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Simple and So Easy to Forget – 7 Things a Content Marketer Needs to Remember

The “big stuff” of content marketing is usually handled quite well if the marketer is well qualified and really enthusiastic about his/her job. Such a marketer always makes sure that the content is fresh, entertaining, educational or inspiring; ensures that content is published or at least advertised on social media, makes sure that the blog is maintained with regularly scheduled posts; and comes up with great ideas for surveys, contests, and such that will bring traffic. It’s a busy job, of course, and like all busy people, marketers can forget some of the small things that are still important.

Here are 7 commonly forgotten small tasks:

1. Forgetting to set up an advance schedule for posts, especially on Facebook and Twitter. Posts, especially on Twitter, should be published more than once day, in order to catch all potential audiences when they are likely to be on Twitter. This can be set up through WordPress and will be done automatically. This takes little effort on the marketers but is important to overall “coverage.”
2. Forgetting to add people to the business email or newsletter list. This is so easy to overlook and if there is not an assistant whose job it is to do this every day, it can be forgotten. There are sometimes multiple sources of “registrations” and one or more can be forgotten. Suppose you speak at a gathering and offer a newsletter subscription. You pass around an actual piece or have them add their information to a document on your desktop. You forget the document is there or, in the case or hard copy, stuff it in your brief case and don’t think about it again.
3. Forgetting to check the blog and Facebook every day for any comments, issues or questions. You want to do this daily, so that commenters get responses as quickly as possible, if only to reinforce what they have said. This really builds relationships and is so important.
4. Not promoting your blog on your website and in your newsletter. It’s easy to forget when you are promoting it on social media that you have other contact methods with people. There should always be a “promotion” for the blog in each newsletter that is sent out, and promotion for the blog on the site should be more than just a link to it at the top of the Page. Be sure to put some of the most interesting titles on your landing page to entice visitors to go and read. The longer they stay and the more they read, the more comfortable they get with you and the company.
5. Not reaching out to customers you have not heard from in a while. Look through your database, look through comments and conversations. If someone is “missing in action,” be sure to contact them just to say hello and ask how they are doing and if there is anything “we” can do for you. This is really huge for that customer. Another important contact is following a purchase. Even if it is automated, be sure that the customer is given a method of providing feedback.
6. Not saying “thank you.” When a customer makes a purchase, refers someone to you or makes a nice comment on a post you published, the marketing staff’s job is not over. That customer should be personally provided a “thank you,” again, even if it is automated. The customer wants to feel valued and appreciated, and this is a key method of doing that.
7. Forgetting to publish consistently. If you have set up a schedule of daily postings, people expect and look for the next thing. When it does not appear, that customer is a bit frustrated. And if there is too much of a time lag, the customer leaves and goes elsewhere. Once that happens, it’s hard to get that follower back.

Bonus Item

A good marketer is always on the lookout for two things:

1. What is the competition doing and what are the conversations going on “over there?”
2. What new content and information are being shared on blogs that relate to his/her company niche?

Not staying on top of trends and customer questions or requests, even on a competitor’s site, means that you lose a chance to connect with that individual with content of your own.

Content promotion and marketing is a difficult job. Visitors, followers and even customers are so fickle. They will switch for a discount or a lower price unless your company has really taken the time to build relationships that will result in loyalty. And building that loyalty is the function of the content marketer.