Serving Content Marketing for Thanksgiving: What’s On the Table

Admit it. You’re thinking about Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s the planning if you’re in charge of the whole spread. Or maybe you’re just looking forward to the eating — the turkey and stuffing with that cranberry jelly, or the green bean casserole, or maybe that delicious apple pie Aunt Betty makes. Who doesn’t love the one day a year when gluttony is encouraged? But content marketing friends, it’s Tuesday. Should you not be focused on content marketing?

I’m not trying to get you in trouble. It’s happening here at Right Source Marketing, too. I know it. So I encouraged our talented group of content marketers to ponder an important question about the connection between content marketing and the beloved food-filled holiday coming up. (Of course they’re connected…duh).

“If you compared an aspect of content marketing to a Thanksgiving dish, what would it be and why?”

So, if you want to spark a little interesting Thanksgiving-table conversation (and out yourself as a content-marketing nerd), here are some of the tasty answers from Right Source staffers.

“I think the turkey is like an awesome piece of anchor content. You give it love and care to prepare it just right and serve it for the main meal. Then, you can enjoy it for many days to follow as turkey soup, turkey salad, turkey casserole, and more. A great piece of anchor content is just like that. You spend time researching it and writing something remarkable, then you can repurpose it into blog posts, checklists, webinars, and more.” —Alecia Farley, project director

“Content is like gravy. Most associate gravy with turkey and mashed potatoes, but really, is there anything on your Thanksgiving plate that doesn’t taste better with gravy? And every facet of marketing works better with a little remarkable gravy…err, content.” —Mike Sweeney, chief strategy office and managing partner

“Blog posts are like crescent rolls. As simple as they may seem, they’re essential to your Thanksgiving table (err, content strategy). You might look at them and say, ‘Uh, anyone could make those’ (they do come from a tube, after all), but they’re surprisingly hard to get perfectly right — and no one likes an over- or underdone crescent roll. But, done right, they’re guaranteed crowd pleasers and keep your guests/audience coming back for more…so you better make sure you have a sufficient supply coming out of the oven at regular intervals.” —Katie Wolf, editor/content specialist

“Content marketing is like the part of Thanksgiving dinner when Aunt Betty insists on making everyone say what they’re thankful for this year, because you’ll have plenty to say if you’re doing content marketing right. You’ll be thankful that:

• You’re finally generating qualified leads
• Your brand recognition is increasing
• Page views on your website are moving steadily upward
• People are actually asking you about things they read on your blog

You’ll have so much to be thankful for, in fact, that Aunt Betty will finally be sorry she asked. And what could make for a better Thanksgiving than that?” —Bob Keaveney, senior managing editor

“I think the Thanksgiving menu is the most important ‘dish.’ It’s the thinking that goes behind the orchestration of the entire meal. Without it, you might end up with a bunch of random dishes that don’t necessarily go together, and a table of only somewhat-satisfied Thanksgiving guests. Content marketing has its own menu, a documented content marketing plan. Without it, you will end up with a bunch of random content and an only somewhat-satisfied and likely disengaged audience.” —Michael Teitelbaum, chief growth officer and managing partner

“Really great, original content is like your grandma’s homemade apple pie. Does an ordinary, store bought, cookie-cutter version make your mouth water? Of course not. But a sweet, flaky, glistening dessert that you know has quality ingredients? Slice it up. The same goes with content creation. You can’t create the same generic content and expect people to dig in when imitation content has so often left a bad taste in their mouths. The best content takes time to craft, is uniquely tailored, and has an authentic feel that no store can replicate.” —Hannah Avery, marketing coordinator

“You may treat yourself to a lot of different flavors and varieties of delicious Thanksgiving dishes this year, but when it’s all over, your bathroom scale tells you how things really went. It’s the same for content marketing. You might also serve up lots of different flavors and varieties of content marketing, but in the end, your marketing comes down to analytics and results. Similar to the bathroom scale — maybe tucked away and ignored in a corner for a long time — you can only ignore the content marketing metrics for so long. Your marketing comes down to measurement, and you better have a plan for how you are going to get the results you want.” —Will Davis, chief marketing technology officer and managing partner

Is there a Thanksgiving dish that just gobbles content marketing to you? Let us know if you think we missed something especially delicious, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

About Yvonne Lyons:

Yvonne Lyons is Right Source’s vice president of creative services, overseeing content and design for all of our clients. She ensures that all creative produced at Right Source is of the highest quality and is aligned with our clients’ business strategy and goals. Yvonne received a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in writing and literature and has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, branding, and communications.