Does your company even have a content pipeline?

By now you’ve heard that good content is key to successfully attracting, interacting and engaging with customers online. In fact, this concept is so important that some companies have established the COO - chief content officer.

While you may not have a COO in your organization, you should still have a plan and a schedule of content for delivery, just as you might plan out your advertising placement or tradeshow schedule.

Here are some items to consider for your content pipeline…

Press Releases. Historically reserved for new product announcements, press releases can also be used to tell customers about other new developments in your company – whether it’s a company sustainability initiative, a significant milestone, a new brochure, an expansion, or even an addition of new equipment. Not everything is “press worthy” but with RSS feeds and social media, don’t overlook things that may be “customer worthy.” Consider posting something at least once or twice per month.

Feature Material. Customers (and editors) often value longer articles about customer applications or “how-to” problem solving. Consider posting longer feature articles at least once per quarter. Or, set up an area on your website for shorter application briefs and post these more frequently.

Multimedia Content. Videos and podcasts should also be included in your pipeline, and should be tied in to the other elements in the pipeline. For example, if you have a video product tutorial make sure it links to any customer application articles that feature the same product.

Social Media Content.  Using twitter to share company news can be an extension of your press release pipeline. However, it can also fill in gaps for older items that were previously unknown by your customers. For example, the FAQ section of your website may have some new material added. Also, if your company has a blog then you should include regularly scheduled blog posts in your pipeline.

As you overlay all the content possibilities, you’ll start to see a pattern and can build up your content pipeline with a steady stream of informative and useful material.