Are you keeping up with your content?

I was thinking recently about the number of challenges a company’s marketing department faces each and every day. In addition to such expected tasks as branding, advertising, lead generation and the creation of a firm’s marketing collateral, many marketers now also are charged with social media strategy and content development.

The world has changed dramatically in the past five years. Consumers expect good quality and relevant content from the companies they feel connected to and from whom they purchase. Even in a B2B environment, it is now commonplace to see businesses taking an active presence on Facebook and other social media sites, as well as creating material for blog posts, e-blasts, case studies and downloadable white papers.

While the creation, publication and distribution of good quality content is undoubtedly a successful strategy for building an engaged community, it creates a major new challenge for marketers: how to keep that content fresh and relevant. If a company doesn’t utilize some type of content management system, content can quickly become stale and dated. When this happens, salespeople inevitably will end up spending valuable time trying to modify and update that material for their own purposes.

Implementing a content management system that alerts the marketing department whenever a piece of content reaches a review date, for example, or has been flagged by users as no longer accurate, current or effective, will enable a company to keep its published material fresh, engaging and relevant. I believe there is great value in tending to your content in the same way a gardener tends to his most valuable roses. Cutting away the old, dated or dead material allows the new content – and the marketing department – to shine and flourish.