Big ValleyBig ValleyBig ValleyBig Valley
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
    • Brand Strategy
    • Marketing Strategy
    • Content Marketing
    • Corporate Communications
    • Digital and Social Marketing
    • Market Intelligence
  • CASE STUDIES
  • CULTURE
  • RESOURCES
    • Big Valley Marketing Blog
    • Pressing Matters Podcasts
    • Top Conversations in Tech
    • AI Research
  • CONTACT

Strategies for Achieving Content Marketing Fit

    Home Story + Content Strategies for Achieving Content Marketing Fit
    NextPrevious

    Strategies for Achieving Content Marketing Fit

    By David Bailey | Story + Content | Comments are Closed | 6 February, 2025 | 0

    Several years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see and hear content strategy discussed more in B2B technology tradeshow panels and conversations.

    At one show in particular, I saw leading brands address the power of visual storytelling and heard various CMOs talk about how they try to involve customers and the broader community in the content they publish. But it was during a talk by technology industry executive Mada Seghete when a big insight hit me: tech founders and marketing leaders need to solve for “content-market fit” in much the same way they work to achieve “product-market fit.”

    Seghete was talking about the importance of experimentation and creative marketing approaches. During her talk she uttered one of the simplest, most eloquent soundbites I’ve ever heard for how to think about content:

    We found a topic others were interested in, rather than one that most explicitly benefited our brand.

    I can’t think of a better way to sum up a guiding philosophy for content marketing, whether you sell enterprise integration software, iPhones, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence solutions or paisley pocket squares. Your content should be about “topics others are interested in,” not what you’d love them to put in their shopping carts today. It’s worth reading her words again. And again.

    Content As Its Own Product Line

    Scads have been written about product-market fit (see serial entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal’s great blog on this topic here). Getting it right is inarguably tough, but the concept isn’t too hard to grasp—make stuff people feel compelled to buy. Content is not much different—make stuff people feel compelled to read and/or watch. (And if you do it well, they will want to share it and talk about it, too.)

    Too often tech leaders see content as a tactic to sell what’s on the shelf. And content can—and should—help you do that. But if that’s the sum total of your content strategy, you’ve not only missed the big picture, you’ve likely just telegraphed to the marketplace that you have no vision beyond making this quarter’s number. Producing content that serves people—in-and-of-itself, on its own merit—is a long-term, strategic play that can build your community while driving market credibility, authority and loyalty for your brand.

    So, approach content similarly to how you would approach nailing product-market fit—just substitute “audience” for “customer” and “content” for “product.”

    • Who is my target audience?
    • What are their likes? Dislikes? Pain points?
    • Will my content help them solve a problem?
    • Will my content entertain them?
    • Will my content help them be more productive?

    Oh—and a key one. Substitute “time” for “money.”

    • Will they gladly spend their time on my content?

    Treat content as a separate product line—something that has to live or die based on its own intrinsic merits—and you’ve taken the first critical step to creating content that people will be interested in.

    Plan, Execute, Iterate

    Nailing product-market fit is no easy task (as Jyoti mentions in his blog, “inability to get it right is the number one reason why 8 out of ten startups don’t survive”). Similarly, many companies are failing with content, whether it’s lonely and semi-abandoned blogs, unwatched YouTube channels or self-serving announcements that journalists reflexively delete (if they notice them at all).

    But the good news is, we have more tools at our disposal than ever before to help us understand audiences and to craft content that they will gladly spend their time on. As with product-market fit, it takes a mix of art and science.

    Research—e.g., audience demographics, psychographics, pain points, reading and viewing habits—is key, of course. You also need to hammer out your own unique “IP” for content—in other words, how are you going to tap your organization’s brains for the unique/ interesting/ informative/entertaining information and points-of-view that will fuel your efforts? Once you have that, where will you publish? Will you curate? Syndicate? What’s the social strategy? How will you measure how you’re doing?

    As with product-market fit, you need experienced professionals driving an end-to-end strategy and plan, managing execution, and iterating based on audience feedback. This is how professional content producers—newspapers and magazines, TV shows, websites, movie producers—have been doing things for a long time. But now we have the benefit of some great new technologies to help us understand and serve our audiences better than ever before.

    Great “content-market fit” is achievable—it just requires the same kind of focus and discipline that tech leaders so readily give to figuring out product-market fit. So, substitute “audience” for “customer” and “content” for “product,” and get planning. Soon you will be producing content that people are actually—wait for it—interested in!

    content, content marketing

    David Bailey

    More posts by David Bailey

    Related Post

    • Strategies for Transparent Gen AI Content Creation

      By Scott Friedman | Comments are Closed

      By Scott Friedman Big Valley’s “AI Disclosure and Transparency: Closing the Trust Gap” report was designed to inspire wider awareness of AI dialogues and inspire business, marketing and communications leaders to engage in more conversationRead more

    • Crafting a Thought Leadership Strategy

      By Charlie Cooper | Comments are Closed

      I detest the term “thought leadership.” It’s a pet peeve, but thought leadership isn’t something that you somehow “do.” Tim Marklein nails it when he makes the case that this is something that has toRead more

    • The Benefits of Professional Ghostwriting Services

      By David Bailey | Comments are Closed

      Five Tips for Executives In Search of the Right Ghost Writer I expect many tech executives must largely live in fear of ghost writers. Putting your name to someone else’s writing is a scary prospect,Read more

    • Tech Leaders: Is Your POV ‘Pointy’? Five Tips for Getting Sharper.

      By David Bailey | Comments are Closed

      It’s not easy for a B2B tech company to break through with earned media. Editorial teams continue to shrink. Only the biggest of the big tech giants is covered with regularity. And very few ofRead more

    • Top 4 Tips for Mastering B2B Customer Marketing Strategy

      By Mel Johnson | Comments are Closed

      One of the most critical parts of a B2B tech company’s marketing strategy is leveraging your early adopter customers through a strategic customer marketing program. Before you can cross that chasm and enter the earlyRead more

    NextPrevious

    Helping technology companies for ten years
    to grow, win, and lead through effective,
    expert-driven marketing and communications.

    Connect

    I want to hire Big Valley
    hireus@bigvalley.co

    I want to work for Big Valley
    workwithus@bigvalley.co

    Follow us
    • LinkedIn

    Recent Posts

    • Reconsidering Pillar B2B Social Media Platforms

      By Arianna Crawford The B2B marketing and communications industry is in the

      6 May, 2025
    • Top Conversations in Tech: March 2025 Trends

      Step Aside GenAI, AI Agents are Here! Welcome to Top Conversations in

      29 April, 2025
    • How Communications Can Play Nice in the Content Team Sandbox

      By Steve Kerns Communications teams face increasing challenges to securing media coverage

      28 April, 2025
    Copyright 2024 Big Valley Marketing | All Rights Reserved
    • ABOUT
    • SERVICES
      • Brand Strategy
      • Marketing Strategy
      • Content Marketing
      • Corporate Communications
      • Digital and Social Marketing
      • Market Intelligence
    • CASE STUDIES
    • CULTURE
    • RESOURCES
      • Big Valley Marketing Blog
      • Pressing Matters Podcasts
      • Top Conversations in Tech
      • AI Research
    • CONTACT
    Big Valley