Be Your Own Publisher via Content Marketing

It was just under 30 years ago that there were a handful of main network channels, cable was an infant with a burgeoning 24-hour news channel and there were many print publications and community newspapers. In this environment, businesses relied on others to publish or broadcast their faxed or mailed news releases.

Now obviously the communications landscape is much broader, more complex, and many of those old channels and methods for information distribution are gone or are continuing to morph and/or barely stay afloat in the digital age. And with the extra content out there across a multitude of channels and social media — attention spans are shorter.

But there is good news: you can in many ways be in more control of getting your story delivered, shared and targeted to the right decision makers. Truly you can be your own publisher or TV channel so to speak. The shorthand ‘term’ for this is content marketing.

If you are your own town crier, the information needs to be accessible, relevant and interactive. Let’s say your company offers financial advising free for six months–unlike any of your competitors. How do you get this message across–to the right people who are in the market for financial consulting? You may want to target people with a higher net worth since these people typically access information via mobile devices, LinkedIn, Twitter and possibly even webcasts, how-to videos or digital events. Thus, you need to  optimize information targeting this demographic on your web site and via digital advertising.

A testimonial of clients who have reaped benefits from your financial savvy could also be a part of your message or story to publish. People who are square in your target market will want to learn from others who learned and earned from your expertise.

Also you should have a public relations strategy that dovetails with your content marketing outlined above. A hook of six months of free, valuable consulting can be newsworthy–via a release and all the channels mentioned previously. Through most of these content marketing methods highlighted above, you are in much more control of your message than you could have been only a few years ago.