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Content Marketing Immediate Network style will help grow your brand without breaking the bank

As a small business we know how to make each pound spent on content and communication work hard, and deliver a decent return on investment. We deeply understand that communication is not an end in itself; it’s a means to an end, that end being more sales.

Why use Content Marketing as opposed to, say PR. Or more traditional advertising?

PR only works for news. PR for brand building or other purposes is actually marketing so best get your descriptions right to avoid confusing yourself.

And if you want to define news, that’s simple as well: News is either something that someone wants to keep out of the news or it’s something startling that will be of interest to enough of people that it will help sell newspapers, magazines or drive viewers and listeners to your TV or radio station.

Best example ever: Dog bites man; not news. Man bites dog; news.

There is a great deal of rubbish written about content marketing which is, actually, very simple and yet pretty hard to do well.

Content Marketing in action is this: create and then re-purpose your content across all available communication channels.

Start with a strategy, ie define exactly what you want to achieve. Next, work out what will help you to achieve your aim and what will hinder you. Then draw up a tactical plan (ie what you will actually do and how you will do it), get your resources ready and get started.

Just one other thing: as Five Star General Eisenhower said just before D-Day: ‘No plan survives the first shot from the enemy’. In other words, be flexible and adaptable.

And remember, for content marketing to work, you’ll need good content, created to the highest possible standards.

Clear communication = brilliant content

It is refreshing to have the opportunity to write about Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs in a positive vein.

The folk who work there do not make the rules, any more than those who work within HM Treasury. The people whom we elect do that – yet another argument against the simple, sneering Russell Brand school of avoiding one’s civic duty to vote.

Many of us like to think that we know how our taxes are spent. Actually most of us don’t – or didn’t until recently.

HMRC has taken to sending out annual statements to all taxpayers to highlight where the money goes. It’s a brilliant piece of communication that deserves to be applauded.

The message completely contradicts popular thinking as espoused by many, er, popular pundits and does so simply, clearly and without any superfluous commentary.

As a piece of clear communication and useful content it sits somewhere close to the top of the pile for its straightforward excellence.

Wouldn’t it be great if only Google, Facebook, Amazon and other Silicon Valley giants were so honest about tax?