Years ago I had a mentor that was ruthless about meetings and time. The deal was this: If you want me to mentor you (me), then you commit to a time every week without excuse. Don’t be late. Not even a minute late. I’ll do the same.
He was uncompromisingly rigid about this rule because he felt it was simply about priorities: We make time for the things that are important.
Consistency is the single most important attribute of content marketing
That philosophy has always occupied a corner of my mind through my successes and my failures, both personal and professional. We do make time for what’s important.
The Attribute of Consistency in Content Marketing
In my experience, on a corporate level and on a personal level, there’s one single overarching factor to successful content marketing: consistency. Consistency is the single most important attribute of content marketing.
At the lowest level there is a direct correlation to the amount of content published and the amount of traffic a site receives. A direct correlation. It’s the index.
Yes, of course there’s an entire conversation about quality and the content marketing backlash, which the veterans and pundits can argue about. For those new to the concept, for those trying to find a way to work content into their daily routines, the advice is simple: make time for it.
Like Nike says just do it.
Committing to Content Marketing
Anyone that’s worked in a large organization knows how hard it is to drive change – to drive a culture of content marketing. There are those that don’t get it. There are those that think they get it but really don’t. There are those that don’t get it and don’t care that they don’t get it. There are those that get it and don’t care.
Put all that cultural stuff aside and you still have one enormous obstacle: priorities.
“I don’t know what to write.”
“My writing isn’t good.”
“It’s takes me so long to write.”
“I stare at a blank page.”
“I don’t have time.”
All of these are cop-outs plain and simple. Excuses. Nonsense. We make time for what’s important and as for the rest, that’s just execution.
Content Sucess Doesn’t Happen Overnight
When was the last time you did something for the first time? We’re you perfect on the first go? Of course not.
On this blog, my very first post was about Michael Phelps in February 2009. Looking back at that now, it’s not terrible, but then then it’s not great either. Today I’d grade it a C-. But I kept moving, just like I had done for business prior to this blog, and just like I do both personally and professionally now.
Marathon runners don’t start out by pounding out 26.2 miles. Baseball players don’t show up on day one batting homeruns. New college graduates rarely become CEOs in their first year of work. A special operations Soldier? It takes years to make one of those guys.
Whatever marketing role you are in now – PR, SEO, direct, operations – you didn’t just show up as an expert on your first day. You grew into this role and developed an expertise overtime.
ontent marketing takes time too. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Ideas come and words flow.
We make time for what’s important. If marketing is important to your organization, then content marketing is important to your organization. The single most valuable thing you can do for content marketing is give it your best effort and do it consistently.
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