Content Marketing in the slow lane

I’ve just been targeted by Marketo via this banner ad:

No, I wasn’t annoyed by having been served a piece of content that I’ve already downloaded last year (we are all guilty of that every once in a while).

I was actually really pleased to see it again.

Why?

Because it reminded me that old can still be relevant and generate leads. Marketo is making their content sweat over a longer period of time. This piece of content was produced in 2013 and Marketo is still using it in their promotional activities. Which I think is really great.

In the midst of constantly producing and promoting new content – thinking new is always better – we often tend to forget all the great pieces we already have. But just because we know and have seen our own content a trillion times, that doesn’t mean that it’s less valuable than our latest shiny pieces.

Our own content marketing workbook for example (produced in 2009) received 963 views in the last three months. The Manifesto (2010) got 1,426 views during the same time period, and the Content Marketing Strategy Checklist (2012) got 1,853 views – which are pretty good numbers for a 25-man agency based in Richmond.

Now, we are not even promoting our own content (our Marketing budget is restricted to @dougkessler’s Twitter activity and random outbrain experiments).

One of our clients recently included a piece of content we produced in 2011 in their nurture programmes – turning a rarely visited page to a top performing one (It was in their top five). Another client started a nurture programme by using only existing (old) assets – changing the number of opportunities from a single one to 70. Yes, from 1 to 70.

Don’t get me wrong, we still need to produce new content to stay up-to-date with recent events and to continue the engagement with our target audiences.

But this Marketo banner triggered a note to self: don’t forget the good old existing stuff when you develop Marketing programmes to attract new prospects or nurture existing ones through the funnel. Because it can work just as hard as your newer, more exciting pieces.

The tricky bit? One word: Relevancy. In order to make yesterday’s content sweat today, it still needs to resonate with your target audience today. And not every piece you create will fulfill this criteria as sometimes you just want to give timely updates on events or upgrades.

But for the juicier budget-heavier pieces you’re putting some more welly behind, you might run it past the “longevity” litmus test.

Does this next piece of content have the potential to last – over one two years, or why not, five years?