Over the past several years, content marketing has emerged as perhaps the most engaging and cost-effective marketing strategy available to businesses. The overwhelming majority of organizations now use content marketing in at least some way, although far fewer are confident that their methods are having the desired impact.

With that information as a backdrop, Content Boost—the custom publishing division of ITEXPO Miami’s host company, Technology Marketing Corporation—presented a series of educational content marketing workshops on Tuesday morning, Jan. 27 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The presentations covered everything from the definition of content marketing, to securing investment from the C-suite, to actually implementing a strategy. Highlights of the workshops included:

1. Prepare to be bold: Organizations are constantly looking for ways to create innovative, disruptive offerings in their industries. Too often, however, these same organizations are hesitant to make bold choices in their content choices. Companies should be prepared to take chances when they decide to implement a content marketing strategy if they hope to achieve maximum value from their efforts. 
2. Take it a step at a time: Marketing managers should be prepared to take multiple steps as they try to get content marketing buy-in from the C-suite. Marketers must have a working knowledge of their organization’s strengths and weaknesses; demonstrate that the competition is all-in on content marketing; create a projected budget; and prove ROI to ensure the executive team is on board.                                                                                                                                                                                         “There is a really critical step in between learning the basics of content marketing and getting started with actually implementing a strategy,” said Allison Boccamazzo, Content Boost’s Managing Content Producer. “And that is actually getting your boss to agree to invest.”
3. Create a ‘Wow’ experience: Once marketers get the go-ahead from the C-suite it’s critical to get off to a strong start by creating a singular experience for their target audience through engaging content creation. Creating a ‘Wow’ experience requires marketers create an outcomes wish list; craft an integrated marketing strategy; assemble a team of superstars; and pinpoint a measurement strategy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        “Make sure you understand how you are going to measure your success,” said Content Boost’s Director of Content Marketing, Carrie Majewski. “And of course, how your boss is going to measure your success.”

With these three takeaways and many others, attendees at the content marketing workshops left with a plethora of actionable ideas to get started with or ramp up their content marketing efforts when IT EXPO ends.

“There is a lot of bad content out there, and readers are tired of it,“ Majewski said. “They are ready for something different.”