I really enjoyed your lecture today and had one question in particular. It seems to me that when a company chooses to build a content marketing strategy, they're now entering a market in which they might not know much about; such as writing, blogging, social media, etc. Are there companies that specialize in selling content to these businesses whose resources are already spread thin?
Hi Alex! R
egarding your question, the short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it may not be a new “market” per se that they are entering, rather they would be serving their very own market with useful information, insights, resources, etc, but in a new way, focusing on the problems and needs of their customers rather than directly offering them your product or service to resolve those problems.
Furthermore, the delivery or distribution of content marketing often involves new media that the company perhaps could be unaccustomed to and perhaps it is not the right thing for every company to become experts in managing say a YouTube channel. For this part, there definitely is a plethora of firms serving companies to help them package and distribute various bits and pieces of content pieces that is deemed relevant to the overall content marketing strategy.
Some firms also outsource the origination of relevant ideas for content marketing and this is the area in which a company risks losing its authenticity. The content could become too bland and boilerplate if it is literally created or written by someone without in-depth experience and insights about the lives of the target market. You need insights into the needs of the customers that you are aiming to serve.
A combination of the two can be the ideal when a company takes an active part of the content creation and ideation process in close collaboration with an outside partner. Once the content is created, the media part involving distribution through various channels can be outsourced more readily.
Then again, when consumers respond to different content pieces with quieries, they would expect knowledgeable answers in conversations that follow that may again require the involvement of the company behind the content marketing efforts, not its external partner unless the latter has been properly initiated and trained.
Overall, I foresee a still growing opportunity in helping companies with various functions related to content marketing and I am looking forward to seeing the emergence of your very own content marketing agency one day!
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