There’s a mistake everyone makes with "content marketing."

Somewhere along the way we started creating content because it was on a to-do list and forgot to make it profitable.

OR, we never reached agreement with our internal team that the purpose of content is to drive revenue (sound familiar?).

Brand-building initiatives and revenue-driving initiatives aren't separate things. If done right, they should be informing and aiding each other.

How?

1. Evaluate your campaign team and investment structures

I get that this is easy to say and tougher to create consensus around. It's not healthy for brand teams to be held to immediate ROI-positivity standards, and it's imperative that revenue drivers... drive revenue... like, today.

Because of this, we've created differentiated team structures and talking points, but in doing so, we've forgotten that the KPIs we're addressing in this set-up are short-term at best.

They serve the initial means of getting a campaign out the door and, if we're lucky, including fewer people in the planning meeting, but we've forgotten the audience's perspective. They're seeing everything that's out there. 

We're also up against the new challenge of resetting our expectations around the value of a lead. As first-party data acquisition becomes first priority, it'll be imperative that revenue-drivers care more about how many email addresses and first-hand information are being acquired.

Sit down with your internal teams and look at how you're building investment strategies internally so that all objectives are served.

Every touchpoint is important in the journey to brand recognition and revenue growth, which is where blending is important.

It's likely that you can fund that upper-funnel brand campaign if you work with the direct-response team that has more budget. And for revenue drivers, it's likely that the content team can hit it out of the park in boosting your organic search results and email list so you can use it for broader means.

You just need to be thinking about how it all comes together.

2. Get super focused in the point of your content creation.

Not trying to make enemies here, but saying that the results of your content creation can't be tracked is not a thing. It doesn't matter what your goal is -- brand efforts can and should be measured. If your perspective is that they can't, you haven't spent enough time thinking about the lifetime journey of the audience you're trying to tap.

When you're thinking about content creation, think three things: 1) Your offer. 2) Your audience. 3) Your unique value.

Your content should always be driving audiences to do something after they've consumed it. That doesn't mean you have to ask them for money each time or that you have to shove a call to action down anyone's throat, but you need to be clear on what your end goal is. 

If you know that the brand touchpoint you're putting out there is meant to aid the flow of eventual revenue, you'll be best equipped to create long-term content streams that meet that audience throughout the years they're on-file instead of being abandoned after they see what you've put out there. 

Up until this point, I've been speaking to high-level brand touchpoints like ad campaigns, but this is true for in-the-weeds asks, too. Even if you're trying to get a niche pool of your audience to attend an event or take a specific action, there is always an after. What is it? Build your investment and content pipelines with that in mind.

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When you're ready, here's how I can help you with your content monetization journey:

>> Book 1:1 help to formulate your action plan or discuss a strategic objective.

>> Contact me about ongoing support with content development, lead valuation, investment planning, and more.