If you’ve done research into starting or growing your marketing outreach or attended a content marketing conference, you already know there’s no shortage of “must do” efforts out there for creating a marketing strategy.
Sure, each one seems amazing by itself – offering fantastic ROI, huge audience, interaction, retention – you name it.
Collectively, however, these “must do” items can turn into little energy and profit vampires, draining time and resources away from your core business.
Selecting the tactics that strike a balance between results and expenditure can be a tricky task, but as long as you keep realistic capabilities as your primary filter, you’ll avoid the “Jack of All Trades” trap that spreads you too thin.
Content Strategy Can Change
Ask any marketing pro what trait is most important when creating a marketing strategy, and chances are they will answer with some form of “versatility” or “adaptability.”
The playing field of digital outreach, particularly in the content sector, is constantly growing and changing – anyone who stays put is liable to watch their competition zoom on by. Even if you build a series of content tasks that fit your schedule and needs perfectly at this moment, always be willing to entertain and implement new ideas to keep things fresh.
Not even the staunchest brand loyalty can stand up to boredom, which means that you need to constantly engage and entertain your audience in new ways.
Understand Your Limitations
Whether it’s a hot new marketing book, an online course or an incredibly refreshing panel at a content marketing conference, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new tack to try.
When bringing it home to implement, however, ask yourself these three questions to decide if it’s really right for you, even on a trial basis:
- Do I have the resources to try this without significantly impacting my current, working strategies?
- Do I really understand what this technique should do, and how it accomplishes that?
- Do I have a structure in place – metrics, comparison data, etc. – to accurately measure its effects?
If you’re fuzzy on the details, ready to cannibalize a working process in your excitement to move forward, and have no real method in place to determine if it’s viable in the long term, it’s probably best to find a new new technique.
In addition, while everyone wants to be the first to roll out something new and exciting, sometimes it’s a lot wiser to watch a competitor struggle through trial and error before committing your own resources to follow suit.
There will always be exceptions and risky moves that pay off in content strategy planning, but remaining cautious and gradual on the whole will prevent accidental rifts from opening between your message’s intent and your audience’s perception.
Get excited in theory and methodical in practice and you’ll be well on your way to a manageable marketing strategy that literally pays off in the end.