
September will be here faster than you think. The time to plan for it is now.
By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC
Fall content strategy is the practice of planning, developing, and positioning content in advance of the September–November period—typically the highest-engagement quarter of the year for B2B content marketing—so that organizations can publish with intention and consistency when audience attention and buying activity peak. Building a fall content strategy in June or July, rather than August, is what separates organizations that dominate Q4 from those that scramble to keep up.
We’re at the end of June. Back-to-school displays are appearing in stores. Conference season is ramping back up. And if you’re in B2B content marketing, you know what that means: Q3 is the sprint to Q4, and the organizations that perform best in September, October, and November are almost never the ones who started planning in late August.
They’re the ones who used the relative quiet of summer—while others were coasting—to build the infrastructure for a strong fall.
Now is exactly the right time to do that work.
Continue reading “Back to Business: Building Your Fall Content Strategy Now”



Popular wisdom has it that people like to read stories and that 
In interviewing for a job several years ago, I went through a round of interviews with various members of the organization. When meeting with the Chief Administrative Office (CAO), he handed me a brochure and said: “What do you think about this brochure?” My immediate thought was: “In what regard?,” but I resisted the urge to say that and, instead, said:
I’m often surprised that the most overlooked audience when it comes to communicating with key constituents is the internal or employee audience. Companies are generally pretty good about recognizing that they need to communicate with customers and prospects, but employees tend to be an afterthought. This may be because of the assumption that
Over the years I’ve noticed a dangerous tendency—among myself and others—to assume that we “know” our customers, or target customers. Because we think or believe something, we assume that—of course!—others think or believe as we do. They don’t.
A prospective client contacted us recently wanting to produce a white paper to serve as a promotional tool. The white paper needed to include: a focus on the new national campaign theme, a focus on the new local campaign theme, a focus on the areas served, a focus on the organization’s new direction for the coming year, a focus on…OK, hopefully, you get the point.
Effective corporate communication has always been important. Now, though, in a hybrid and continuing uncertain corporate environment, it’s more important than ever for organizations to determine how effective their corporate communications efforts are, and what adjustments or improvements need to be made to keep employees engaged, productive, and employed!