Finding new ways to distribute content can be one of the most daunting tasks of any marketing team. Not only does this mean some of your go-to campaigns are running stale (looking at you, drip campaigns) but it also means that you now need to tap into the creative minds of your teammates and come up with some new and exciting ways to spread your message.
But how do you actually know you need to find new content marketing tools? Luckily, your friends at Sigstr (that’s us!) want to help you skip a couple steps and get right to the brainstorming. We put together a list of five signs it’s time to find new ways to get your content noticed:
1. The numbers just aren’t adding up
You’ve signed a contract, your content is proofed and your campaign is ready to go. No matter what traditional marketing efforts you’re planning, if you spend money on a campaign and aren’t pulling in the corresponding number of leads, something is up. Instead of taking the easy way out (“Why don’t you give us a discount on this send and we can try again next month”) it may be time to reconsider your options.
The best place to start is research. What types of campaigns are you running? How much are you spending per campaign? Per lead? Start gathering information from all of your current content marketing tools so you can make informed decisions when it comes time to create budgets and marketing calendars.
2. Conversion rates are dropping
Let’s say you have a tried-and-true direct mail campaign. Your team can confidently send out a batch once a month and see measurable results every time. Then, out of nowhere, your conversions hit a wall. Nobody is responding, and your business development team is calling upon deaf ears. It’s finally happened – your brilliant idea is no longer ‘brilliant’. Creative ideas do, unfortunately, almost always eventually become stale and overused.
Think of how many marketing emails, mailers and calls you receive daily. Your prospects easily receive that many or more. Your message is just one of many in the pile on their desk or in their inbox and you need to be constantly competing with these unseen opponents.
3. Your lists are slowly dwindling
This is one of my most anxiety-driving nightmares! You work so hard to gather names and vet prospects, just to see them slip away over time into marketing purgatory. Obviously, the only way to combat this ‘list fatigue’ to to backfill with new names over time. But what if you hit a wall with those new names?
Sometimes, a new distribution avenue opens up an entirely new audience. Do you attend multiple tradeshows? Try sending follow up emails to people you didn’t meet with at the conference and highlight some of the things they might have missed at your booth. Finding new content marketing tools can help re-engage silent prospects and uncover new ones.
4. Your best-performing content just isn’t cutting it anymore
We all have our ‘best of the best’ content that is guaranteed to bring in the clicks. It can be a go-to whitepaper, a stat-heavy case study, or a credibility-boosting press release. Whatever it is, your team turns to it like an old friend when there is a lag in new leads. But what if it doesn’t work? Your secret weapon suddenly fails you, and your team has nowhere else to turn.
You can fiddle around with subject lines, HTML layouts and templates all you want, but sometimes the truth is in the packaging – your campaigns just aren’t cutting it. Your best content is the best for a reason, and people respond to it for a reason. Come up with new and exciting ways to get this content in front of your prospects and it will be back on top in no time.
5. The team is feeling the burn
This is a pretty common problem across marketing teams. Scrambling to figure out why your campaigns are lagging, or why your numbers aren’t where they should be is a huge indicator that it’s time to find new content marketing tools. Hopefully your marketing team is full of smart, qualified creatives – if they’re struggling to find answers that aren’t there it might be time to take a step back.
As marketers, sometimes our heads can get too bogged down in day-to-day execution. Re-evaluating processes and procedures from a distance can help expose underused areas or uncover new distribution channels. Maybe it’s time for a team offsite where you can take a step back and brainstorm new ideas.
Has your team ever thought of leveraging employee email as a new channel for content distribution? Request your demo to see Sigstr in action and learn why employee email may be the answer you’re looking for.
