… let’s think about content marketing.

A few of Acme Corporation’s competitors are really, really good at content marketing. And they are gaining traction from it.

Content marketing is not a new marketing technique. The first ever evidence of content marketing was in 1895, by John Deere. Content marketing works. It works really, really well. But it requires a lot of work and a dedicated team.

Content Marketing Institute defines it as:

“A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

To date, Acme does not measure up to the Content Marketing Institute’s definition.

As the new CMO … you’ve expressed the importance of investing in content marketing to the CEO and she is all-in on it with you.

You need to hire a content marketing team.

At minimum … you’ll need to hire an in-house content director, a copywriter, and a designer.

Or … you’ll need to contract a proven content marketing agency or content marketing freelancers.

How to Approach:

First things first, begin by researching your competitors content marketing strategies and assets before you hire or contract a team.

You know that publishing content for the sake of publishing content is not an effective strategy. So use a tool like BuzzSumo to research your competitors and find out what type of content performs the best.

Next, make a list of all the different types of content.

Below are the main categories of content:

• Written (blog posts, checklists, brand stories, etc)
• Graphic (infographics, social graphics, icons, etc)
• Education (online courses, eBooks, case studies, etc)
• Video (YouTube videos, explainer videos, demo videos, etc)
• Audio Content (podcast, text-to-speech readers, etc)

The research that you conduct should give you a foundational content marketing strategy for Acme.

How to Plan:

Now that you have a content marketing research and a strategy to reference, meet with your CEO and other stakeholders to discuss your findings.

Outline the absolute requirements for Acme to launch an effective content marketing campaign (one that will rival your top competitor).

Determine your total annual content marketing budget for Acme.

Make a decision if you’re going to hire an in-house team or contract an agency/freelancers.