<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"You\u2019re a brand (hello, brand!), and you\u2019ve decided to invest in brand publishing. It\u2019s the hot new thing, and you hear there\u2019s serious ROI behind it, so you figure what the hell. \nYou tell your ad agency about your new interest in this kind of content. They rave about how they\u2019ve invested in a team of editors and journalists in preparation for this exact moment. (Translation: they have a vendor in mind to outsource the work.) You start posting on your blog every day, but 60% of your traffic is coming from your own PR team.\nIs this worth the investment? No. But it can be.\nThe fact is that agencies aren\u2019t publishers, and getting people to watch and read things you make is a lot different than making a TV commercial or pushing a press release. It\u2019s not really your ad agency\u2019s fault. Publishing isn\u2019t their chosen profession, and they often don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing. \nBut don\u2019t despair. Content marketing can pay huge dividends. Its ROI can blow display out of the water. To fix your strategy, you just need to figure out what you\u2019re doing wrong. Here are five likely problems.\n1. You Haven\u2019t Developed a Voice\nBrands don\u2019t mess around with their logo, often conducting extensive consumer research and testing hundreds of variations. Yet a lot of brands dive into social media and content marketing, giving no real thought to something just as distinctive and important as their logo: their brand voice.\nIf your consumer target demographic is 18- to-24-year-olds, your posts can\u2019t be written by a 36-year-old using outdated slang, idioms, and cultural references. On the other hand, if you\u2019re trying to become a B2B thought leader, you need an authoritative voice. You can\u2019t afford to sound like a recent graduate who\u2019s in love with his own cleverness. Your posts need to be at once exceptionally smart and so accessible that readers feel an almost instinctive desire to share the wisdom you\u2019ve imparted.\nIn other words, you can\u2019t wing it. You need a skilled managing editor who can help you develop your brand\u2019s voice, and help you find a writer who can make that voice pitch perfect.\n2. You Focus on Self Promotion\nA common concern from content marketing clients is that the product isn\u2019t really being promoted. The reason, of course, is that if a product is explicitly promoted, few people will click on the content. And no one will share it. Even worse, no one will trust anything else the brand publishes.\nConsumers are smart. They expect content that brings value to their lives, and you need to deliver it or else they\u2019ll cast you aside. When your publishing strategy is working, your brand and products will benefit from the explicit association with fantastic content.\n3. You\u2019re not Guest Writing Anywhere\nIt\u2019s not just what you publish but where you publish. According to The Atlantic\u2019s analysis of a recent study on news popularity, \"What led most overwhelmingly and most predictably to sharing was the person or organization who shared the information in the first place.\" In other words, getting your content onto the right site can make all the difference.\nYou want to publish something on a site that your target audience loves so that you can take advantage of the publication\u2019s brand equity. If you\u2019re in B2B, this is fairly simple. The top new digital publications are always looking for good, free content. Every tech and advertising company should be trying to publish pieces by C-level executives on sites like Digiday, Mashable, and Adweek.    \nIn the B2C realm, B2B-style guest posting isn\u2019t usually feasible. But that doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t sponsor a cool piece of content on a site that your target audience reads or, better yet, work with an innovative publisher like Refinery29 to create collaborative custom content. This type of content marketing is an effective and easy way to engage a locked-in audience and raise your own brand equity, as well.\n4. You\u2019re not Distributing Your Content\nIf you\u2019re making high-quality content, you need to invest in getting some eyeballs on it. Unless you already have a massive social media following, you can\u2019t rely only on your own blog and social media accounts for distribution. Creating content that people want to share is always critical, but unless you strike viral gold, sharing might not be enough. Alas, your 1,500 Twitter followers probably aren\u2019t going to rally together to ensure that as many people as possible read your article.\nA real solution: smart, managed distribution of your awesome articles and videos on a content distribution platform like Outbrain. You can target the audience you want, and the more effectively you distribute, the more cost effective your content marketing efforts become.\n5. You\u2019re not Using Your Content to its Full Potential\nContent is the fuel that powers social, and brands worry about how much fuel it\u2019ll take to power all of their different social platforms. But it really doesn\u2019t take much if you\u2019re smart.\nFor each platform, there\u2019s a certain type of content that performs well. Text-only updates on straightforward news thrives on Twitter. Text-only Facebook updates perform 94% better on average. Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram let you feed them photos and then spit back out engagement gold, heavily sprinkled with exceptional ROI.\nWith one feature package \u2014 article, photos, and video \u2014 you can create a myriad of smaller combinations and take advantage of each distinct platform. A key here is not to skimp on video. Thanks to cheaper technology and the oversupply of actors in a recession, it\u2019s become incredibly simple to create dynamic videos. \nIf any of the above sounds daunting, don\u2019t worry. Content marketing is crucial, but it doesn\u2019t have to be hard. Just make sure whoever helps you execute your plan knows what they\u2019re doing. \nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, annebaek"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/08/09/branded-content-tips/?WT.mc_id=en_my_stories&amp&amp&amp>