Our readers know we try to highlight some of our favorite reads just about every week. With the holidays upon us and the year winding to a close, we figured we’d take a look back at a year’s worth of blogging. Here are six of our own most popular content strategy and content marketing articles from 2015.
THE 5 Es of CONTENT EXCELLENCE
With content marketing in the spotlight and so many “experts” chanting more-more-more, it’s easy for any company to stumble into the routine of creating content for content’s sake. The remedy lies in grounding every piece of content in a sense of purpose. In this post from July, Amanda laid out a simple E-lliterative framework to help you do just that.
WISE CONTENT STRATEGISTS ASK ‘WHO’ 10 TIMES
Where the 5 Es are all about “why,” this post is all about “who.” Sustaining a successful content program over the long term requires a rigorous approach to content operations — workflow and governance, ownership and responsibility. In this post, we pinpoint (at least) 10 specific “who” questions your business must answer for every content program — or each content asset, for that matter.
10 CONTENT STRATEGY QUESTIONS EVERY ORGANIZATION MUST ANSWER
Ten might be a magic number, but if this post were an amplifier it would go to 11. It’s no secret that the difference between content success and failure lies in whether or not an organization has a written strategy for the use of content across the business. Unfortunately, when asked about whether a content strategy exists (let alone when asked about how well it’s being executed and whether it’s delivering the intended results) many marketers still shrug their shoulders. Shrug no more. Instead, ask yourself (or your content colleagues) these 10 questions to get a better handle on where you stand today. And answer them to get a better sense of what you need to do next.
THE CONTENT DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW
Don’t like the answers you’re getting from our 10 content strategy questions? Then maybe it’s time to visit the doctor — the content doctor that is. In this post, we ran down some of the uncomfortable but ultimately necessary reasons you should invest in content inventories and audits. In fact, as we enter the new year, this is a great time to gain a fresh, unbiased perspective on how healthy your web content is. Get in touch to learn how we can help.
IF CONTENT IS THE ANSWER, THEN WHAT’S THE QUESTION?
More questions? Yes, indeed. And another angle on the importance of finding your content’s purpose. (Hey, we’re nothing if not consistent.) This time around, we’re writing about how organizations can ensure that content serves the bigger business (or marketing) strategy and provides the right kind of impact on business results and customer value.
WHY CONTENT IS THE KEY TO SALES & MARKETING ALIGNMENT
And what if the purpose of your content is to drive customer action — but your marketers aren’t quite sure what customers want and the sales team doesn’t know what to do with your content? That’s the question we answer in this post about what, for many companies, might be the greatest gift content can offer: a way to align the sales and marketing team around a common goal and a shared approach to creating customer (and company) value.
Did we leave out your favorite? Drop us a line and let us know which posts delivered the most value for you this year. Otherwise, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and see you in 2016.
