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In order to be successful in anything–whether it’s marketing or learning to knit a scarf–you have to keep doing it. And doing it. Until you find a rhythm. You have to see beyond the act of doing. Not to spend too much more time on the knitting analogy but it’s so much easier to pick up the needles every day because you see progress. The scarf gets longer and longer —and you know what to expect at the finish line. Content marketing, on the other hand, is a long-term endeavor. To be successful, you have to be in it for the long haul and set realistic goals. You’re building brand awareness, boosting your web traffic—building trust. It’s going to take a while to feel warm and fuzzy about your efforts –unlike the scarf (okay, last mention, I promise).

If you’re “doing” content marketing right, you’re creating compelling content that is not directly promotional that offers value to your target audience. It’s more than writing blog posts and tweeting a couple times a week. So, now that we have that squared away…

Has your content marketing flatlined? Before you call the undertaker, take a gander at these tips to help you bring your content marketing back to life.

Put it on the schedule

Because you don’t see the immediate rewards from content marketing, so it’s an easy one to put off. You wouldn’t keep moving a client project or product launch, so start making room on your calendar to plan your content marketing. Set weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your team and create a plan of action–and show up.

Draft a plan

One of the comments we frequently hear when talking to clients about content marketing is this, “We know we need to start developing more content, but we don’t know what we should write about.” Just like any other form of marketing, in order to be successful with content marketing, you have to know your audience. What are their pain points? What kind of content are they consuming? And in what format? If your clients are highly visual, then creating a video series is a good place to start.

Blogging is one of the most popular ways companies are reaching their customers and prospects, but many are unsure where to begin. Evaluate the current needs of your target audience, and then scratch out an outline of all of ideas (answers to their questions). It doesn’t have to be a formal plan–but one that evolves over time.

Create a editorial calendar

When I worked in the publishing field, our editorial calendar was the be all, end all of our existence. You wouldn’t dream of not keeping it up to date–months and months in advance. The same importance should be placed on creating an editorial calendar for all your content. Include not only your blog posts, but all your content plans. If you develop content around specific themes, add the theme and then plug in all the content you’re going to need to support that theme. Get those ideas down on a calendar. You can use a desk calendar, a project tool (we use Teamwork to capture ideas from the team, create notebooks for specific content, and update a shared calendar) –or whatever is easiest for you and your team. A calendar will keep you honest, trust me. You know what’s in the pipeline so there are no excuses for planning the work.

Get help

Since we’re in the business of content marketing, it would be remiss of me to close without saying this: You know that you need to boost your marketing with quality content, but you just don’t have the time or the manpower to do it in-house…outsource it. The demand for quality content is high. To create compelling content that resonates with your audience is work. The idea that you can just sit down every once in a while and scribble out a blog post is history. Your competitors are creating content that is capturing the attention of your clients. It’s time for you to get out those paddles and give your content marketing efforts a huge jolt!

If you need help, get it. Whether you hire a freelance writer or an agency (like ours) to help you develop branded content to support your marketing goals, make content marketing a priority.