A Quick Guide on Content Marketing Strategy
“Content is King” has been rightly said by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. When you produce quality content, it becomes the best sales tool in the world.
However, to gain maximum ROI (Return on Investment) from your content, you need an equally great content marketing strategy. Remember, it’s not the best content that wins. It’s the best-marketed content that wins.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that content marketing fills the gap between what your brand wants to say and what your audience wants to hear.
According to a stat, 96% of marketers admit that content marketing helps them win their audience’s trust.
If you’re a small business or marketing executive looking to leverage content marketing, this is the right time. As per CMI (Content Marketing Institute), 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach their target audience. So don’t miss out on this opportunity.
This quick guide will make you familiar with what content marketing is, its importance, and how you can create a winning content marketing strategy.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic approach that focuses on producing and delivering useful, appropriate, and constant content to entice and retain the target audience.
In this marketing type, you don’t pitch your service or product directly to your customers; rather, you provide valuable content that solves their problems.
In modern times, there are various forms of content marketing. A few major ones include:
- Video
- Pictures
- Blogging
- Infographics
- Podcasting
- Social media posts
Importance of a Content Marketing Strategy for Brands
1. Improvement in Brand Reputation
Over the past few years, content marketing has turned into the best way to attract and convert customers. A lot of small businesses don’t realise, but content marketing has reputation-building capabilities.
In the modern digital marketplace, you can’t survive without building trust among your customers. Remember, content marketing helps you with that.
2. Brand Awareness
Valuable and relevant content helps you connect with your audience. It enables prospects to find your business through your informative and useful content.
72% of marketers admit that content marketing increases engagement and the number of leads.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 86% of marketers reach their brand awareness goals via content marketing.
3. More Conversions
No matter what business you’re into, your end goal is to generate some good revenue. For that, you need constant conversions.
Several stats confirm that content marketing plays a significant role in improving conversions.
Alone in the United States, 61% of consumers make purchases after reading recommendations on a blog.
74% of companies observed that content marketing strategies have increased their marketing leads.
Since content marketing enables you to educate your customers, it naturally improves conversion and eventually revenue.
4. Connect with The Audience via Multiple Channels
Content marketing allows you to connect to your prospects through several platforms. Everyone has different preferences when it comes to content consumption. For instance, some prospects are visual learners while others prefer to read.
Depending on your prospects’ choice, you may choose multiple content marketing mediums, including videos, infographics, blog posts, photo essays, podcasts, webinars, etc.
How to Do Content Marketing?
No matter the type of content marketing you choose, you should focus on the 3 Ps of content marketing. These are Planning, Production, and Promotion.
Planning
Like in every marketing discipline, planning plays a crucial role in content marketing. If you have a well-planned, documented content marketing strategy, it will certainly meet your goals.
Production
An excellent content production includes creating content that builds awareness, brings leads and ultimately improves sales.
Promotion
You must choose the right platform and timing to promote your content. Also, measure the progress and make necessary changes accordingly.
Steps to Create a Winning Content Marketing Strategy
Below we have put together steps to create a winning content marketing strategy. Let’s get to know about them one-by-one.
Set Your Goal/Mission
Until you have goals, you can’t be passionate about what you do. So first, have a goal for your content marketing. It will make it easier for you to focus on what’s essential in creating the right content. It also helps you stay consistent and on track.
Your mission/goal should outline:
- Your target audience
- The type of content you will use to reach them
- The advantage they will get
Know Your Audience
A lot of new businesses ask us how to make their content marketing strategy effective. Well, if you know your audience, you can create appropriate content to reach them.
To understand your customers, you should:
- Accumulate demographic data like age, education, gender, and income via social media analytics and web analytics.
- Get feedback from current customers. Also, learn what they feel about the content you’re generating and what their needs are.
It will help you learn your customers’ priorities. Moreover, thus you can decide on the best platform to reach your customers.
Decide on Content-Type
As mentioned above, there are several types of content available. You need to decide the type of content you should create. Nowadays, successful content marketing strategies rely on multiple content types, such as infographics, blog content, videos, podcasts, etc.
At EmotiveEye, we work closely with our clients to find out which content type will help them. We’re experts in both texts as well as visual content.
Create a Calendar
To gain the maximum benefit out of your content marketing strategy, post your content consistently. A content calendar can help you get your content scheduled.
You may use Google Calendar to put the due dates for each piece of content. It’s the easiest approach. However, if you’re publishing a lot of content, you will need to have a team to manage production and publishing workflow.
Create Content & Distribute It
Before you create content, analyse how it can add value to your customers. Make sure the content you produce replicates your brand’s personality.
The next significant part of your content marketing strategy is distribution and marketing. Some points you should consider when distributing content include:
- Set a timetable for sharing your content on social media.
- Use email marketing to share your content with your subscribers.
- Contact influencers to promote your content.
Measure Results
Measure the results to review the success of your content marketing strategy. You can use Google Analytics to see the performance of your content on your website. For measuring social sharing activity, you can use social analytics.
At EmotiveEye, we help businesses connect to their clients through consistent and high-quality content marketing. We plan, create, and share valuable content to attract and convert prospects into clients, and customers into repeat consumers.
If you’re planning to invest in content marketing or need consultancy, reach out to our experts. You may book your appointment now.