Inbound marketing works for material handling and industrial for several different reasons but the three main ones are…
- There is a sales consideration period
- The sales price is worth much more than the investment for inbound
- You can demonstrate that you are a Thought Leader in your content creation
The first two reasons are immutable facts about the industry. However, the last one can be a bit tricky. It requires work, because unfortunately content does not create itself.
Sure you want fantastic content, but wanting great content is not enough.People prioritize tasks to do first that are urgent and important. Priorities, like getting out quotes, going to trade shows and everything else you have to do we let content creation fall by the wayside.
Content creation is important, but it is not necessarily urgent, so how do we make it urgent?
An excellent way to make it urgent is to create a publishing timeline. Knowing that you are going to publish something every day, week or month helps to develop a sense of urgency.
However, it only makes it falsely urgent. Once you skip the first publishing time, it is easier to skip it the next time, then you have a blog that hasn’t been updated this quarter. An abandoned blog is a bad look.
Another way to get regular content for your inbound marketing is to hire an outside source. Since your freelancer’s expert’s raison d’etre is the content creation for them, it is both important, and urgent.
If you have already seen the light of inbound, but want some help in the content creation side here is my suggestion for working with freelancers or outside agencies.
- Look closely at outside agencies. A lot of people say they do content creation, but remember you want content creation that is a PART of the inbound strategy. Content creation is not a strategy; it is a tactic. Talk to your prospective partners about the difference.
- Does the agency have their own content creation? Hiring someone with an abandoned or non-existent blog might not be the best strategy.
- Talk to the agency about what you want to accomplish: What are your goals? How can they help you meet those goals?
- People: We have often said that B2B is a misnomer. It is people working with people. Can you work with the people at the agency?
With consistent content creation in place, your inbound efforts should yield more consistent results.
If you want some help with your content creation calendar for inbound marketing, feel free to download our guide.