Though content marketing has firmly established itself as critical for connecting with customers across industries and companies of all sizes and types, many marketers still struggle internally to get resources and attention from the executive team to get a program off the ground. Some company leaders fear letting go of traditional views about how marketing should operate; reallocating dollars to content marketing seems risky. Others view creating an idea culture in a product-focused environment with skepticism. And spending your time and effort to build the case for content marketing takes up scarce resources that should be spent elsewhere.
If you want to build a content marketing program but face reluctance, don’t waste time creating big plans and trying to sell the concept. Instead, jump in, start small, and show some early results. The support will follow. Here are a few ideas to catch the eye of your C-suite and build momentum, without requiring large-scale resources or buy-in up front.
Co-create some great stories with your clients
Your own clients – particularly those clients who are your company’s biggest advocates – are a powerful source of good content, and what they say matters to your senior leaders. The issues they face represent an important voice of your marketplace, as well as the value your company brings in solving those issues. If you approach a few of these clients to extract insights and work with them to create a point of view, you can develop a powerful set of stories relatively easily that will intrigue your own executives. And of course, these stories offer a valuable tool for conversation with other clients and prospects.
Here are a couple of examples we have seen work well as a starting point:
