Whether your business is in digital marketing starter kit mode or you have saturated the web with your brand’s presence already, you’re missing out if you aren’t using a content marketing strategy. Research by the Content Marketing Institute has found that B2B marketers who have a documented strategy, as well as an individual to oversee the strategy, are the most effective group of content marketers out there. Even with excellent, value-driven content, if you don’t have the SEO tactics to drive organic traffic, the landing pages to capture leads, and the email marketing, white papers, and eBooks to lead nurture, and a dynamic offering of webinars, infographics, event marketing and more to convince your customers your brand is an industry thought leader and has genuine, long-term value to offer, then your content lacks dimension. Also, without a robust system for gathering and analyzing your customer metrics, and using this data to constantly refine your strategy, you’re failing to offer what customers expect today from marketers. Why You Need a Content Marketing Strategy 1. A better content marketing ROI – as you refine which tactics are the most appealing to high-quality leads and which are the most motivating, you’ll be able to invest in the content that works and either reduce or eliminate what isn’t working. You’ll actually know what your content ROI is – only with a documented strategy are you going to have the metrics to give you an idea of how effective your content marketing is. Optimized social media channels – when your social media posts are integrated with the rest of your content marketing strategy, your customers grow used to the value that comes out of following and engaging with your social platforms and be more likely to stay engaged. Improve lead generation – when you flow your social media posts and email marketing into your blog posts and to your landing pages and CTAs, you’ll attract more visitors to your website and invite more qualified leads down your sales funnel. You’ll become a better marketer.
Whether your business is in digital marketing starter kit mode or you have saturated the web with your brand’s presence already, you’re missing out if you aren’t using a content marketing strategy.
The effectiveness of having a written-out, well developed, thoughtful strategy isn’t just a theory or the experience-based opinion of top marketers. It is a law of the universe.
Research by the Content Marketing Institute has found that B2B marketers who have a documented strategy, as well as an individual to oversee the strategy, are the most effective group of content marketers out there. Of those that have both, 86 percent view themselves as either effective or very effective. That’s where you want to be.
What Is a Well Documented Strategy?
It’s way more than running a few social media accounts and publishing a blog for your brand. Even with excellent, value-driven content, if you don’t have the SEO tactics to drive organic traffic, the landing pages to capture leads, and the email marketing, white papers, and eBooks to lead nurture, and a dynamic offering of webinars, infographics, event marketing and more to convince your customers your brand is an industry thought leader and has genuine, long-term value to offer, then your content lacks dimension.
Also, without a robust system for gathering and analyzing your customer metrics, and using this data to constantly refine your strategy, you’re failing to offer what customers expect today from marketers. Which means you are failing to benefit from the rewards of surpassing those expectations.
Your content may slip through the cracks, going largely unnoticed, while your competitors are appealing to your market with a seamless flow of content at every touch point. You have to be able to string everything together to create something that matters.
Richard Pattinson, CEO of Brafton, explains a major flaw for businesses that may have worthwhile content, but haven’t taken the time to prep or prepare it, “The intention behind content can be good, but the scaffolding is missing, weak or flawed.”
A documented strategy, on the other hand, has a place and purpose for each piece of content. Everything flows into the next. Each case study, vlog or email subject line sets up other aspects of your strategy and holds the entire plan together. This flow also allows your whole strategy to be flexible enough to evolve along the way as you continually work towards creating that brilliantly simple, clear, yet remarkably complex brand environment that is the most effective way to attract your market and build long-term customer relationships at the same time.
A good content marketing strategy has:
- Well-defined KPIs and clear goals.
- Three-dimensional buyer personas that help you craft precisely the content that your…
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