Content Marketing Denver | Marketing Cadence: How Much is Too Much

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

A frequent concern we hear from clients is they want to avoid the perception (and reality) of spamming people with their digital communications. In this article, we cover the difference and offer strategies for setting an effective marketing cadence.

So, you have a well thought through marketing strategy, honed your message, put the right assets in place and now you are ready to go to market and start communicating!

At this point you will be faced with one of the most important marketing decisions – when and how often to communicate?

Matching your marketing cadence to buyer rhythms, needs, business cycles and your budget is a critical factor in achieving your business objectives.

Aligning Communication with Your Buyers

Deciding how often, when and what to communicate to the market is a function of business objectives, budget and strategy. The goal is to align your internal strengths and messaging with buyer needs. Meaning, too many emails and LinkedIn posts may be perceived as spamming while not enough just simply won’t get the job done.

We will be the first to admit that striking this delicate balance is difficult, and it is a dynamic feature of the Digital Marketing landscape. What worked three years ago is now perceived as intrusive spam, and what worked last year is well…so last year.

The key to avoiding the perception of spam is aligning your cadence with your buyers, and part of that is training them what to expect from you.

Setting Your Cadence

Some rules of thumb we have found useful in developing a cadence that strikes the right balance between informative content marketing and spam include:

Blog posts. Once per week or month. At a minimum, publish a blog post at least once per quarter, if only to prove that your business is alive and no one needs to make a welfare check on you. Most companies “divide and conquer” by assigning Subject Matter Experts, a writer(s) and an approver to the blog post effort. That way, the entire burden of content development doesn’t fall onto just one resource and you can have multiple blog posts in development at any given time.

LinkedIn posts. At a minimum, we recommend posting to LinkedIn at least 2-5 times per week to keep your social media feed current and visible to customers, prospects and buyers. That is a very active cadence for some companies, and we suggest pulling from several sources for posts:

Your blog posts with a link back to your website.
Curated articles in the press (avoid stories behind a paywall, if possible!).
Community service events (photos and/or blog post).
Company events (holiday parties, customer appreciation BBQs).
Slideshow videos highlighting an accomplishment or a key message.
Executive and Subject Matter Expert videos composed of 30-45 second snippets to use as commercials or educational pieces.
Invitations to company events, such as an informational webinar or sponsored Happy Hour at a conference.
Promote your presence at trade shows and conferences.

When you consider all of the above, there is actually quite a bit of content for posting to LinkedIn.

The key is finding the time and talent to do it right on a consistent basis.

Emails. What is working today is using email to communicate a “What’s New” email once a month that includes links back to your recent blog posts, events and any curated articles of interest. Do not assume that all of your customers and prospects are going to your website or watching your LinkedIn feed on a daily basis. A simple summary email at the end of the month allows them to pick and choose the content that is important for them. If there is a special announcement or event to promote (e.g., an important press release, webinar invitation, etc.), it is okay to send more than one email in a single month, but make that the exception.

Google Ads (digital advertising). Allocate some budget to paid search advertising to boost placement on high-value, high-volume key search terms and keywords on a daily basis. For small companies, a budget as small as $250 per month is better than nothing at all, but most of our active clients are spending $1,000 per month at a minimum.

Factors Driving Cadence

Implications:

Cost – the more frequent your communications, generally the more budget needs to be invested for content development.
Visibility and awareness – inconsistent communications will fail to achieve awareness goals and your story’s visibility will languish.
Maintaining strong relationships – honest and authentic communication is the currency of trust, and consistent messaging helps foster strong relationships.
Telling your story in a logical way – an active marketing cadence gives you an opportunity to sequence the delivery of content in a consistent and logical way, creating an opportunity to develop a preference among buyers.

We can’t emphasize enough the importance of setting reasonable goals that your organization with its existing or planned resources can achieve. There are few things more demoralizing to a sales and marketing team than the feeling of abandonment and the company failing to execute on its marketing plan.

Why It Matters

Executing a marketing communications plan with the right cadence has proven effective in generating these results:

Ongoing creation of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to handoff to the sales team.
Development of buyer relationships over time.
Information-based communications through the sales cycle.
Nurturing leads who are not ready to buy today but represent likely future opportunities.

Let’s Talk! Schedule a free 30-minute Digital Marketing consultation to see if there is a fit between your marketing challenges and our capabilities.

Book a Meeting!

About Prism Group

Prism Group is a full-spectrum, multi-talented B2B agency focused on Energy Tech, Technology, Energy, Services and Media markets. We Tell Stories That Matter, because our clients are working to change the world for the better. What makes us different is that we put into action the strategies we recommend – we get it done, so you can get results and increase the value of your business.