They Ask, You Answer, 2nd Edition

Part III Implementation and Making It a Culture

Many companies have tried content marketing and failed.

Having spoken to so many companies on this subject, I've heard just about all the reasons why such failures occur. Not only that, but my consulting company has worked with dozens and dozens of businesses and brands to help them achieve greatness within their space.

Some have reach incredible heights of success.

Others have been a total bust.

As we've taken the time to separate the success stories from the busts, we've discovered there are four essential keys to making this work within any organization — ultimately, building the business, brand, and bottom line while becoming a true culture in the process.

In this part of the book, we break down these four keys, which are as follows:

• Buy-in from top to bottom: This is achieved through truly educating subject matter experts and key departments on the “what,” “how,” and “why” of content marketing.
• Insourcing: The process of utilizing company employees to produce content as part of their job descriptions.
• The content manager: Someone in the organization must own the effort and be fully dedicated to it (without distractions) to make it work.
• Using the right tools: Unless the right tools are used, it is extremely hard to calculate true return on investment (ROI) of the company's content marketing efforts.