The top three reasons you’re in a content crisis…and what you can do about it.

1- Poor planning

Seasonal and Special Days 

Every year there are seasonal and special days like MLK Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Black History Month, etc. Pick the ones that matter to your organization and personas and plan and prepare for them ahead of time. We see this in department stores and how they change their displays and checkout aisles like clockwork…as soon as Halloween is over, the candy and ghosts disappear and Christmas wrapping paper, trees, and decoration displays show up…seemingly overnight.  

Timely Approvals 

Depending upon how many hands a piece of content has to pass through, approvals can cause delays, especially if it passes through the legal department. Have a predefined process where each party knows the expected turn-around times. 

DAM Assets  

Do you have pre-approved assets ready to go? One organization we worked with had a requirement where faces of individuals were not to be shown in their stock photography, knowing these prerequisites allows your graphics team to prepare, pre-approve, and store assets in your digital asset management system (DAM) for quick and easy selection for future campaigns. Don’t have a DAM? Let’s talk. 

2- Focused on quantity rather than quality 

Content for Content Sake 

Many organizations create content just for the sake of creating content hoping that something will stick. However, that creates an enormous burden on the content creation team and often doesn’t get the results desired. The adage “less is more” is applicable here. 

Data-backed and Strategic 

Having a data-backed, strategic approach to content creation means that you’re creating more relevant content for each of your target audiences (personas). Focusing on quality rather than quantity has a much better return on your time investment, as relevant content is shared virally and sought after.  

3- Lack of marketing automation 

Use Tech to Save Time 

As mentioned above in the planning section, there are certain things that are seasonal or happen repeatedly and with so many new technologies on the market, there are ways to automate many of them to save time which allows your content creation team to spend more time being creative.  

Predictability  

Lead nurturing, follow-up e-mails, and shifting marketing-qualified or sales-qualified leads to another process, in a marketing campaign, are just some of the things you can automate. With these, you can set markers for analysis to create predictable and consistent conversions.