• by AlexAnndra Ontra , Op-Ed Contributor, September 20, 2017

Tell me something I don’t already know. That’s the objective, and the power, of content marketing. Today’s consumers are savvy and a bit leery of traditional marketing pitches. Never mind TV commercials and print ads that are blatant attempts to win them over. They are also now keenly aware of social posts that show up in their newsfeeds. They look like a friend’s post but are really paid ads for products and services. That’s accepted as the price for using a service like Facebook or Instagram for free. After all, American consumers like buying things, it’s ingrained in our capitalist culture. You don’t need to try to fool them. But, you do need to offer them value if they are going to give your content their time and attention.  

Good content creates smarter, better-educated buyers. That is what effective marketing content does. It’s less about a quick click and sell, and more about building a relationship with your customer. Its primary purpose is to provide information about your industry, the market place, benefits and even to a lesser degree your product. Think of content marketing as a viable way to relay information overtime. Instead of using it just once, this information can used as an extension of your marketing strategy and evergreen material that your customers can consume over an extended period of time, or they Google search and find it all at once. It doesn’t matter when, what matters is that the library of content will position your company as the expert and as the leader in your field. So when that customer is ready to buy, they buy from you.  

However, due to limited resources (or lack of budget), many businesses find it challenging to keep a steady drum beat of content on their site. Generally, small to medium businesses and enterprises aren’t equipped with large marketing departments or expensive agencies to hire for this. So it can seem like a daunting task — yet another thing to do so you can keep up with technology and the ever-evolving media, social, technical landscape. But content marketing is a critical component of the marketing mix, and can make the difference in closing or not closing your next deal. In fact, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that published 0 - 4 monthly posts, according to HubSpot.Starting to see the value now? 

A great place to start is your sales presentations. If it’s important, it’s in PowerPoint. These decks are usually created with a specific objective in mind — sell more widgets, competitive analysis of widgets, benefits of widgets, ROI from widgets, etc. Since they are crafted with a concrete purpose, they often have the best thinking, best wording and best imagery. There’s a wealth of valuable content embedded in your slides, so use them as a resource for future blogs, newsletters, social postings, etc.

Having a case of writer’s block? The topics and sub-topics in your presentations are a great source of ideas for blogs and posts, and building out a content schedule. For your next blog, pick a topic in a presentation and turn those bullets into prose. Or take a few bullet points and make them posts on social media, with a complementary infographic.

Content marketing provides a forum to build trust with your customer and gain credibility in the market place for a minimal out-of-pocket cost. Presentations are enterprise assists that provide a well-spring of mission-critical information. So use and re-use them, not just for other presentations but for content marketing efforts. In doing so, they will provide the substance needed for a powerful content marketing campaign. One that includes substantive content and useful information which will in turn build trust among your customers and give your business credibility. In addition, resourcing existing presentations minimizes the out of pocket expense. Finally, it ensures consistent messaging across all media touch points. Good marketers understand the power of repetition. Repeat and reinforce the same message in all content — presentations, blogs, newsletters, and social — all of it. That’s the power of content marketing.