Crystal Clear Communications Blog

How can you get the most from your established content marketing program?

Like gardening, content marketing is demanding. It requires that you invest attention, time, and work to get the most out of your content.

Here are 7 lessons content marketers can learn from gardeners in summer:

1. Water. Is some content wilting on the vine? Attention is like water: more attention from you may be all your content needs to win more attention from your customers. If you can’t devote enough attention to your content, can you recruit helpers who will – employee ambassadors, freelancers or guest bloggers?

2. Thin. Sometimes a crop is so successful, it gets too crowded and starts to choke itself out. If too much content on a single topic is cluttering your site, thin it out. Could less content that’s more focused get you better results?

3. Weed. Weeding is a chore that always needs to be done – so is removing spam. A gardener tills, hoes and deploys weed barriers to cut down on weeding. What tools could help you stamp out spam problems?

4. Harvest. We’ve already harvested early crops like lettuce and spinach, before they turn bitter and go to seed. This year, Midwest gardeners enjoyed the wettest June on record − and the most prodigious production of greens ever. We gave away greens to neighbors and friends.

How could you share your most successful content with others – by posting on social media, commenting on blogs or guest blogging?

5. Rotate. One harvest doesn’t mean your work is over. Once early crops are harvested, it’s time to get a second crop into the ground, such as edamame for fall harvest. What new content could you put in right now?

6. Protect. Check for pests – right now Japanese beetles are appearing, threatening everything we worked for. Check to see if are competitors copying your best content marketing ideas. What could you do to better protect your content?

7. Preserve. Our garden is producing lots of raspberries and black currants right now. First we enjoy them and share them with friends – then we freeze, dehydrate or preserve excess production. What can you do to preserve your content for use later in the year?

If you’re just starting content marketing, begin with my blogs on content marketing in winter and in spring.

Which ideas can you bring from the garden to your content marketing?