Deep Thinking about Content Marketing

I'm not going to share my actual Content Marketing thoughts with you, I don't think (we'll see where this goes), but just report to you: that's what I've been doing this week. Thinking and Studying. Deeply.

For background: In Germany last summer, our goal was to put a Content Marketing Strategy into place. Content Marketing is supposed to be different from Product Marketing, in that you're supposed to create content that's of interest to your audience. (This is why you ladies see one million recipe videos in your FB feed.) You're NOT supposed to talk about your products or be sales-y. Instead, you're supposed to know your audience/consumer, and know what might make her want to click on your link. Such as, my consumer is a 54-year-old woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer 6 years ago, so at this point she's maybe looking for information about how to eat better and get her exercise; or maybe she's going on a cruise this year and wants to know what to pack. She's not necessarily looking for information about the keyword "mastectomy." (She's past that.) I have been trying to convince my teammates about this, but it's a fine line. We do also have evidence/data (I guess? I don't really get into the "data" part of things) saying that many, many women, newly diagnosed, type the word "mastectomy" into their Google search box. And we'd like them to find us, too. So there are intricacies and details. Our company adds to the challenge by being global and extra-complicated. Medical, but also fashion-minded. Ill-equipped to do many of the technical things everyone else can do. Etc.

Anyway, it's been a year since that trip, and next week our Content team is gathering here in Kennesaw to review the Content Marketing we did, figure out what worked and what didn't, and figure out what we need to do in the next year. It's tough because according to the experts, a strategy like this has a loooooong lead-time. Content Marketing doesn't lead to instant results.

I've been reading a LOT of articles by Content Marketing experts lately... and there seem to be a LOT of experts. It's kind-of exhausting. And like anything else on the Internet, you can find an article to support every tactic, every opinion, every opposite and equally significant idea. But maybe this is what I'm here for. I joke, over to the right in my "about" paragraph, that my superpower is deep thinking. But that might be the closest thing to true that I know about myself. So perhaps I'm meant to do this very thing. I'm not miserable doing it, I noticed earlier in the week, when I was buried in the weeds of SO MANY interesting and useful instructions on ContentMarketingInstitute.com. I enjoy learning. But it does make for long days and a very tired brain by Friday.

I think our meetings next week will be fine. I don't have to "present" anything, so all of this prep is just me trying to be knowledgeable. None of the attendees is a problem-maker (not like last year). We're all willing to listen to each other, and really HEAR each other, and we're friends. None of us has a personal agenda. More than anything we all just want to be respected for our collective work. We hope it's successful in some way. I hope I'll be open to ideas. I have many of my own -- complaints, as usual, and things I know aren't working (for me) in the day-to-day. But I hope I'll be able to also see what IS working -- because I think some of it IS. We're probably doing much better work than we (I) think.