“Content marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.”

Jon Buscall, CEO, Moondog Marketing

 When we used to tell people that content marketing isn’t the typical three-month campaign they’ve become used to, we’d say it’s “from now until forever”. But we noticed that’d make some clients look a little queasy.

Forever, as someone better than me said, is a mighty long time. So the way Buscall puts it is better. Way better.

Perhaps the hardest part of embracing content marketing is that it rarely serves up immediate commercial results. Sure, it’s good seeing great content going live and being used. That can work well on a number of other levels too – PR, employee engagement and so on. But it’s not direct money on the bottom line.

Comparing your content marketing results to display advertising, pay per click (PPC) or other methods can’t be done in a hurry.

When those comparisons are rushed – and most people will maintain a blend of different approaches, so that’s usually possible – then content marketing programmes are sometimes strangled at birth. We’ve seen that happen.

So remember these are programmes. Not campaigns, as Buscall says, or projects.

Content marketing is strategic. It’s about what’s best for your organisation in the long term. That means remaining committed and giving it a real chance.