If you’ve considered content marketing as a deliberate lead generation and development strategy, you’ve realized that someone, or some group of people, will have to create all the content to drive it. That may sound like a lot of work, but when advertising fails to deliver, what are the alternatives?
At two companies I’ve spoken with recently, the entire lead generation strategy consists of cold calling. Now that’s work, and it’s harder, lower-yielding work than calling warm prospects who have been drawn into your pipeline with information relevant to their personal and professional interests. I’d say that those two companies, and others like them, can build healthy sales pipelines much more quickly using a multi-modal lead generation strategy that’s based on an expanding foundation of appealing content.
Still, someone has to write those journal articles, white papers, webinars, video scripts, newsletters, blog posts, use cases, and other elements of your content marketing program. Here’s the process I use when a client hires me to do it for them. It works for pretty much anything longer than a tweet:
- Collect all pertinent information in a central location, such as a folder on your desktop, or a secure project management environment such as Basecamp. Sources of pertinent information to include:
- Your own e-mails and notes
- Your company’s web site
- Any additional materials available, such as posters, scientific presentations, investor presentations, or product planning documentation
- Your competitors’ web sites
- Your partners’ and suppliers’ web sites
- HubMed and Google Scholar for papers describing your topic’s core technologies and applications
- Google Patents for relevant descriptions and claims
- Print out all the collected information. Go through the stack from top to bottom. Read it, highlight the most relevant information, and make notes in the margins.
- At this point it’s useful to review your planning notes and remind yourself of the purpose and intended use of the material you’re working on.
- Go through the stack of collected materials again. Make yellow stickies representing key concepts, statements, specifications, figures, applications, quotes, etc.
- Arrange and re-arrange the stickies on a large, clear desk until an outline of the written work that is needed appears.
- Write up the outline and present it to your reviewers for comment.
- Edit and revise the outline as needed.
- Working from the outline and accumulated notes and knowledge, write the first draft and present it to your reviewers for comment.
- Edit and revise the draft as needed.
- Proofread and correct your work to produce a final draft.
- Clean up your office and shred anything of potential concern.
Just having a clear process to follow can help you over the blank-page hurdle. You’re welcome to try this one out on your next writing project or modify it to suit your needs.
For help designing and producing your content marketing program, contact Matthew Wygant by calling (408) 905-7630 or by sending e-mail to matthew@wygant.net.
