Cut the The Content Fire Drill: Stop Reacting and Start Planning Your Marketing Wins

I can’t tell you how many companies come to me with last-minute content needs. I’m guessing this happens because their marketing and sales departments took a quick glance at their current content library, realized that much of it was old and even irrelevant, and then quickly mobilized to get it refreshed and up to date.

New business lines, products, services and customer segments—each of which usually require certain tweaks and promotional language that help subtly “spread the word” via content—can also send marketing departments into a content tailspin.

Company updates, product launches and market trends deserve space on a content marketing calendar, yet many organizations are sticking with a piecemeal content production approach. This may work for last-minute things—an article on how to manage tariffs, deal with the business challenges of the day, etc.—but there’s a better way to handle this.

The bottom line is that evergreen pieces can and should be planned out in advance. New product and service launches, and the content that supports them, can also be planned out on longer timelines (since they don’t generally just “happen overnight).

We all know that the reactionary approach doesn’t work well in today’s business world, where the C-suite expects results and accountability from all marketing investments and channels—content included. Current events and news-oriented pieces will have to be slotted in, but the core focus should be on developing and publishing evergreen content that prospects and customers can engage with and respond to.

For best results, plan out your marketing content for the upcoming month, quarter and/or year, depending on how far out you want to think. Include the various types of content you want to present—blogs, social posts, white papers, guides, videos, ebooks, executive bylined articles in trade media outlets, etc.—and then match those formats up with topics that your audience is hungry for.

If you’re at a loss for topics just ask your sales and/or customer service teams for help. These are the folks who are out on the front lines with clients every day, so they know the challenges customers are facing better than anyone. These conversations don’t even have to be planned or formal: simply ask your sales or customer service reps what’s keeping clients up at night.

By developing a quarterly or annual content marketing calendar and sticking to it, you can add more accountability and consistency to your strategies; ensure they’re in sync with other marketing strategies; and align them with your company’s broader sales, advertising and marketing mission.

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