Content Creation and Inbound Marketing - Seeking Lost Opportunities
Posted by Jeff Machado on Fri, Feb 05, 2010
As another Friday comes upon us, it's all too clear to me how many opportunities for content creation that I've missed. As someone who loves to share the benefits of Inbound Marketing with the world, I'm acutely aware of when I'm not implementing all the things I implement for other people.
Like many people, I tell myself I'm too busy. I convince myself that there are higher priority things to take care of. Or that it needs to be a perfect blog post otherwise nothing at all.
But we are all given the same 24 hours but it's up to us what we do with those hours. There are always opportunities to create content.
For example, I should have been inspired last night to sit down at my computer and punch out a blog post after my dinner experience at Pei Wei. For the past week, Pei Wei has been advertising their Vietnamese inspired Caramel Chicken on Pandora, the music service I can't live without that makes getting work done enjoyable and calming.
Even though this advertisement could be seen as traditional outbound marketing, there are certainly elements of inbound marketing to it. At the least, it's targeted to my regional area (I've lived many places and I've never seen another Pei Wei before so I know it's not a huge chain). If I would have just written a few bullet points, I could have had a blog post that would bring even more people to this blog who might need help with Inbound marketing.
But I didn't. And now I regret it.
You don't have to let these missed opportunities pass you by. Even if you can't create an entire blog post or video, you can at least have the seeds of something great if you look at the opportunities around you and take advantage of them.
Here are 3 ways you can take advantage of opportunities that arise no matter what your business is and how to turn it into content.
1. The Products You Use
Sure, there might be hundreds of product reviews on a new product you have just purchased. Perhaps you're even in the market soon to get a new iPad. Instead of just doing a regular review of the iPad, do one about"iPad Review For Landscapers" or "An In Depth Review of The iPad From A Human Resources Manager"
Your business causes you to use products in different ways. Just take notes while you're using the product and you've got a great video review to put up on YouTube.
2. The Conversations You Have
If you're focusing on your business during the day, you probably aren't in a bubble. Whether you're talking with clients, vendors, customers, or employees, conversations are happening. These conversations are the 'long tail' of your life that need to be written down.
Carry around a small notebook with you. When an interesting nugget of conversation arises, write it down. You may not be able to get to it at that point but if you don't do anything, you're missing out on yet another opportunity.
3. The Stories You Read
Pick up your regional newspaper and find a story that is interesting but that the whole world isn't talking about. Given the variety of stories that are talked about, you're bound to find something that relates to your business in one way or another.
If you run a company that relies heavily on Geotargeting, this is an excellent way to capture some of the long tail searches. Since you're drawing in regional traffic, you never know who might find you - it could just be your next client or star sales person.
The best thing about these 3 ways of approaching content creation is that they're things you do every single day. If you turned on your computer (product review), sent an email to a client or coworker (conversation) and checked Yahoo! news to see what's happening in your area (stories), you already had 3 opportunities to create content.
What other opportunities for content creation do you see in your life that you could take advantage of? How will you make next week a better content creation week?