20 Questions to Ask before You Launch Your Content Project

As usual, Seth has done it again. 

I've taken Seth's questions to ask on launching your next website and adapted them a bit for content marketing. As you put your next content plan together, use these questions. You won't be sorry. Enjoy!

1. What is the goal of the content marketing project?
2. In other words, when it's working great, what specific outcomes will occur?
3. Who are we trying to please? If it's the boss, what does she want? Is impressing a certain kind of person important? Which kind?
4. How many people on your team have to be involved? At what level? Who ultimately responsible for owning the content program?
5. Who are you using to outsource your content project? What expertise will they need? What will they specifically do? Who will oversee them?
6. Who are we trying to reach? Is it everyone? Our customers? A certain kind of prospect?
7. The person we are trying to reach - are we trying to inform them or entertain them? Do we know what their informational needs are?
8. What are the content activities that this group has demonstrated they enjoy interacting with? (that's who you compete with for time)
9. Are we trying to close sales? If so, can we measure directly. Do we want people to call us?
10. Are we telling a story that's worth spreading?
11. Are we earning permission to follow up?
12. Do we need people to spread the word using various social media tools?
13. Are we building a tribe of people who will use the content to connect with each other?
14. Do people find the content via word of mouth? Are they looking to find answers to a specific problem and can the content answer them?
15. Is there ongoing news that need to be presented to people or is news not important?
16. How consistently will we need to share the content to make a maximum impact - either in online or print? How many times a month would we like people to engage in our content? For how long?
17. Does showing up in the search engines matter? If so, for what terms? At what cost? Will we be willing to compromise any of the things above in order to achieve this goal?
18. Will the content need to be universally accessible?
19. How much money do we have to spend? How much time?
20. Does the organization understand that 'everything' is not an option?

For more, check out these key questions to ask when launching a content marketing initiative, 10 questions to ask before you blog, the six steps to content marketing success, or download this free white paper on setting up a program that attracts customers with content.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Enjoy!

Comments

[Mark Keating]

Joe:

Yet more evidence that Seth Godin is a genius. Just about everything he writes makes me think about something in a completely new way.

I have to say - #3a made me chuckle. I've had more than my share of such projects. Ego-driven marketing (regardless of the delivery vehicle) is almost certain to fail.

Mark

[Joe Pulizzi]

Great point Mark. Especially with content projects, there are many egos involved. If we aren't aware of them, they can bite us and hurt the project.

Thanks for sharing!

[DeneneWrites]

Great post and great questions to ask before embarking on a content campaign! Thanks!

[Bobby Burns]

Joe,

Great stuff! I just read Seth's blog about an hour ago, went back to work, was thinking of how this could apply to content writing projects (seriously! I was!) and then went back to my blog trolling - and there you had done the work for me! Thank you, and keep up the good work.

[Russ Henneberry]

I saw this on Seth's blog as well. I read Tribes over the weekend and have been reading a lot of his stuff online. He embodies Content Marketing at its finest.

I have really been focusing on #13 -- your content as well as Seth's has been helping me out tremendously.

Thank you.

[Amanda O'Donovan]

Thanks for this, Joe.

With all the hype and chatter surrounding content driven marketing, it's refreshing to see something advocating planning and structure...a series of questions that will make us pause for breath and focus on the purpose of the content we're creating.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Thanks Amanda...appreciate the note. I think you are right...there are lots of ways to create content, and not too many marketers asking the questions BEFORE creating the content. Thanks!