Building a bulletproof public sector content strategy

Now you are on a framework, it's time to market your service to the public sector. A good place to start is with your content!

You listed on G-Cloud 10, celebrated, went on holiday and came back to no public sector leads. Why? Well firstly its because G-Cloud is not a source of inbound leads. Just listing is not enough to get those sales in. Yes, sometimes it happens. A company lists, and they get contacted out of the blue by a government department that they have been shortlisted. This is very rare though and if you are to make G-Cloud a success our advice is start marketing your service.

Effective marketing plays a major role in any sale, and public sector is no different. People buy from people. The best way of getting G-Cloud sales in is to invest in reaching the right people and content marketing is certainly one of the most effective ways of doing this. To make sure you have the right content our advice is to start by creating a public sector content strategy

Start with the basics

Even before you start writing your strategy ask yourself:

• Who am I writing this for? – yes seems obvious but this very simple question is often the first stumbling block for companies. Think about who your audience is here and how to segment it. “The public sector” is not the right answer to this question. It is too broad and will not test your content ideas effectively. If your topic strives to talk to everyone in the public sector it will likely fail to reach anyone.
• Are the topics I’m considering interesting? – Your current public sector clients and leads are the best determinants of wheatear this is an interesting topic to write about. Is this something my current clients or leads are interested in? If the answer is yes go with it. If you are new to the sector then the media is your signpost. Are GovTech sites writing about this? If so, then you are on the right track

Map your content ideas against the funnel

To build your reputation in the public sector you should be writing all kinds of content  – from 500 words blogs to white papers and multimedia. But you should be strategic about how to approach it.  Start by mapping your content plans against the sales funnel.  Here’s an example

Plan how you will share your content

Once you have planned and published your content the next step should be obvious. Share it!

One of the best ways of making sure your content has reach is sharing it with the media. Even though it is the best it certainly isn’t the easiest!

After G-cloud 10 launched the internet was inundated with press releases. While in many cases a press release can be useful, your G-Cloud 10 listing is not one of those cases. It just isn’t newsworthy! If by this step you have prepared a press release about being on G-Cloud, sorry to say you most likely wasted your time.

To even start thinking of sharing your content with the media you need to research the public sector journalists. Do you know who the journalists are who write about public sector tech? How can you even start developing a relationship without knowing who the main contacts are. You can read some great advice about engaging the media in our guest blog by Toby Gavin, MD at MantisPR.

Other sharing channels you should certainly employ are email marketing and social media.

Email marketing is an excellent channel for the meaty middle of the funnel content. You can trust that the killer white paper you wrote will be shared once you email it to all your prospects and leads. This ensures reach! Particularly if it includes a mention (which it should!) of that client/prospect.

Social media can be a brilliant channel for building eminence and influence. As our Strategic Adviser Bill Mew puts it:

“Your influencer and content management programme needs to be focused on ensuring that you achieve eminence in your field, that you enable your key executives to engage with top influencers and that they start to build influence of their own and it needs to create amplification in order to ensure that you have the maximum possible reach.”

No where are these influencers more active than on social media.

If you have a bit of budget to spare why not invest in some social advertising. Our advice is to start with events. If there is a public sector event running with an active social community around it, promote your content piece there!

Final advice

One of the major pitfalls in content creation that we have seen is companies being very self-indulgent when writing their content. Make sure the focus here is on the public sector audience you are writing for and their problems. Don’t spend hours writing a white paper that is actually in reality just an ad for your amazing service. Your content should not be salesy! Particularly when it comes to the top of the funnel pieces.

Statements by your clients are also always a plus, if you can get them. Even if it is an anonymous statement include it. Content is always richer with a statement or two.

Happy writing!