Football pits the offense, the team with the ball, against the defense, which tries to prevent the offense from scoring. Yes, we're all thinking about the Super Bowl, but what does that have to do with content marketing? Everything! Here's why:
Consider that your content is the ball. Through the process of ideation, creation, publication, and promotion, it moves across the field with the end goal of reaching your target audience. Touchdown! Right? Well, we all know that in the game of football, there are forward moving plays, and those that set you back. There are also various members of your team that help you contribute to your end goal, though, and their ability to succeed will directly impact your content's success.
Here are some things to keep in mind when executing your content marketing power plays, and how you can make sure your team is stacked against the opponent for that championship title.
Ideation & The Punt Returner. Receives the ball upon kickoff and determines what the most efficient route will be for the first leg of the content process. This team member must be creative, goal-oriented, agile, and persistent in the face of the defensive line when some ideas don't prove strong enough to make it down the line.
Creation & The Quarterback. Leads the process by calling plays, and determining what moves to make to get the content farther down the field. This person can author the content, and run it themselves, or signal and hand it off to another member of the team. Plays including, but not limited to: Titles, Topics, Copy, Design. The rest of the team must trust this member's judgment a great deal, in order to unify the team for success.
Publication & The Running Back. Takes the content, and runs with it towards the goal line. Their ability to receive and block incoming blows from the defensive line makes them critical to finding the correct avenues to carry the content. Be it a blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ and so-forth, the running back will determine the path of least resistance, and which channels will prove the most beneficial.
Promotion &The Offensive Guard. Blocks for both running and passing plays. In the face of competition, and growing defensive pressure, the Offensive Guard will ensure that content integrity, value, and voice (even #deflategate) is blocked from the noise of outside sources via a strong promotional plan. They will know the ins and outs of things like: Adwords, Facebook Marketing, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Advertising and more.
When you sit down to the Super Bowl this year, think about some other ways in which content marketing can relate to football. Can you think of what the defensive line might look like in terms of your content process? Share your thoughts in the comments below.