Just more than one year ago, wide-eyed and dangerously caffeinated, I walked through the front doors of Kuno Creative eager to start my new position at a leading enterprise inbound marketing agency. It’s hard to believe it’s only been one year since I joined the Kuno team. The knowledge I’ve gained from my esteemed colleagues seems like it should’ve taken years to accumulate. And yet, here I am: a confident content marketer who can interview, blog and strategize with the best of ‘em.
As a member of the Kuno Creative content team, I’m encouraged to ask questions, volunteer ideas and even make mistakes. That open and helpful environment has taught me numerous invaluable lessons about content marketing. Here, I share a few of those lessons with you:
Informative and engaging blogs, guides, videos and more are essential to successful inbound marketing campaigns. In order to strategize and create those elements, content marketers must become experts on the topics they’re writing about. Oftentimes, this can be achieved with a little research and a few client meetings. But for more complex topics (and, trust me, there are plenty of complex topics in B2B content marketing), becoming an expert requires a lot more grunt work. The good news is becoming an expert on anything is easier than most people think. See this blog for more.
Before coming to Kuno, I had never even heard the term “buyer persona.” In college marketing classes, I developed target audiences, which were little more than rambling lists of demographics that provided little insight into whom I was actually speaking with and why they would be interested in the products/services I was promoting. But now I know understanding the buyer is key to marketing message, content mapping and lead segmentation, scoring and nurturing.
Where would a mason be without his bricks? Or an artist without his brush? Content marketers depend on numerous tools to keep pace with the never-ending demand for engaging content. Now, you may be asking yourself, “What does a content marketer really need? A computer?” Well, yes, but it takes a lot more external help for successful content marketing than you may think. For starters, we have our editorial calendars, content curation tools and social media scheduling tools, and we’re always on the lookout for others. These tools not only help us keep work organized, they help us keep our sanity, too.
You’d think it’s time to take a breather once you’ve created content your audiences want to download, but as I’ve well learned, a content marketer’s job is never done. Reading a blog here and there or converting on one guide is nothing in the grand inbound marketing scheme. Content marketers must continuously search for new methods of developing content to keep potential buyers and current customers engaged. Sometimes that involves creatively weaving your products or services into a story. Other times, it means shaking up how you’re serving your content, swapping out lengthy blog posts for snack-sized snippets.
As I venture into Year 2 of my journey at Kuno, I will continue to share the lessons I’m learning from some of the brightest minds in the industry right here on the Brand & Capture blog. You can keep up with my findings by subscribing, or you can learn invaluable content marketing lessons of your own by submitting your application to become a Kuno Creative brand journalist. Get the details on the position by clicking here.
Photo Credit: Corey Leopold
Known as Hawkeye for her near superhuman copy editing abilities, Lisa Gulasy applies her unique experiences in agency and journalism to manage strategy and day-to-day engagement of client social media profiles and assist in researching and writing blogs, press releases and advanced content. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
