A content marketing campaign needs a content marketing expert or experts to plan and implement. Searching for such people is not easy. You need to prepare yourself for sifting through a large number of applicants that offer a variety of skills. Just like any hiring process, every applicant will have their strong points. Do not hire someone who is just strong in one area, because with such a large pool of individuals, you should not have to settle for second best. With a patient search you can get an employee with combination of the skills you are looking for, but you will need to be patient and attentive in that search. (Image credit: Flickr)
For a content marketing campaign, ideally, you’ll find someone who knows how to work fast (cheap), boost sales and tell a story that will engage readers. Obtaining all of these skills effectively is no easy task, but to have a successful contain marketing you will need an individual that is strong in all of these areas. You should toss aside a lot of applicants that are strong in one area then weak in the next, and keep the applicants that are strongest in the areas that you value.
Engagement with a Content Marketing Campaign
To give you an idea of how rare skilled content marketers are, we can look to 1% principle. This principle states that only 1% of people are regular contributors of content to online communities. The rest of 99% spend their time just consuming information on the internet. This means very few have spent time actually creating content suited for an online platform whether it be for free or through work.
The bad news about this is only a very small percentage of the online world knows how to effectively post useful content that people actually will read. The good news is there is very little useful content out there for you to compete with, because a majority of content out there is posted by people who do it for free. Unfortunately, people who have time to post on the internet all day do not offer a great deal of insight. There are of course lots of exceptions to this rule, only 1.7 percent of Wikipedia users actually create content.
Content Marketing Campaign Opportunities
The small amount of contribution has made for a wonderful window for business to reach out to customers by providing information. Marketing is changing due to internet, and we can’t always reach our customers in traditional ways without risking being left in the dust by competition. By providing customers with information you are truly reaching out to customers, and providing this information in an effective way it will lead to sale conversions.
A content marketing campaign offering people information they can utilize to making a purchasing decision now, in the future or sadly sometimes never, is an invaluable marketing strategy in the information age. The higher quality of your content marketing campaign, the more leads will be generated. Because ultimately is not just informing your audience, it is about sales conversions.
Who is the Right Person to Launch your Content Marketing Campaign
If you take away anything from this article we want you to know two things. One important thing to remember is that not just anyone can work effectively as a content marketer. Expecting you or an employee to take on your content marketing campaign in addition to other duties will not always get you the results you are looking for.
Luckily for you, the second thing we want you take away alleviates the pressure hire someone new. There is no shortage of choices of content marketing professionals to choose from. Try posting a content marketing job any board online, you will be showered with tons of applicants with a variety of background. There is a extremely large pool to choose from, so you do not have to settle for second rate nor should you.
There isn’t one set trick to finding someone who will work well for you while staying in your business’ marketing budget, but here are five things to look for when searching through applicants.
1) The Portfolio. Check out the writing quality of your applicant. Don’t just check one article, but a couple to get a sense if they consistently produce quality work. If they do not have a portfolio to offer you, move on.
2) How will they help you? Ask them to give a comprehensive plan as to how they will help you advance your business. From their plan, you can get a sense of what they do or don’t know.
3) References. Learning about someone’s reputation is an old tactic for interviewing, but still relevant in the online world. Ask them for emails or even phone numbers of clients they have worked for recently.
4) Interview to find out if they stay consistently in contact. Ask them over the course of a couple of days or weeks different questions. The longer time you spend interviewing applicants, the more you can weed out people who will randomly be out of touch. Everyone hates when they find an employee who banishes leaving you with a pile of work to do.
5) Dialect. Target applicants whose written word will match up to what your audience is used to. Choosing an American writer to reach out to your U.K. audience would be a confusing and messy mistake.
What challenges have you encountered with your content marketing campaign engaging your audience?