As a content marketer your goal is to provide relevant content on a regular basis, and then get the largest possible audience to read it. But content is a daunting challenge in all respects – whether it is putting the first word to paper or having too much content and not knowing what to do with it. And, even once you have figured this part out, the next challenge is getting enough of the right people to read it.
One important strategy is to find content partners that can help. Seeking out the right content partners can be tricky, but here is an initial question you should ask yourself:
Is there a moment or trigger event in someones life that causes people to purchase your product or service and do other organizations have a comparable service that creates a need on a similar trigger?
If the answer is yes, then there is a potentially untapped content marketing opportunity for you out there.
For example, some products and services may be related to going back to school, while others may be related to graduating college and moving into your first apartment, getting married, etc. For businesses the moment may be the need for a new CRM system or a new billing system, a seasonal service like tax preparation, insurance purchasing, etc. There are a range of products and services that can share the same triggering event. And by looking at your business this way, you can find excellent content partners.
So how do we get started?
Step 1: Discovery – Find the companies that have mutual interests and target similar markets.
For example, we have been pitching to a great company that has a unique solution for people who are moving into cities. There are plenty of other companies that help people make this same transition (e.g., Realtor.com or Ikea), and some of them may be very complmentary partners. This is especially true if these companies have a large number of existing followers.
A content share program would help each organization have more relevant content to support their audience, and would generate cross referrals.
Step 2: Connection – To help gain attention start leveraging content from some potential partners in your blog or newsletter. If you can demonstrate click traction, then you can easily demonstrate the cross value. Be prepared to share your content strategy with content partners, so that your organizations can coordinate content appropriately
Step 3: Engage – Once you have these partnerships, it would be mutually beneficial for you to build and promote conversations around your online content. Ask each other questions or provide comments on common issues. Working together in such a fashion will help to improve overall brand engagement.
What if there are no clear partners for my organization?
Some partnerships may not always seem that easy to find, and you may feel you don’t have a definitive trigger event. So where can you go to get the benefits? Here are a few ideas to help.
For a B2b company that sells high tech solutions (e.g., for ERP, CRM, or Cloud Services):
- Reach out to your OEM partner and ask them to promote your original content on their blogs, newsletters, and social sites. If you sell more services because of it, you both win.
- Seek similar companies divided by distance. Remember the goal is to be found, and if an East coast and West coast company in the same type of business team up, then they will create greater buzz for each other. Some folks have implemented group blogs, but you can just as easily develop a content strategy and cross promote each other.
For a car dealership that needs foot traffic and test drives to drive sales:
- Seek out the life events that generates the need for cars (e.g., a graduation, a major move, or after 10 years of car ownership). In this case a good content partner may be an Insurance agency that is working with new car owners. The agency would like to promote safe driving, new safe car models, and important car maintenance tips. And car dealers would benefit from syndicating insurance tips, new types of insurance plans, etc.
- Another partnership opportunity might be with a local realtor. Realtors work with people who are moving into a new apartment or are moving to a new area. In this case the realtor might syndicate content on local travel while the car dealership sees opportunity in articles geared to finding homes within easy commuting distance to the city.
If you are interested in learning more about how content partnerships and content syndication can support your strategy. Contact us at ContentMX.com or feel free to call at 781.444.7000