Working on a client deliverable, a paper supporting the centralizing of managing content, I’ve been researching some genuine quotes from some of the content marketing and management greats to sprinkle in and reinforce the work.
If you’ve done this, you find it’s surprising how many quotes and stats are used in blog posts without attribution. Do the due diligence of tracking down the source and you are quickly disappearing down a rabbit hole, finding quotes lifted from someone, who lifted it from someone else and on and on.
And, this is how the whole “goldfish having a better attention span than people” myth started, once the quote was out everyone used it, but no-one bothered to check if it was true.
So, having been down a few rabbit holes, I thought I’d share what I have found, in case it’s useful for you. Each quote is grouped, verified and links back to the source.
Importance of a content marketing strategy
A couple of quotes that underline why strategic content marketing is important for organizations, and not just random acts of content and the occasional YouTube video, but a considered enterprise program.
…. buyers are much further down the path of making a decision before they engage with a sales rep. Companies that do not engage customers effectively online are at risk of listing opportunities before they are even aware they exist
Boston Consulting Group
Demand creation professionals who approach content delivery like storytelling establish their organizations as trusted advisors in the eyes of their audience .,, earning a buyer’s trust can be a powerful differentiator.
Ashley Paris, SiriusDecisions/Forrester – Build Trust: Use Storytelling to Nurture Demand
Consistent experiences create trust in the organization. Each interaction is part of the overall user experience with a company. If the user experience isn’t consistent across channels, users will question the organization’s credibility.
Nielson Norman Group
Focus your content
There is an increasingly popular view that we creating too much content, these two quotes suggest we need to focus and the best way to do that – ask why?
We don’t need more content; we need to do less and obsess
Ann Handley author of Everybody Writes and Content Rules.
As content marketers, getting to the “why” of our content is central. We are so trained to think in the classic “features and benefits” form of creating, that it can be hard to step back and tell the larger story. And, of course, that’s what we want to achieve with content marketing .. It should ultimately answer the question of “why” our consumers care about us.
Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer, Content Marketing Institute – How Asking “Why” Helps Us Get to Our Larger Story
Content visibility
Throughout my career, I have spoken to businesses that have seen huge value from just knowing what assets they have and making them visible to the business, reducing reproduction and licensing costs. From images of chocolate being poured, the New York skyline to strawberry cakes these businesses have seen a huge part of the ROI for the project coming from this.
However, outside of vendor claims, I found it hard to find a quote that supports this. I would love to find the industry analysts that estimate that “30% of all content is recreated because it is lost or otherwise mismanaged” but until then, this will have to do:
Industry analysts estimate that up to 30 per cent of all content is recreated because it is lost or otherwise mismanaged. Avoiding such costs, as well as unnecessary expenses such as stock or custom photo fees, licensing fines and other costs that are a direct result of poorly tracked assets, can contribute to earning returns.
Henry Stewart – Journal of Digital Asset Management
Understanding content
As marketers, we put a lot of resources, money, and effort into understanding our customers with research and implementing centralized CRMs, but how much effort do we put into understanding our content? Talk about metadata and eyes glaze over…
I call metadata a secret sauce because when it works right, it’s invisible: You don’t notice the metadata; you just notice that things work right.
Michael Adrews, Robust Metadata: The Secret Sauce of Relevance, Content Marketing Institute
Metadata helps content creators provide better connections so they can reveal related content to their audience, and it makes those connections much more precise. targeted ads for the hot new thing…
Michelle Linn, Metadata 101 for Content Marketers, Content Marketing Institute
Content governance
In all the rush and excitement of finding and keeping customers, including content governance in a content marketing strategy is often a difficult sell, but for many brands, there is a lot at risk.
Sometimes, all it takes is a rumor, a hint of impropriety or malfeasance, or a social media post gone viral, to negatively impact shareholder value and damage—or worse, destroy— corporate and brand reputations in an instant.
Keith Darcy, independent senior advisor to Deloitte & Touche LLP
The legal risks of ignoring accessibility are significant, and the benefits have also been demonstrated by leaders like Apple, Barclays, NPR, IBM, Microsoft and hundreds more. Organizations can have tremendous social impact and a healthy return on investment if they follow a roadmap that leads to equal access.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Content re-use
Content is expensive and the audience wants it their way, there is huge value in remixing content.
You don’t have to create content, day in, and day out. You just have to work on getting the content you already have in the hands of more people.
Derek Halpern, Social Triggers
Content repurposing is a great inbound marketing tactic as it’s all about connecting audience with the right content in the right places, to help drive traffic and delight customers.
Three brands that show the value of content repurposing – Econsultancy
Content publishing is every organization’s second business
The importance of content, in the buyer’s journey, elevates it to a core business function alongside the product and service. Being a content publisher is now every organization’s second business.
In order to implement a successful strategy, think like a publisher. Marketers at the organizations successfully using the new rules recognize the fact that they are now purveyors of information and they manage content as a valuable asset with the same care that a publishing company does.
David Meerman-Scott
I hope you found these useful if you have a favorite credible quote or stat, please share in the comments, or tweet me at @iantruscott.
Photo of the neon sign by Austin Chan on Unsplash
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I’m a 3xCMO, now a marketing strategy advisor and podcast host at Rockstar CMO. Although, I’m not a rock star, but a marketing leader, strategist, content marketer, columnist, speaker, industry watcher, and creator of ART (Awareness, Revenue, and Trust) for the companies I work with. But most of all, I am an enthusiastic tea drinker.
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