These and other compelling statistics highlight the Content Marketing Institute’s October report on business-to-business content marketing. Click the image to see the report.

By Dan Pecchia

If you’re involved in marketing and public relations, these three “C-words” ought to figure prominently in your planning for 2015.

• Content
• Collaboration
• Cost

Good Content Can Set You Apart from the Herd

If you didn’t get around to making this C-word a priority last year, make 2015 the year. Planning and publishing good content is a powerful way to show your current and prospective customers why they should do business with you.

It’s not as troublesome as you might think to share effective blogs, success stories, FAQs and other compelling information. A good plan for deploying quality content can separate you from competitors that rely on generic websites, advertising, golf outings and other “this-is-what-we’ve-always-done” activities.

Collaboration: Teaming Up for Greater Impact

In the communications realm, smart managers who understand the economy of handling the basics in-house also see the value of engaging experts for higher-impact matters. Good collaboration among internal and external resources can often generate valuable benefits beyond what either set of resources could achieve on its own.

All of our engagements involve teamwork between us as the “outsiders” and the client’s internal professionals, and the ones with the best teamwork are also the ones with the best results.

Two Easy Ways to Reduce Marketing Cost

First, look for anything that is not targeted. We still see a lot of marketers with very specific customer bases that spend liberally on mass marketing and trade show activities that reach large numbers of people, most of whom will never be their customers. It’s better (and less costly) to target communication to those who are most likely to become customers.

Second, watch out for high-cost agencies and consulting firms that frequently drop over-used S-words like “strategy” and “strategic.” Those are often code for “We need to charge high rates to cover our costly business model.”

If you’re seeing recommendations that are logical and insightful, you’ll recognize their value without the “strategy” wrapper (or one like it). If you’re not, find an agency that doesn’t need to peddle buzzwords to cover its high operating cost.

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Dan Pecchia is a public relations consultant and president of Pecchia Communications.