Rebelling

Content marketing helps businesses prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic and new leads. A good content marketing strategy aims at attracting and converting visitors into customers and existing customers into repeat buyers. The content created and shared should be unique, engaging and insightful as 70% of visitors prefer to learn about a brand through blogs, articles, videos, etc. A 2019 report states that 61% of content marketers still do not have a documented content marketing strategy. However, brands using content marketing strategies claim that their efforts are far more successful and organised than the ones not using it. The traffic and leads that are generated from content marketing provide brands with the flexibility to experiment with other marketing tactics to generate revenue, such as sponsored content, social media advertising and distributed content. Moreover, good quality content not only helps to attract leads but it also helps to educate target prospects and generate awareness for the brand. Following are some steps that can be followed while creating a strategy for content marketing:

1. Set & document your mission and goals

To begin with, set the content mission statement i.e. what the audience will receive from the brand through content and the goals that will be achieved from the strategy. This is a brief statement that makes it easier to focus on what is important and what can be ignored while creating content so that the content marketing strategy remains on track. A content marketing mission and goals may include:

• The target audience
• The content guidelines to be used to reach the audience
• The benefit the audience derives from that content
• Increase in sales
• Increase in revenue
• Generating more traffic
• Successful SEO backlinks
• Increased social media engagement

2. Establish KPIs

One of the best ways to achieve set goals is to make them specific and measurable. Therefore, it is important for brands to set key performance indicators (KPIs) for their content marketing strategy. The KPIs will help brands know when they have achieved their goals by providing milestones that can be checked off. KPIs include positive results in terms of revenue, sales, traffic, SEO, and social media metrics among others. For example, reaching a certain revenue target within the first quarter, getting an increased number of email subscribers, etc.

3. Know your audience

For a successful content marketing strategy, the brand needs to know its audience to create the right content and reach out to them. Knowing the audience includes 3 major steps: Collection of demographic data: Collect demographics of visitors, email subscribers and social media followers. Web analytics, social media analytics, and email subscriber analytics will give data needed on the audience’s age, education, gender and income. Customer feedback: To have in-depth knowledge about the audience, collect feedback from customers which may reveal how they feel about the content that is currently being produced; what are their urgent needs, etc. Receiving the correct feedback may help understand a subscriber’s priorities, decide on the best places to reach customers and understand buyer personas. Buyer persona: Buyer personas describe a brand’s ideal readers and customers so that brands can distribute content in a more effective manner. The best customer personas include information on customer’s pain points, challenges, sources of information and behavioural motivators. Once a brand has all of the information mentioned above, it will have a better understanding of:

• The kind of content the audience will respond to
• How it will help them
• What will make them care about the brand

4. Choose the correct content channel

At this point, brands have an idea about the online presence of their target audience. However, to be completely sure about it, brands need to check their web analytics. To check the source of the main social networks where content is generating maximum traffic, click on “Acquisition” then go to “Social” and select “Overview” in Google Analytics. With this information, brands can easily decide which networks to target to get maximum exposure for their content through social media channels.

5. Decide on the type of content

Most successful content marketing strategies rely on having a central core of content published on a brand’s own site which can be repurposed and shared on other sites. Therefore blog posts are an essential part of the content marketing mix that delivers effective results. Ideally, blog posts are actionable, valuable and shareable and may include a range of article types. Among other types of content, video marketing should be an essential part of content marketing as it keeps visitors engaged for longer periods of time, improves lead generation and reduces abandonment. Infographics are also a good way to drive traffic.

6. Create a content calendar

As part of the content strategy, brands need to know exactly when to publish the content on each of the target platforms. Lack of planning is a major mistake, so it’s essential to use a content calendar to schedule all possible content. If the above-mentioned steps are explored and followed, better content management and setting up the strategy for the next quarter won't be much of a hassle. In a competitive market, content is what differentiates one brand from the other and uplifts it. To know more on content marketing strategy, leave us a message and we will get back to you!