Over the last 5 years, content marketing has become widely accepted as a business strategy. If a company kicks off a content marketing strategy or develops an Inbound Marketing GamePlan today, it is seen as a step to keep up, not a step to get ahead.
In a world faced with more and more content every day we have a new challenge as marketing agencies. How do we create amazing content with our clients that can ignite?
Today we speak to the man who has spent the last two years searching for an answer to that question. Mark Schaefer is the CEO of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, blogger at Businesses {grow}, the author of several best selling books, professor at Rutgers University, and a globally sought after speaker.
To Mark, our digital presence is just an extension of who we are, not something to be intimidated about. Just like in real life, people still buy from people. They buy from people they know and trust.
If you’re a business owner or salesperson trying to connect with people in this space, approach things with an attitude that expresses love and respect. It is a natural way to connect with people.
How Does Mark Help His Clients Succeed
Simply put, Mark helps clients that have a problem. In some situations they had a strategy, but it isn’t working. In others they thought they had a strategy, but they really didn’t. He employs a mix of training, workshops, individual coaching, and marketing strategy development to help find solutions to these problems.
As Mark puts it, marketing strategy comes down helps clarity. Companies need to figure out maneuverability. They need to decide how they’re going to maneuver through the situations and markets they’re companies are facing.
Building the Team for the Problem
For Mark, every client is a new adventure. For that reason he doesn’t employ a single full-time employee. This frees him to operate with next to no overhead, allowing him to deliver the best possible strategy for a reasonable price.
Strategic partnerships are key to delivering value to clients. On his internal team, Mark partners with a wide array of people to bring the best talent to the table. Since each client is facing a different challenge, Mark can make sure he assembles just the right team for the job.
It also extends to the agencies that his clients have partnered with for execution.
The Problem that Everyone in Marketing is Fighting Right Now
The world is becoming so noisy. There is so much competition to get our content to rise above all the noise.
This is the natural result of progress. If you were one of the first businesses to have a website, you had an advantage. If you were one of the first businesses to implement SEO, you had an advantage. If you were an early adopter of inbound and content marketing, you had an advantage.
Now the game has changed. Channels are more crowded than even. Breaking through this noise to have your content ignite is a marketer’s new challenge.
Our challenge as agencies is even more complex: How do we help our clients create amazing content and help that content ignite?
Mark tackles this challenge in his new book The Content Code.
What is the next era in digital marketing that we need to focus on and we need to become experts in? Content ignition is the only things that delivers economic value. That is the driver of digital business today!
When it comes to content ignition, we as marketers need to be asking these questions:
- How do we get our content to move?
- Who moves content on the web?
- Why do they move it?
- Where do they move it?
- How do they move it?
- The million dollar question: What can we do in our business to connect with those people and help them?
Inside The Content Code, Mark lays out 6 strategies that will help you build a plan to take advantage of these market shifts.
It is a great read, really worth your time!
Get in Touch with Mark:
- Get everything at Businessesgrow.com
