I’ve been teaching marketers the practice of content marketing for over 20 years. The idea with content marketing is a little different from advertising.
For advertising, a company pays to promote their product or service in the form of an ad on someone else’s website, a television ad, a billboard, etc. With content marketing, the company creates valuable and relevant content to help customers without pushing the product first.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say I’m Stack Heating and Cooling (one of OEF’s key partners). Their content marketing strategy might include sending a newsletter to customers on ways to save energy, posting an Instagram on quick fixes when your furnace doesn’t work, or sharing a YouTube video about getting your air conditioner ready for summertime.
Here’s the catch. The content might be amazing, but if it’s only sent every once in a while, it probably won’t work. For content marketing to really make an impact, and present the company as a trusted expert, it must be delivered consistently over a long period of time.
In marketing you can have the best, most innovative messaging in the world, but if it’s not delivered consistently, it’s wasted.
Consistency is key.
I’ve found the same with running. I only improve if I run multiple times each week. I ran cross country in high school, but stopped for 20 years. When I took up running after that time, I could barely make it a half mile. For a decade I ran consistently. I got better. I could run further. Last year I ran my first marathon.
Consistency is key.
At Orange Effect Foundation, we’ve learned the same thing. Speech therapy for kids who need it only works if they get therapy every week of every month of every year. Short spurts here and there simply don’t work.
When a family runs out of money and can’t afford speech therapy, it’s a tragedy for them to stop those services. All that progress out the window. That’s where OEF helps, by providing funding to children and families when their funding runs out. We’ve been doing this for over a decade and for over 400 kids over that time.
Consistency is key.
Thank you for supporting what we are doing at OEF and helping us keep our kids consistent over a long period of time … to be the children and adults we know they can be. Please support us in our next event, the 2nd Annual OEF Night at the Races (November 8th in Cleveland). Last year over 300 of us had an amazing time raising money for kids who need it the most.
