You've probably heard content is the king of marketing at this stage in the game; it certainly seems most marketing departments and agencies have shifted away from older models of marketing to newer platforms and strategies. They've had to, in part because consumers now buy in such a different way; they demand a different kind of marketing.
Now there's a whole slew of content marketers in existence, but you might wonder if you're putting all your eggs in one basket if you sign up with someone who specializes solely in content marketing.
As with any other facet of your business, it's not usually a good idea to focus too tightly on one thing. A hybrid content marketer is probably a better choice for today's businesses.
Two Types of Content
A hybrid content marketer might have a specialization in using content to market, but there are two types of content to contend with. The first is custom content, which is created specifically for your firm. The other is curated content, which is content produced by others but selected to appear on your social media profiles or website. This could include articles pertaining to your industry or reviews of your product or services.
Any content marketer worth their salt should engage in both content creation and content curation. Doing only one or the other has problems: Companies that have only custom content appear to be isolated from the rest of the industry, while those that only share content tend to drive customers away—to other sources.
Going Beyond Content
The other aspect of hybrid content marketing is it moves beyond content entirely. Creating great content is important, but it's also important for you to share that content, say, via social media. In order to be successful at sharing your content, you need to have a great social media profile. You can't just share blog post after blog post from your own website and expect people to follow you. Social media requires interaction and giving back to the community.
So not only do you need great custom content and a good content curation program, you also need a more expansive social media plan, one focused on building your audience and interacting with users.
With that in mind, it's easy to see the hybrid content marketer isn't just a content marketer.
Marrying Old and New
Many companies have been eagerly embracing new marketing techniques; many have been abandoning older tactics in favour of new ones. And while new techniques are usually more efficient and effective, they sometimes work best in tandem with older techniques.
For example, email campaigns are still important for marketers, as are ad campaigns. While your sales team might do best by abandoning cold calling, the marketing department still needs to put together great campaigns. Those campaigns just need to span more platforms now; you're not just putting up ads on other websites. You're also sending out emails, tweeting about your sale or great new product, and trying to reach out to potential customers.
In effect, hybrid content marketers know they need to marry the old and the new; they can't have one without the other.
Using Content to Get More Sales
At the end of the day, the name of the game is to use content to get more people into the sales funnel. Hybrid content marketers know they need to employ a number of tools and tactics to make that happen; they can't rely solely on great content. Content might be king, but kings are only great when they have other loyal subjects backing them up.
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