actionable marketing guide

Over the weekend, my husband and I visited a friend of mine. She's an artist living on a working farm in southern New Hampshire.

I mention this because, as a marketer, I saw the farm in a new light this visit. What sounds like a rustic tale is really a marketing lesson in disguise.

While my friends have acquired a flat screen television with cable and an Internet connected computer since my last visit, the kitchen is still the heart of farm activity. There's always a steady stream of people coming and going.

Her son was bent over a truck engine elbow deep in grease fixing a broken engine mount when we arrived. If you brought the truck to most mechanics, they'd tell you to sell it for scrap.

BUT being a farmer, your resources are limited. You don't have the luxury of going out and buying a new truck when one breaks down. Instead, you figure out how to make it work with the supplies you have on the farm. It never occurred to him that he couldn't fix the truck.

So what does this mean for you as a marketer?

While you'll probably never have to fix a broken truck, you can use this example to show you how to re-think the way you're currently using your marketing assets and resources.  Here are 3 steps to get you started.

1. Take an inventory of the your marketing related assets. To this end, perform a content audit.
   
   
2. Plan marketing reuse in advance. Especially with social media and content marketing, one size does NOT fit all. Re-imagine your content before you start creating it to minimize your efforts and costs.
   
   
3. Get a little help from colleagues and customers. Spread the workload. While you can't expect your employees or your customers to create quality content, they can provide ideas for fresh marketing as well as input you can convert into useful information. Remember you'll still need to do the heavy lifting!!!

Like a farmer, don't automatically assume you need budget and resources to implement your marketing plans and achieve your business objectives.

These tactics are at the heart of a content curation plan that's integrated into your overarching marketing plan.

Want help getting your content curation strategy on track? Then join me for my pre-conference workshop at Content Marketing World. You'll leave this intensive with a plan for your content curation.

Be one of the first 5 people to sign up via my affiliate link and get a free one-on-one session with me!!!

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen