An Offer You Cannot Refuse: The Future of Content Marketing from the Godfather of Content

“Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”

While this is not a phrase that Joe Pulizzi uses in his content, it is one that we can all associate with him, as he is the undisputed Godfather of content marketing. The words and insights Pulizzi shares on his site, the Content Marketing Institute, are powerful.

He is an innovator, and he continuously helps the world of content marketing drive toward success, unlock new ideas, and revamp the old so that marketing is effective, efficient, and always relatable.

Today, Pulizzi was kind enough to sit down and share his Godfather-like advice on the future of content marketing. Here’s his thoughts on the best practices marketers and bloggers should be using if they want to see their investment go far.

Are You a Have or Have Not?

Pulizzi has invested countless hours into content marketing, so he understands the huge amount of work that this area of marketing requires. However, the first point he brings up in the interview is that of how much time is invested versus what a person will receive in return.

Essentially, content marketing is only as valuable as the investment—the investment is the critical term here. No one can expect a return on their content marketing if they do not dedicate the time for keyword research, demographic analysis for audiences, and spend time creating engaging, excellent content.

A “have” person is one that does all of that and is patient enough to follow the metrics, fine-tune their work, and monitor progress. The “have nots” are those that did not put forth the investment, but just expect the return on half-done work.

For 2017 and beyond, Pulizzi could not emphasize enough how important it was to shift your marketing strategy into the “have” category for a better return.

Most importantly, a good strategy is one that takes 12 to 18 months to implement and start seeing the “R” in your ROI. Therefore, when creating a plan based on Pulizzi’s ideas, it is important that one acknowledges the fact that results take time.

Critical Takeaways for 2017 and Future Content Marketing Strategies

Pulizzi shared plenty of advice for fine-tuning this year’s strategy that will be future-proofed for years. Just some points include:

• Patience: Google can take up to five or seven weeks to recognize a website’s content; therefore, no one should expect overnight results.
• SEO and Content are One: While two different areas, content marketing heavily relies on SEO, and SEO relies on successful content. Therefore, all content should be SEO-driven and utilize the right mixture of keywords, but still be relatable and an excellent read.
• Create an Effective Workflow: That involves knowing who is part of the marketing team, defining each team members’ role and tasks, and sticking to the plan.
• Involves Sales and Marketing: Sales and marketing bleed into one another in a good content marketing strategy. They should be used to ensure they are conveying the right message but in a creative, effective way.
• Know the Buying Stages: Before creating content, a company should be aware of the buying stages, what motivates a consumer to go through those steps, and what it takes to make it to the purchasing stage of the funnel.

Pulizzi’s insight into content marketing is something that every marketer should consider. While he made a point that a company could potentially succeed without content marketing, doing so is much more work with less return on the investment.

Keep in touch with Pulizzi by following him on Twitter or monitoring his blogs at the Content Marketing Institute.