Are you struggling with content promotion vs creation? You’re not alone. In this week’s episode of Predictable B2B Success, our guest, James Tennant, uncovers the secrets to achieving remarkable content marketing results. Tune in as James shares his expertise in concept marketing for global businesses and reveals his proven strategies for getting your content seen by your target audience. With a clear focus on research, determining audience preferences, and active promotion, you’ll learn how to create valuable content that drives engagement and aligns with your business goals.

James also discusses the challenges of accurately attributing the impact of marketing activities and highlights the power of collaborative content in expanding reach. Discover how to prioritize content promotion from the start, leverage the right tools, and repurpose your content to maximize impact. Don’t miss this insightful episode that will transform your content marketing efforts.

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About James Tennant

James Tennant is a concept marketer who has worked with numerous businesses globally. Throughout the years, he discovered that many businesses struggled not with content creation but with getting people to engage with and view their content. This issue became more apparent as more businesses sought his help in promoting their content after it was published.

Additionally, he observed complaints and questions from individuals on social media regarding the lack of content promotion. Recognizing this gap, James conceived the idea for Converge, a tool designed to supplement or replace existing content promotion strategies. Converge aims to assist businesses, and content marketers consistently and effectively promote their content to ensure it reaches a wider audience.

Maximizing Content Marketing Results

In a world where content creation is abundant, businesses often struggle to ensure their content reaches and engages their target audience. In this episode of the Predictable B2B Success podcast, host Vinay Koshy sits down with James Tennant, an expert in content marketing for global businesses. 

Tennant shares valuable insights on improving content marketing results by dealing with the content promotion vs creation balance and offers practical strategies to overcome common challenges businesses face today. From effective content promotion to collaborative content creation and leveraging tools, this episode is a goldmine of information for those looking to maximize their content marketing efforts.

1. Conducting Valuable Research:

To create content that resonates with your audience, Tennant emphasizes the importance of thorough research. Understanding your audience’s pain points, interests, and preferences will enable you to deliver valuable content that addresses their needs. Businesses can gather valuable insights that inform content strategies and improve engagement rates by conducting in-depth research, including surveys, interviews, and competitor analysis.

2. Targeted Content Promotion:

Creating great content is just the first step; it’s equally important to promote it effectively. Tennant suggests determining where your audience hangs out and identifying their preferred content format for optimal sharing and engagement. Whether it’s social media platforms, industry-specific forums, or email newsletters, targeting the right channels with engaging content will increase its visibility and reach.

3. Establishing Alignment and Goals with Stakeholders:

To maximize the impact of content marketing, alignment and collaboration between marketing, content, and sales teams are crucial. Tennant highlights the significance of establishing common goals with stakeholders to ensure everyone is aligned on the desired outcomes. Communicating with stakeholders helps determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that should be tracked to measure content marketing efforts’ success accurately.

4. Overcoming Challenges in Attribution:

Accurately attributing the impact of marketing activities, especially in B2B and content marketing, can be challenging. The customer journey is typically non-linear and involves multiple touchpoints over an extended period, making it difficult to attribute a specific piece of content as the sole driver of a customer conversion. However, Tennant emphasizes that valuable and well-promoted content can contribute significantly to a business’s bottom line and return on investment, even if direct attribution is challenging.

5. The Power of Collaborative Content:

Collaborative content creation involves working with other people or brands to enhance the quality and value of the content. Tennant highlights the benefits of collaborative content, including increased credibility, access to a larger and more relevant audience, and shared promotional efforts from all contributors. By leveraging the expertise and networks of others, businesses can amplify their content’s reach and impact.

6. Making Content Promotion a Priority:

Tennant notes that businesses often struggle with content promotion due to a perceived lack of time. However, he argues that this issue stems from a need for more priority rather than actual time constraints. Content promotion should be integrated into the content strategy from the beginning and given the same importance as content creation. Tennant suggests focusing more on promoting existing content rather than constantly creating new content, as valueless without sufficient promotion.

7. Leveraging Different Content Formats:

Different content formats have varying impacts on audience engagement. According to Tennant, news content is typically time-sensitive and has a shorter shelf life compared to advice and opinion-based content. Audiences are more interested in advice and opinion content, as it offers solutions to their problems and provides a fresh perspective. Furthermore, leveraging different content formats, such as images and videos alongside written content, enhances the overall user experience and attracts a wider audience.

8. Tracking and Measuring Content Effectiveness:

Tracking the effectiveness of content is crucial to understanding its impact over time. Tennant advises businesses to measure not only the impact but also the cost of content production. While gut instincts play a role in evaluating content, tracking, and analytics provide essential insights into views, engagement, and ROI. Businesses can focus their efforts on creating and promoting valuable content by being ruthless and dropping content that doesn’t resonate with the audience.

9. Streamlining Content Promotion with Tools:

Tennant introduces a platform called Converge as a solution to streamline and automate content promotion efforts. By partnering with aggregation and syndication platforms such as Google News, Bing, and Yahoo, Converge syndicates published content to these platforms, expanding its reach and visibility. Additionally, manual promotion on social media channels and targeted outreach to sources of influence further enhance content promotion efforts.

Content Promotion vs Creation: How to Improve Content Marketing Results With Insights from James Tennant

Let’s delve into actionable takeaways you can implement to improve your content marketing efforts.

