Checking in on Content Marketing Resolutions

March 14, 2011

Q1 2011 is Nearly Over – How are your Content Marketing Resolutions Progressing?

Last year I shared my top 10 content marketing resolutions for the new year. I thought it would be an interesting update to share how I have incorporated these 10 resolutions into my day to day activities to support OpenView’s content marketing and content development efforts.

  1. I will focus on improving our content development efforts to increase customer engagement: Customer engagement boils down to the level of value your customers and prospects find in your content development efforts. A few metrics to keep in mind to measure engagement are # of page views and # of RTs (Read “Don’t Waste your Time and Money on Content Marketing” for more metrics).
  2. I will focus on creating content that solves my target persona’s pain points: Targeted content is essential for developing and maintaining customer engagement. The most targeted content always, always, always relates to your audience’s pain points. Think, “what keeps my prospects up at night?” And focus on developing blog posts, ebooks, articles, videos, etc. that answer that tough question.
  3. I will only create content that provides true value: At OpenView we strive to add value with every piece of content we create. We do this by always focusing on (you guessed it) our target audience. Other B2B and B2C companies alike should focus on adding value rather than just adding to the clutter of content.
  4. I will report metrics to show the success of our content marketing program: Reporting is an important step to any content marketing strategy. Every week, the OpenView marketing team catches up to analyze a bevy of statistics related to our three sites and content marketing program as a whole.
  5. I will look for ways to optimize our content development efforts: Optimization can mean a few different things – SEO, cost optimization, time optimization. To figure out what aspect of your strategy needs some optimization, be sure to report on your content marketing efforts on a weekly basis.
  6. I will try new strategies and tactics: Keep an open mind! Read blogs and other resources to learn new things. Connect and share ideas with other team members to help push the envelope even more. At OpenView we do this idea sharing in a weekly meeting. Sometimes, we are trapped by our daily or weekly routines, so as the rest of the year progresses I intend to focus on trying more new strategies.
  7. I will learn from failed efforts: Unfortunately mistakes happen. The key is to learn from the mistakes. My team and I try to always look for ways to improve from our mistakes. A great example of our process here is our focus on documenting marketing checklists to help streamline and minimize errors.
  8. I won’t let failed efforts keep me from looking for the right answer: I already mentioned that my team and I sometimes fall into the trap of the routine. I think we can continue pushing ourselves even harder to get out of the routine and try new things.
  9. I will be laser focused on our content marketing goals: It is critical to always keep content marketing goals as top of mind. After all, that is ultimately why you have invested in content marketing! During our weekly meetings, we update one another on our progress against the goals.
  10. I will continue to develop best practice processes around content marketing for our portfolio companies: The ultimate mission for OpenView Labs is to collect and disseminate best practices for our portfolio companies and my team and I work towards living that mission every day. We do this by creating content and sharing it with our audience on our blog site and Labs site.

How are you progressing against your resolutions?

Content Marketing Director

<strong>Amanda Maksymiw</strong> worked at OpenView from 2008 until 2012, where she focused on developing marketing and PR strategies for both OpenView and its portfolio companies. Today she is the Content Marketing Director at <a href="https://www.fuze.com/">Fuze</a>.