What is content marketing and why does it matter?
So, how do you start? Create a strategy
- Define the goals and objectives of the content you create. For instance, are you interested brand awareness, lead generation, or thought leadership?
- Conduct a content audit to identify existing content and gaps in the content.
- Be sure to establish a content creation process, including roles and responsibilities, workflow, and review process. For instance, an editor can speed content reviews and ensure message and branding consistency across communication channels.
- Choose the appropriate channels to share or distribute your content. Identify all the methods of outreach: social media options, company website, partner websites (if relevant), email marketing, etc.
Filling in the content gaps
If you’re an established business, start with a list of outreach materials you have. If you haven’t completed a content audit before, create a chart, identifying target audience, persona information, where the item is used, purpose, and buying stage for each item. Next, think about your buyer’s journey – from awareness, consideration, to purchasing decision or conversion – and the information they will need to meet your goals and objectives. Now look for content gaps based on your goals and objectives, and customer expectations. With gaps identified, you can move on to creating what doesn’t exist, placing that new content where it needs to be found and by whom.
If you’re a new business, create a customer profile and include persona information. Then, create a chart as mentioned above, but fill it in with the information you anticipate. Start by reviewing the basics:
- Your customer profile should include customer attributes, purchasing habits, and product/service preferences. Don’t forget persona information.
- Add customer touch points so you can understand the types of information or assets you need to produce.
- Posit the following:
- The types of content your customers prefer (product/service information on a website, blog post, case study, whitepaper or E-book, video, social media, infographics, webinar, how-to-guides, FAQ, product demo, PR, etc.);
- How do they prefer to obtain information and from what source (via email, social media site, a website, an influencer on social media, etc.);
- How often do your customers prefer to obtain new content (you can conduct a customer survey if you’re not sure); and
- Where you think they are in the buying cycle.
With a stake in the sand, you’ll be on your way to fine-tuning the types of content you’ll need and where to have it available to encourage sales.
Does your content match customer expectations?
With the customer buying cycle as your guide, understanding the types of content to produce will be easier. At each stage – and with each communication channel – where your customer engages with your content, they’ll expect to find relevant information or they’ll leave.
Don’t waste their time; keep them engaged. Too much information early on can make the prospect feel overwhelmed, making a purchasing decision too difficult. Not enough information can make them lose interest and look elsewhere, so speak to their interests and match their expectations. The goal is to provide whatever information your prospect needs – when they need it – to convince them to purchase from your business, not the competition.
Did you hit the mark? Track effectiveness
Here are different measurements you can use to assess what works and what doesn’t.
- Traffic: The number of visitors to a website or landing page.
- Engagement: The level of interaction and involvement with the content, such as comments, shares, and likes.
- Lead Generation: The number of leads generated as a result of the content, such as email sign-ups or contact form submissions.
- Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
- Time on Page: The average amount of time a visitor spends on a page.
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave a website after visiting only one page.
- Return on Investment (ROI): The return on investment generated by the content, calculated as the revenue generated divided by the cost of creating and distributing the content.
- Search Engine Rankings: The position of the website in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.
Tip!
Create a limited number of assets (video, customer testimonial, flyer, website, etc.), then use and re-use key portions of those items for different communication channels.
Remember: Key branding and message points should be reiterated throughout your content to foster consistency.
Tip!
Utilize cross-channel marketing tactics to move prospects through the buying cycle. Use your website as a host for more details (product demonstrations, videos, comparison charts, case studies, pricing, etc.), then leverage social media, email and direct marketing tactics to drive them to your website for more information.
Tip!
Don’t forget SEO! Make sure your content is optimized for search engines and can easily be discoverable by the target audience. SEO best practices can help increase the visibility and credibility of a website, video, eBook, or other deliverable. This, in turn, can drive more traffic, leads, and conversions, making your content management efforts more effective.
Keep in mind: Some measurements are not quickly ascertained. If you’re a scrappy startup, it will take more time to build up a following and rank high in SERPs than more established, well known businesses. Also, the size of your marketing budget influences your ability to build brand recognition and generate leads, which, in turn, helps drive traffic to your website, affecting conversion rate, time on page, and search engine ranking. Bounce rate, time on page, and traffic measurements are probably the best indicators to use for new businesses. Hitting the mark may be a moving target until your business is more established.
By tracking what works and what doesn’t, you’ll be on your way to discovering if your customer profile is correct or needs refinement. And with more information about who your target audience is, the more you can hone your content marketing strategy, knowing where to make future investments.
