7 Reasons Why Your Small Business Must Have A Content Management Strategy

Marketing guru Seth Godin has said 'Content marketing is the only marketing left.' New technologies mean traditional mass media is fast being overtaken by brands as publishers of content. It's easy to publish content online, but much more challenging to achieve tangible business results (like sales!) Why?

As a business coach, I see a common marketing mistake that many small businesses make - they mistake participating in social media for actually having a content management strategy. Here's seven reasons why small business owners need to start with the strategy rather than the social media networks...

1. Activity (or busyness) in social media domains does not equate to goal achievement. It's expensive to create content (time and/or money) - if your content distribution strategy isn't clear you're shooting blindly and wasting valuable resources. 2. Publishing is now marketing and marketing is now publishing. Your influence stems from your value. Your value stems from your content and your relationships. 3. Until you answer the why... e.g. What are the informational needs of my customers? What pain points can my brand address? What brand story are we telling?... your strategy will be incoherent and won't deliver results. Relevance is key. Listening is core to success. 4. Google already pushes Twitter updates through their organic search results and in February 2010 it was announced that Facebook Fan Page content is next - what keywords, key messages and topics will you be found for? The rules for being found by organic search are changing quickly! 5. Without a clear and relevant content marketing strategy, you'll attract followers who are irrelevant to your business - there's no point having 50,000 followers if they aren't in your target audience. How do you feed your 'ideal client' into your traffic generation strategy? With content your ideal client needs! 6. Productivity - without a clear strategy, there will be no clarity about how all the pieces of your social media marketing connect together... which means it's impossible to manage the distribution and flow of content in a meaningful way for your prospects and partners. 7. The answer to every question you have about online marketing of your business will come back to 'it depends... on your content marketing strategy.' Without one, your ship is rudderless.

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