I’ve been doing a lot of focusing on personal branding, content marketing, and using the two to generate opportunities for you.
One of the pieces of feedback that I receive over and over is that my content marketing strategy is highly effective.
That’s nice to hear, but I find that it isn’t actually accurate without some context to “highly effective.”
So let me put some meat on the bones of this idea so that you can understand whether or not my content marketing strategy is highly effective and maybe it will help you understand how to use your content more effectively to drive opportunities.
First, you need to understand your goals.
For me, I look at a couple of big silos for my prospecting: writing, speaking, networking, and referrals.
To this point, referrals and networking lead to the most direct business.
What has fed my success generating business from networking, content…which has been delivered in speaking or writing.
So I know that my ability to be successful is driven by the number of opportunities I create from these forms.
Knowing that, I can say for sure that most of my content isn’t direct opportunity creation. It is actually used to open the door to the conversation.
Second, you have to be unique:
Too much content is “me too.”
That’s unlikely to lead to opportunities.
For a content strategy to be effective, you need to be unique.
Alan Weiss talks about how his original brand was “the contrarian.”
This means that he set out to find the opposite side of conventional wisdom.
In today’s business world, that’s sadly missing in a lot of situations.
In most instances, it is almost a race to say the same thing…only differently.
In looking at any content creation you are going to do, think about what you can add that is new, what can you say that will spur discussion.
Third, be consistent:
I’ve found that there is no magic piece of content that will generate all the results you need.
That’s not how it works.
You have to be consistent in creating, delivering, and sharing your content far and wide.
Set yourself a goal and work towards it.
I’ve set my goal as blogging here, every day.
That’s one way.
But your goals should dictate how much content you produce and where you place it.
With those things out of the way, let’s look at my own strategy now:
How can we judge my content strategy as successful or unsuccessful in the context of the above ideas.
First, has content allowed me to do more speaking?
That’s a yes.
I’ve spoke or am in the process of delivering 6 talks already this year and that’s only through the first quarter.
That’s pretty definitive that in this context, content strategy has helped.
Second, has content allowed me to generate business?
Yes.
I’ve generated 2 new clients in the past month because of my content strategy and the thought leadership I offer.
Second, I’ve created a number of new opportunities that I can attribute directly to my content marketing. Because people have read my work in Troy Kirby’s newsletter, on TicketNews, on PMI, or somewhere else.
So, again, pretty much a definitive yes.
Third, has my brand grown?
This would again qualify as a success.
I’ve got the opportunity to speak around the globe over the last few years through speeches, webinars, and other formats.
This is all built on the path of my content strategy delivering ideas that people find value from.
So, again, successful.
Finally, am I an object of attention?
That’s again a yes.
If you combine all of the things above, you will see that this answer is no doubt about it, yes.
How so?
Because when I go to conferences, people want to meet me. Conferences ask me to speak. I can place articles pretty easily. People recognize me for my ideas.
All in all, that’s success.
Back to the start of the post, is my content strategy “successful.”
Yes.
But does that mean I am going to stop pushing for more, no.
Does this help?