Engaging new customers is a priority for any business. Publishing articles, whitepapers, podcasts, etc. is a strategy that every business should consider for its marketing mix.

Three trends are driving the need for a company to produce and distribute more of its own content for the marketplace.

  • Content development tools are cheap and easy to use. Anyone can set up a blog in 15 minutes without any Web site programming experience. Thousands of Twitter accounts launch everyday. There are no technology limitations to self-publishing.
  • The Internet makes it easy to search for answers. Google has put the world’s information on demand. You can seek out expert advice from your laptop rather than contacting an expert directly and asking (or paying) for advice. Any company can become an authority with the right content.
  • There’s a lot of junk. The first two trends have created an enormous amount of junk information (useless, self-serving, etc.) in the market. This is an opportunity. Users are good at recognizing when someone really speaks to them and their issues. If you offer great content, the reward can be users advocating your business.

What is self-publishing?

Every company, especially B2B companies, should add self-publishing to the marketing mix. Self-publishing means writing and distributing content that showcases the business acumen of key company executives and helps your clients solve their business problems.

Key components

Self-publishing requires several key functions.

Every organization should have an editor to oversee the process. The ideal editor is someone with a trusted voice inside the organization. Preferably the editor is a good writer as well (though this function can be outsourced).

Many organizations want to assign the editor function to a committee. They believe that a cross-functional team will represent each part of the organization equally and generate good ideas. The opposite is almost always true. Resist this urge and appoint a single associate to be the company editor.

The editor’s primary job is a content strategy. Good content is educational, relevant, and timely to your company’s clients. More than anything, it provides answers to problems your clients need to solve.

Your sales team is a great source of content ideas. They have to understand prospects’ needs, how your company fulfills those needs, and how your competition is positioning itself. Seek out the salespeople who excel at the consultative sales process.

Is it OK to promote your company and your products in your content? First, the content itself is promoting your company and your products by demonstrating to prospective clients you understand their issues and care enough to write about them. And, yes, it’s OK to mention your company’s products at the end of your work. The best rule of thumb is 95 percent educational content and 5 percent promotional content.

The editor’s first priority is a content strategy. The second priority is creating an editorial calendar.

Every major media outlet has an editorial calendar that outlines what topics it will cover when. The calendar serves two purposes:

  • To make sure content is published regularly
  • To make sure that content is timely and balanced (hitting all the right topics)

A good editorial calendar will identify dates when content is due for review and when it is to be published in the market. It will also identify who is responsible for the content.