"We Don't Need to Hire a Marketing Firm."

by Steve Fodor

I had the opportunity to discuss a new Web site project with a client recently. During our conversation, I heard something that I hear quite often: “We tried to manage our site ourselves. We gave it to our IT person. But, building content for the site kind of lost focus over time.”

The truth is, you can manage your Web site and social media programs yourself without the help of a marketing firm. There’s no “secret magic” for creating a branded presence with today’s plethora of new media venues. In the end, though, media (meaning social media, Web sites, blogs, publicity and paid media) is just a collection of tools. It is up to people to make real impact with these tools. A carpenter may own a wonderful collection of tools and even know how to use them. But a skilled carpenter may not be the best resource for designing a building.

Creating a positive brand perception comes from generating valued content for your audience. If you’re not generating branded content that is of real value, your brand perception won’t be of much value either.

A marketing firm can (and should) add value to your branded content efforts by:

1. Developing a message strategy for your brand.

2. Interacting with and researching your audience and the media serving your audience to identify trending topics.

3. Creating and managing an editorial calendar.

4. Writing, posting and managing relevant, branded content.

5. Monitoring and responding to audience interaction with your branded content.

Most of all, credible marketing firms are expert communicators. They are staffed by people with journalistic and marketing backgrounds that know how to research and communicate relevant content that will serve as a catalyst for your brand. Credible marketing firms not only understand and own the right collection of tools. They have the people and the expertise to design and build brands with those tools.

It’s not enough to have “quantity” be your branded content strategy. There’s enough clutter out there. Quality and relevance of branded content wins over quantity. Ask yourself this question: If you don’t have the people on staff with the time, dedication and expertise to manage your branded content strategies, are you really conducting your marketing efforts with the utmost efficiency?