What’s your content marketing strategy?
70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing.
Nearly 40% of marketers say content marketing is a very important part of their overall marketing strategy.
In fact, “Content Marketing Strategy” is the most searched query related to content marketing, according to the SEMrush, 2019 report.
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as, a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
There are various types of content marketing that you can include in your strategy such as social media marketing, video marketing, podcasts, blogs, digital downloads, paid ads, etc.
Why Does Content Marketing Work?
Content marketing works because it takes the focus away from your product or service and puts it on your audience.
It starts with a deep understanding of your customer. It involves asking yourself, “What does my customer care about?” “What would my customer consider valuable?” Then delivering that value through content. It’s telling your brand story in a way that places the customer front and center.
What Benefits Does Content Marketing Offer?
If you are wondering whether content marketing is right for your business, the short answer is ‘yes, of course’. The benefits to be reaped are many and varied. By investing in content marketing, you can enjoy improved brand awareness, an engaged and loyal community around your brand, increased conversions, and improving your brand positioning.
How To Get Started
77% of companies say they have a content marketing strategy.
Many significantly increased their investment in content marketing in 2020.
Putting together your strategy involves thinking through and answering the following questions:
- Who is your audience and what kind of content would they like? As we’ve said before, your audience is the crux of your strategy. Marketers today create content for multiple audience segments — marketing to three audience segments is most common. Learn from your audience in their real environment. If you want to understand how a lion hunts don’t go to the zoo. Go to the jungle. Would your audience be more interested in short-form videos, as opposed to longer videos? Then social media marketing would be an integral part of your strategy.
- What are your goals, and how do they tie in with overall business goals? Your content marketing strategy should be in alignment with your overall business strategy. Your goals can be increasing sales, improving engagement, increasing web traffic, increasing brand awareness, etc. The important thing to remember is that your goals should be realistic and measurable.
- What budget are you working with? And how will you distribute that budget amongst your content marketing efforts? Does your budget reflect everything that you will need to make your content marketing successful? For example, will you need to hire more team members to support your strategy? Will you need to purchase equipment, software, or tools? That should be reflected in your budget.
- How will you distribute your content? Your strategy should include a plan for the creation, distribution, and analysis of your content. Think about how often you will be sharing your content, what kind of content goes on what channel, who is responsible for what, and how you will determine success.
How To Measure ROI
What we hear most from clients reluctant to invest in content marketing, is whether we can prove Return on Investment (ROI). This is understandable, as measuring ROI is the quickest way to getting executive buy-in. Plus, none of us want to flush our resources down the drain.
Chart a path to success before you start. What matters most to your stakeholders? The most common measurement of success for content marketing programs is Total Sales, followed by Web Traffic. Other valuable key performance indicators include leads, the average cost per lead, the average cost per conversion, CPC, engagement, impressions, reach, etc.
The world of content marketing is vast and nuanced. It can often feel overwhelming, with too much to keep track of, produce, analyze and report on. That’s where Reactionpower comes in. Our highly skilled team of marketing experts will help you craft an exceptional content strategy that is aligned with your overall business goals. We will take you from ideation to execution of your content strategy, so you can focus on other growth-driven initiatives. Talk to us, today!
