In years past (not to date myself), marketers were often able to reuse the same marketing content over and over for a year or two. A set of great case studies would serve your sales team for a few years. Even during my MBA program, we learned from case studies that were five years old – and still relevant to the topics being covered in class. However, those days are long gone. Today, marketers struggle to create strong, relevant and current content. I would even venture a guess that content creation is one of the biggest challenges we face nowadays as marketing professionals.

Most organizations have some sort of email newsletter, blog, or social media presence. However, the majority lack the most important ingredient: relevancy. I often subscribe to peer-written newsletters and blogs looking to learn from them, only to find myself unsubscribing within a month or two. A disappointing majority of the sources I encounter lack both expertise and relevant content, which in turn can be detrimental to their brands.

There is a belief in the business world that if you give too much information to potential customers, they will not have a reason to inquire about your products or services, which in turn might lead to a decrease in sales.

Another fear some organizations have is in regard to delegating content marketing to a third party. They feel that their content needs to be on-topic and written by an expert in the field. However, because content writing is time consuming for their staff, new marketing content is rarely produced.

In reality, a good content writer can write about nearly any topic. In my career as a marketer, I have often been amazed by the quality of content that gifted writers can produce in fairly short notice. Skilled writers are capable of doing the necessary research and writing with a fresh and engaging perspective, leaving out the jargon and technical acronyms frequently used by people highly immersed in a specific topic.