Content is not new for most organisations anymore. It isn’t the shiny new tool that it once was. There are plenty of companies who jumped to it, producing content with eager and genuine enthusiasm but after a year they asked the question ‘has this worked’ and whatever the benchmark was for ‘worked’, they hadn’t met it. Content with all its promise had failed.

In a recent webinar by the Content Marketing Institute on Top Content Trends for 2016, they describe a new challenge for content marketers called ‘The Big Push Back’. This phrase refers to the above scenario where companies have tried and failed. Apparently we will hear more and more stories like this but frankly, I feel that I have already heard my fair share and it is certainly true that once burned, twice shy.

There are some terrific examples of brands where content marketing has done amazing things. Brand loyalty, engagement, sales and corporate culture are all uplifted by content marketing in these stellar examples. Air Canada’s inflight magazine and Kraft’s recipe websites are two common examples of the power of content as an asset for any company. These assets exist for many organisations but they don’t exist for the company that I described at the beginning of this piece. They belong to the success stories who adopted content marketing and committed to it until they got it right.

Getting content marketing right is a challenge and a process that involves making many adjustments. If you find your organisation not seeing success at content marketing, here are some questions that will help ‘pivot’ any content strategy. Be ready to face the truth.

Is your content an experience or is it marketing collateral?

Does your company insist on relating content back to the benefits and features for sales purposes? If so, what your company is producing is a variation on marketing collateral. The most successful examples of content marketing are where the content is highly useful or enjoyable. If someone is enjoying content they know was delivered by a brand, they are engaging in the sales cycle even if it makes no reference to the brand. We don’t need to advertorialize content in order for it work. In fact, evidence shows quite the opposite.

Does your content speak to customers or communities?

Content is just a tactic for audience. Would anyone care if your organisation stopped producing content tomorrow? If the answer is no one, your company is missing the mark. If the answer is someone who is not your target audience, your company is also missing the mark. Content marketing should be as audience-centric as possible.

Does your company focus on quantity or quality?

Social marketing requires high output. When content marketing is designed to feed into a social strategy, the demands can mean a compromise in quality. The regular output can hinder the thought process and the production value. Consider alternative ways to feed social strategies so that content is free to have a separate evolution.

Is your content uniquely yours?

Madonna always sounds like Madonna. Brands should aim to be as identifiable. A strong perspective on editorialization means that the look and feel, language and intonation can all be intrinsically yours, leading your brand to engage highly effectively as content marketers. Don’t go through motions like creating a white paper unless you can be sure that without any identification your prospective clients will appreciate that the source is your organisation.

Content marketers are always cautioning that our efforts are ‘a marathon rather than a sprint’ and whilst it is true that content marketing takes time, the time it takes relates to audience development. If there is no evidence that an audience is following your work and relating it back to your brand, don’t wait too long before making the requisite changes. My rule of thumb is to evaluate efforts on a quarterly basis.