great post! #9 - when you say every part of your organization actually is marketing - especially hit home. We work with professional services firms, where what they are selling is the knowledge and expertise. What better way to demonstrate this than through content marketing. Yet when we speak with our clients, they are afraid of, "giving away their secrets." I tell them that if they can give away all of their expertise in an article, blog, or white paper, then their services may not be worth it.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Great point Erica...that's a recurring issue. Clients think they give away their secret sauce and have no competitive advantage. BUT, the competitive advantage is giving away the secret sauce SO MUCH that no one ever questions that they are the experts.

Worth a post I believe. Thanks!

[ContentKeith]

Joe: LOVED this! Although connected to others, maybe a simple 'reason' is:

You don't know where to start.

As we know, it's just not as easy as writing (or have someone write) a few articles and slap them up on your website. A plan is required. A strategy/strategies to have content marketing address real business objectives. Pre-determined metrics to measure the effectiveness of the efforts. A crystal-clear view of your end customer, what makes her tick, and what her higher-order needs are (that can be delivered by your brand).

We've even both had clients wonder how they can sell ads adjacent to their content....nuff said there.

$ 2.5 million? Have their agency call me -- I'd be happy to provide a few ideas!

[Rob Leavitt]

Great post Joe! I've seen and heard most of these "reasons" too. One other one (#13?) that I come across quite a bit is "You think you're doing it already." A number of B2B marketers point to their random collection of poorly done white papers, their mediocre newsletter, and their occasional articles or reports or corporate blog posts and call it thought leadership. They think they're already doing a decent job even though there is little strategy, consistency or quality.

[Darren Pearce]

This is a great piece and I totally agree with the issues raised in it. Our newly launched law focused social site VoloLegal features a mix of news and content generated by people connected to the site and I see this as an intrinsic part of a marketing strategy.

Content should be varied, not always about the core subject matter of the site, and designed to both solicit debate and be informative.

[Kathleen, The Savvy VA]

2.5 million!! An online person could take over the world with that!

That is definitely an old school mindset.

Great article by the way. I was impacted at point #1.

Thanks and gotta run to do some writing.

[Kristen]

I think that #11 should have been #1! It seems that a lot of people just aren't ready for the work involved.

And I think that #12 should be be way up there too...

[kimber mccabe]

At Oshyn we have been deploying a strategy of "Sharing Thought Leadership". Not only does sharing provide others with needed information, it allows people to observe/engage in our expertise.

I think another point to add to your list is FEAR. I think some people are honestly scared to say, "This isn't working anymore. We need to engage our audience in a whole new way." Anyone who starts to move into the direction of inbound marketing and has no major "internet-related" experience seems to feel quickly overwhelmed and they like a camel they just stick their head back down and continuing gnawing away.

[Jon McCluskey]

A fantastic post! #11 is my biggest battle, however dedicated researching times each day and recycling our old content is what keeps it fresh.

[Justin]

Great post Joe. Very infomative article with lots of value. Thanks for sharing.

[nettie hartsock]

#13: You clearly don't understand that not only does dynamic, engaging, updated content attract customers, but it is also a key factor in attracting journalists to cover your story and company. We're bored easily and new thought-leadership content makes us very happy and our editors happy too. Gives us a new spin on an old story, content we can "almost" cut and paste into a story and makes our lives easier.

[Russ Henneberry]

#11 is the killer. Companies don't have to like it -- they can bury their head in the sand.

When they look up they will find that this new marketing is the ONLY viable method. It is not easier, it is harder and it is REALITY.

[Russell Sparkman]

Hey Joe,

This is great. After some of the client or near-client interactions I've had over the past several weeks, it's posts like these that help keep me sane.

Right now, for every "1" client that gets it, really gets it, there are literally dozens we talk to that should get it, but fail to get it, because of what you've articulated here.

I think I've mentioned to you that I'm drafting a content marketing post called "Faith and Committment." It's very much related to this post's core theme.

You've inspired me to get it done!

Thanks
Russell

[Russell Sparkman]

Hey Joe, et. al:

On a more positive note about those who do "get it," here's a message that I got over the holidays:

"Thanks for meeting with me as well. I am working on the budget and have ordered some of the books on your blog list. I am on the fast track to pupil of the year! I am EXCITED!"

This is from a person who came away from a discussion about content marketing completely "stoked."

Let's hope we all see more of these kinds of responses in 2010!

Cheers,
Russell

[Joe Pulizzi]

Awesome Russell. Really cool of you to share this. That's what it's all about.