Online marketing relies upon frequent publishing of relevant content. A great challenge for many companies (and consultants!) is producing original content that matters. Too many business managers assume they don’t have interesting things to say, or that there isn’t anyone who cares to listen. Even if that were the case, Google is listening so you should be talking!

The truth is most companies already have great content in their business; it’s just buried where a typical marketing or public relations person can’t access it. These stories are in sales people’s heads, in manager’s notes, in product manager’s meetings, in customer service rep’s trouble tickets. The challenge is in finding, editing and publishing the content in a way that is usable, especially online.

Here’s an idea: hire an internal journalist. A trained journalist knows how to dig for the good stories. They know how to interview people and how to ask probing questions. Put them on a deadline and get them publishing on a schedule. An good internal journalist that is focused on your company, its products and services, its people, customers and industry will find and produce more content than you could ever use.

This recession has been hard for marketers, but even worse for journalists. There are plenty of experienced writers willing to work. Bringing a trained journalist into your organization is a great way to get high-quality, publishable content for newsletters, e-mail campaigns, blogs, social media, case studies, white papers and more. And this content is great for public relations as well. The media is always pining for good stories, and what better way to feed the beast than to have your own journalist pumping out fully-formed story ideas.

Content is king for online and search marketing. “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” who can write.

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