Sandra Stewart | October 23, 2014
The short answer to the question above: almost none.
Marketing teams often find themselves under pressure to use their content marketing program to promote a service or product that needs a boost. If this happens to you, resist. Acceding to such demands is likely to drag down your program with no discernible lift to sales.
That’s because you can’t build a following by hawking your products and services over and over again. (Even your mother won’t sit through that.) Great content informs, intrigues and leads people to your products and services. Great content is not about your products and services—at least not solely or directly.
You can talk about why your target market needs the type of thing you sell and how they can assess potential benefits without mentioning your product or service, and in most cases, you should keep product mentions to a minimum.
The goal of content marketing is to attract attention, build relationships and demonstrate expertise. Do that, and people will come to you when they need what you have to offer—and then they’ll be ready to hear your pitch.
For more tips on succeeding with content marketing, see our Content Marketing: Myth vs. Reality guide.
