Marketing Best Practices

Develop a Process to Reuse Old Content to Reduce Development Cycle Times and Improve Content Lifetime Values

Best Practice (Good)

Develop a process to repurpose old content to satisfy current and future content demands. To ease the identification of relevant previously-developed content, create a database or similar system to tag each piece of content, document its overall performance (number of page views, conversion rate, click-through rate, etc.), and locate the source materials. The use and cleanliness of this database must be enforced continuously - assigning a group of "owners" to this task can ensure that it is properly maintained over time. Prior to kicking-off a new content development project, have team members browse the database to pull out any content that can be re-used in some way during their current efforts. Partially re-prioritize items on the editorial calendar based on the amount of content that can be repurposed - certain items may now require less effort than others based on old content that is waiting in the wings to be reused.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Work with content marketing team members to develop fresh content based on the current needs of the organization. As new content projects move through the ideation process, add them to the editorial calendar, or the team's work queue, to have the items developed. Prioritize certain items in the queue based on urgency and potential bottom line impact.

---

Benefits:

Having a process in place to reuse old content not only reduces the effort spent on certain pieces of new content (i.e., don't re-invent the wheel), but also improves the lifetime value of each piece of content that is created by giving it the potential for reuse at some point in the future. This can free up valuable resources to work on truly original content, and has the potential to vastly reduce the time required to push fresh content out through various marketing channels.

Use Standardized Metrics to Measure and Improve Content Success

Best Practice (Good)

Develop standardized metrics to measure the success of each piece of content that the team produces. Success metrics may vary slightly from medium-to-medium (e.g., print marketing vs. digital marketing), however there will be significant overlap for the most vital success measures, allowing materials to be compared in a generally standardized fashion. Metrics such as referral rate, click rate, conversion rate, cost per impression and cost per lead can be used across media to assess the performance of each item. These data should be reported in a clear fashion, and used by senior marketing team members to inform future content development activities based on the success of previous efforts. Meetings should be held periodically to review the success of content marketing efforts and determine which lessons can be implemented for both current and future efforts.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Allow senior marketing members to populate the editorial calendar based simply on their current needs. Content development tasks are typically prioritized based on marketing campaign deadlines and perceived strategic value to the organization. Allow senior marketing team members to add items to the calendar in the fashion, at will.

---

Benefits:

Taking a data-driven approach to planning new content can help to ensure that any new marketing materials being developed have a relatively high chance of success (or, higher than they would have if managers simply used their "gut feelings" to plan future content development activities). Routinely collecting and reporting these data in a relatively useful format helps senior managers to understand what works and what doesn't work over the long haul, improving overall decision-making and prioritization within the content development function. Not only does this improve the effectiveness of content marketing, but it can also free valuable content developers from working on materials with a potentially low bottom line impact.

Use Keyword Tools and Periodically Train Digital Marketing Employees on SEO Trends to Better Target Customers

Best Practice (Good)

Take some time to brainstorm and use keyword tools (i.e., Google AdWords Keyword Tool, WordTracker, Moz Keyword Discovery, etc.) to identify numerous terms and phrases that relate to the key theme or themes of the organization's content. Periodically train digital marketing employees to understand the latest search engine trends (i.e., latent semantic indexing, open graph meta data, etc.) and use standardized checklists and specific metrics to measure and improve the organization's current SEO policies so as to advance the website's ranking and increase traffic and customer relevancy. Use periodic meetings and communications (includes emails, organizational newsletters, etc.) with marketing representatives and management to best integrate SEO into the organization's overall marketing and content strategy.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Choose a single keyword relevant to the content of each website landing page the organization has created and optimize the website as a whole by duplicating those keywords throughout each relevant landing page. Train digital marketing employees upon being first hired on how to properly employ SEO keywords throughout the organization's website. Ensure that the Marketing Department devotes most of its time towards SEO development in order to reach out to the highest number of potential customers as possible.

---

Benefits:

Developing a good keyword research procedure helps organizations accurately define who their market is and what they are actively looking for. This, in essence, helps organizations develop their website, determine what content needs to be created and how the content is written in order to appeal to their targeted customer base. Such a practice is especially important in today's day and age due to the release of latent semantic indexing (SLI) across all search engines which assesses the frequency of a term and its relation to other terms on the page. SLI, as a result, can increase a website's ranking, or penalize a website for intentionally duplicating words. Taking time to research what customers are searching for, therefore, not only increases relevancy to customers, but it also ensures that written content will have the customer's interest in mind instead of "black hat" SEO fodder. Periodically training digital marketing employees, furthermore, not only ensures they understand the latest search engine trends, but by using standardized checklists and specific metrics, digital marketing employees are able to measure and improve the organization's current SEO policies and increase content visibility and relevancy.

Use Social Media Platforms to Peak the Interest of Journalists and Reach Higher Numbers of Targeted Customers

Best Practice (Good)

Take advantage of social media platforms, develop relationships with industry leaders and influencers and incorporate quality visuals in the organization's messages (i.e., infographics, videos, etc.) to get the attention of journalists and media outlets to help spread the organization's message. Use traditional press releases only as a supplement, and if used, ensure that journalists and media outlets are notified of a new story or product launch 3-4 months in advance of the desired publishing date in order to ensure that a piece will be published on time. Such practices not only allow Public Relations and marketing representatives to reach a higher number of targeted customers quicker, but they also improve relationships with customers, media outlets and industry leaders by producing clear, relevant and exciting messages that can increase interest for a new product or service.

Typical Practice (Bad)

Write and distribute traditional press releases to journalists and media outlets of a new story or product launch when the event is close to taking place (1 month or less from launch). Press releases have not only been tried and tested for a long period of time, thus making them trusted tools that influence success, but by providing journalists and media outlets notification of a new story or product launch shortly before release, organizations are able to take advantage of developing interest to better promote their products and/or services.

---

Benefits:

Due to shifting industry standards, standard press releases are no longer as relevant as they once were. For instance, an organization's social media presence allows organizations to directly interact with its customer base to produce excitement over its products and services, which in turn allows journalists and media outlets to grow excited themselves over the prospect of producing a story about it. In today's day and age, traditional press releases should only be used as a supplement to other methods of interaction with journalists and media outlets. If used, however, Public Relations employees should ensure that journalists and media outlets are notified of upcoming product launches and/or programs 3-4 months in advance to both improve relations with media outlets (i.e., it takes time to develop relationships with media outlets and convince them to write a piece about the organization) and increase the chance of a piece being published on time. Organizations should otherwise take advantage of social media platforms, develop relationships with industry leaders and influencers and incorporate quality visuals in the organization's messages (i.e., infographics, videos, etc.) to the public to get the attention of journalists and media outlets to help spread the organization's message. This not only allows PR and marketing employees to reach a higher number of targeted customers quicker, but it also further improves relationships with media outlets and industry leaders by producing enough public excitement to work with. Journalists and media outlets that see the interest the organization is producing will naturally flock to the organization to help spread the message.