Whether you’re new to content marketing or knee deep in your brand’s content marketing program, answer these seven questions. The best content marketing programs address a clearly defined problem or challenge. Without a well-defined purpose for content marketing, the team lacks focus and team members fill in the gaps with their own agenda, ideas, or content. Second, by listing more metrics, marketers think it increases the content marketing program’s chance of success. Because engagement isn’t a success metric. If you’re getting into the content marketing game, you need the right tools to deliver and track your content to make sure you reach your audience. Here’s a brief summary of the basic tools you should have: Email platform – to distribute content to your owned audience Website platform – to host and monitor your content CRM platform – to store and analyze your customer information and interactions Marketing automation software – to simplify the repetitive tasks you do to engage your audience and to personalize your content 4. Everyone in the company should be asking: “What’s most important to our customer and how can we give it to them?” 6. If you’re leading a content marketing program, getting your leadership to understand that it takes time to show results will be paramount to your success. Spend the time to find the right team.
Ever wondered why some content marketing programs are more successful than others?
Does it come down to execution, strategy, timing, or any other contributing factors to success?
Whether you’re new to content marketing or knee deep in your brand’s content marketing program, answer these seven questions. If you have or can come up with good answers, chances are you’re going to have better success with your content marketing program.
1. Is there a clear business problem you’re solving?
The best content marketing programs address a clearly defined problem or challenge.
Why? It brings clarity to the reason you’re using content marketing in the first place. Without a well-defined purpose for content marketing, the team lacks focus and team members fill in the gaps with their own agenda, ideas, or content.
Some examples of clearly defined business problems:
- The sales cycle lasts six to 12 months. Your brand needs to stay top of mind with your prospects.
- Prospects for your type of product are not aware of your brand.
- Your customers have heard of you but don’t really understand how your brand can help solve their pain points.
2. Do you have a clear definition of success? Is everyone aligned?
Did you ever notice that marketers usually show four to seven metrics when talking about measuring their programs? Why is that?
First, marketers, particularly those who work for big companies, think if they identify multiple metrics, it’s easier to get consensus around a program. Second, by listing more metrics, marketers think it increases the content marketing program’s chance of success. For example, “Hey, we hit three out of our five metrics, not too shabby right?” And sadly, the third reason is marketers select several metrics just because it’s possible to collect them. To have more success with content marketing, choose one or two metrics. Is it easy to narrow down measurement to a couple items? No. Will it focus your content marketing program? Absolutely. If your team members understand that success is assessed by one or two metrics they can focus all their efforts on achieving those goals. Even though it takes more time to agree on what those fewer success metrics will be, it should pay off in the long run.
Also, related to your program metrics, make sure engagement isn’t listed as a desired outcome. Why? Because engagement isn’t a success metric. Yes, engagement is a good thing and usually leads to other positive things. But remember, engagement is a diagnostic look at how people consume your content. Think about what next (or final) action is most beneficial for your business.
3. Do you have the right tools?
If you’re getting into the content marketing game, you…
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