The question of when and whether to outsource your company’s content creation should be considered as carefully as the decision to outsource any other important aspect of your company’s operation—manufacturing, sales, customer support, and the like. (And if you weren’t thinking about content creation and distribution on the same level as those functions, you should be. Content is that important to your marketing strategy.)
The outsourcing question is important in any industry sector, but it’s especially important in segments like mobile and telecom. Many of the technology developers in these industries are creating and selling very specific, targeted components of communications networks—pieces of hardware or suites of software that perform very specific functions for telecom service providers that help them distinguish the services they provide to their customers.
Coca-Cola has been heralded lately for the creativity and effectiveness of its new content marketing effort, which likely was developed by some of the biggest brains in the world of consumer brand marketing. Those same brains might have a more difficult time devising a content strategy for a company that creates a product that enhances the performance of mobile base stations, or a company that manufactures mobile base stations, or even a company that makes applications offered by the companies that provide service over a network comprised of mobile base stations. Articulating the differentiation of any of those companies’ offerings is a lot different and a lot more nuanced than telling stories of how Coca-Cola is refreshing the world.
Mobile and communications technology is a complex realm, as you well know—so make sure that if you choose to outsource the creation of your content, you choose a resource that understands the subject matter as well as the audience consuming it. The Content Marketing Institute offers some good pointers about making the content outsourcing decision. Use this as a guide as you ponder this important decision. And choose wisely.