1. Conduct In-Depth Research:

One of the first steps highlighted by James Tennant is the importance of conducting thorough research before creating any content. By understanding your target audience’s needs, pain points, and interests, you can ensure that your content adds value and resonates with them. This research can involve surveys, customer interviews, and data analysis to gain actionable insights that drive your content creation process.

Takeaway: Research your target audience to understand their preferences and needs. Tailor your content to provide valuable solutions and insights that address their pain points.

2. Determine Preferred Content Format and Distribution Channels:

To effectively engage your audience, it is crucial to determine where they hang out and their preferred content format. This knowledge allows you to select the proper distribution channels and tailor your content to maximize reach and engagement. Whether blog posts, videos, podcasts, or social media posts, understanding your audience’s content format preferences helps you deliver content that resonates with them.

Takeaway: Research your target audience’s preferred content formats and leverage the appropriate distribution channels to ensure your content reaches them effectively.

3. Actively Promote Your Content:

Promotion plays a vital role in overcoming diminishing organic reach. Whether through free options like social media and email newsletters or paid promotion, actively promoting your content is essential to reaching your audience. Develop a comprehensive promotion strategy that engages various channels and amplifies your content’s visibility across different platforms.

Takeaway: Incorporate content promotion into your overall strategy, allocating time and resources to promote your content and increase its visibility.

4. Establish Alignment with Stakeholders:

To drive success in content marketing, aligning marketing, content, and sales teams is crucial. Sit with stakeholders to establish common goals, develop a cohesive strategy, and ensure effective team communication. By aligning these departments, you can create a unified approach that maximizes the impact of your content marketing efforts.

Takeaway: Communicate with stakeholders and create alignment between marketing, content, and sales teams to set common goals and foster collaboration.

5. Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Metrics:

Establishing meaningful KPIs and metrics is essential for measuring the success of your content marketing efforts. While the attribution of impact in B2B and content marketing can be challenging, tracking key metrics such as website traffic, engagement, lead generation, and customer conversions provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your content strategies.

Takeaway: Work with stakeholders to identify relevant KPIs and metrics that align with your business objectives. Regularly track and analyze these metrics to evaluate the impact of your content marketing efforts.

6. Collaborate for Enhanced Content:

Collaborative content creation involves working with other people or brands to produce higher quality and more valuable content. Partnering with influencers or industry experts can expand your audience reach and add credibility to your content. Collaborative content benefits from the promotional efforts of all contributors involved, leading to increased visibility and engagement.

Takeaway: Explore opportunities for collaborative content creation to leverage the expertise and networks of influential partners, expanding your reach and enhancing the value of your content.

7. Prioritize Content Promotion:

Content promotion is a common challenge for businesses, often due to perceived time constraints. However, James Tennant emphasizes that the real issue lies in not prioritizing content promotion rather than a genuine lack of time. Prioritize content promotion from the beginning, treating it equally important as content creation. Focus on promoting existing content rather than creating new content to maximize its value.

Takeaway: Integrate content promotion into your overall content marketing strategy, prioritizing it alongside content creation. Allocate time and resources to ensure your content reaches its intended audience.

8. Leverage the Power of Video:

Video is becoming an increasingly powerful medium for content consumption. While written content remains essential, incorporating video into your content strategy can enhance the user experience and cater to the preferences of your target audience. Consider repurposing existing content, such as blog posts or podcasts, into videos or embedding videos within written content to provide a cohesive visual experience.

Takeaway: Research your target audience’s preferences and experiment with video content to leverage its growing popularity. Consider using video alongside written content for a more immersive and engaging experience.

9. Track and Evaluate Content Performance:

Tracking the effectiveness of your content is crucial to determine its impact and make informed decisions. Utilize tracking tools, feedback from your audience, and analytics to evaluate the performance of your content. While gut instincts play a role, relying on data-driven insights allows you to make data-backed decisions and iterate your content strategies for better results.

Takeaway: Establish a tracking and analysis system to measure the impact of your content. Leverage data and analytics to make informed decisions and continuously improve your content marketing efforts.

Content promotion vs creation balance:

The episode with James Tennant offers valuable insights into how businesses can improve their content marketing results. You can achieve greater reach and engagement by conducting in-depth research, promoting content actively, collaborating for enhanced content, and prioritizing content promotion. Additionally, integrating video and tracking content performance allows you to tailor your strategies for maximum impact. Implementing these actionable takeaways will help you overcome common challenges and pave the way for predictable revenue growth in your content marketing endeavors.

Some areas we explore in this episode include:

• Importance of conducting research to create valuable content
• Identifying the preferred content format and platforms for target audience engagement
• Strategies for actively promoting content to overcome diminishing organic reach
• Establishing common goals and aligning marketing, content, and sales teams
• Challenges in accurately attributing the impact of B2B and content marketing activities
• The role of collaborative content in improving quality and reaching a larger audience
• The issue of businesses not prioritizing content promotion
• Differentiating between time-sensitive news content and evergreen advice/opinion content
• Tools and platforms like Converge for streamlining and automating content promotion
• The impact of images and videos in enhancing written content and user experience
• And much, much more.

Listen to the episode

Related links and resources

Connect with James Tennant

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