This week’s question comes from Sasha. She recently did some unexpected research into the world of ‘content marketing,’ and was left baffled by the point of the process. The question reads:
“I was recently hired as a marketing assistant for my city’s Chamber of Commerce, and given the task to contact businesses in the area that were finding success using the internet as their main marketing tool (social media, email mailing lists, podcasts, viral videos, etc). The problem turned out to be the definition of ‘success,’ because the traditional business seem to use social media and email as just extensions of their normal marketing, and the smaller independent operators are pulling all the stops on producing social media content. Some are getting great social media run, all are spending good money and time on production and distribution, none are making significant money after expenses. The project this research was meant for is getting shelved, but I want to salvage what we got to turn into a lesson learned. What lesson can we learn and why do so many ‘business people’ give away so much content and material for free on the internet if there isn’t a real return.”