What is the connection between the Mondial (soccer world cup) and informative content?

It's Mondial time! the whole world is in football/soccer fever! And a great time to contemplate what success in this endeavor means. When it comes to such a prestigious competition, and in fact any high-level sports achievements, athletes prepare for years! Just like a good marketing content strategy - it's a marathon, not a sprint. They who invest and prepare, have a much better chance of winning. 

Informative content strategy  is a long-term effort

Countries invest in children, opening soccer schools and training kids over years to create the players of tomorrow. A targeted investment of funds over time enables football clubs to bring top professionals for their young teams, sponsor sports scholarships and develop game strategies that ensure an ongoing supply of top players.  The children of today are training to become the world soccer championship winners in ten year's time.

Content marketing done well is similar. Investing in blogging, videos, social media posts, presentations etc. and providing our target audience with professional information they need over time, helps create a reputation for yourself and your business. However, you need to realize that with informative content, you are in for the long haul. When you maintain a constant flow of published content in relevant channels, the results will remain for a long time.

There is no magic wand. no button to click that will magically bring you hundreds of leads. Achievements in sports and in a business call for hard work over time.

Great marketing content is a combined effort

Success in sports and in business depends on many people who work together. Winning the soccer world cup means not only did 11 players do their job on the green grass field, it means the coordinated efforts of many contributors have helped them succeed. Form the manager and trainer, to medical support, logistics and more.

In business, the combined efforts of all departments are what brings success. Great marketing is not a standalone achievement. It calls for a great sales team too.  What use are many leads of the deals are not closed? And it does not stop there. Closing the deal is worthless if the company cannot deliver.

For great informative content, you need a combined effort of a unicorn writer who is great at storytelling on the one hand with an engineer or product manager who is good at explaining the important principles and USP of the product. Only if the information flows within the company, or from the company to a contractor content writer, can the story come to light with the most advantageous angle.

It is like a good kick that brings the ball to the front of the field an enables players to kick a goal. Soccer is a game based on teamwork and cooperation. Only if the information is kicked forward to the right people, will the story come to life.

Focused messaging for optimal content value - the key is taking aim

If you want to remain in the awareness of your audience for a long time, you need to constantly remind them of your existence. But you cannot overdo it, be too pushy or too sale oriented. That is why informative content is such a powerful tool.

A soccer team can win the game only if scoring more goals than the opponent. For scoring, the kicker needs to take perfect aim, sending the ball past the goalkeeper with precision. Informative content also needs to be focused and targeted. The idea is to provide your target audience with extra value by making the exact information they need easy to access for them.

To top it off, clear and focused content needs to be distributed to a target audience using relevant channels at the right time. this precision of the entire content marketing chain is what will make the content strategy successful.

Working with the best - everybody wins!

Like the development of a winning soccer team and the maintenance of profitable club, a good content strategy takes many stages that need to be assembled like a puzzle and to work well together. Top soccer teams hire the most talented players and best trainers. You want to do the same.  At the start of your content marketing efforts is a unicorn content writer who quickly grasps your product or service and truly understands its value and client base. Do not waste the valuable time of your engineers and developers on writing content that does not flow (and which may be boring for your target audience). Invest your resources carefully. Let a content pro write up your informative content telling your story and highlighting insights into your products for all to read.

Informative content helps your target audience understand the value of your product or service, just when they need a solution. Providing relevant and valuable information will increase their engagement, loyalty and the probability of purchase. Everybody wins!