Content marketing is everywhere. As the web and social media have become integral parts of all of our lives, large and small companies are using content to build engagement with both current and potential customers.
Developing great content is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Providing excellent and relevant content to potential buyers establishes you as an expert and authority, and it helps engage potential customers throughout the buying cycle. This creates brand loyalty, improves retention, focuses attention, and generates leads. Engaging new and existing customers by educating them is a great way to build relationships, and it helps you become a thought leader and industry expert.
B2B-focused organizations are producing and promoting a large variety of content. Companies that sell to business buyers produce videos, white papers, articles, infographics, e-books, and more in order to engage potential customers at many points in the buying process.
Incredibly, 86% of marketers are using content marketing today. A recent Content Marketing Institute surveys show that the most popular types of B2B content are social media content, articles on a website, newsletters, blogs, events, case studies, and videos. B2C organizations are using slightly fewer types of content, but are still very active and use almost the same top seven types of content.
Many organizations just create a bunch of content, but it’s important to move from just creating content to leveraging it as part of an integrated strategy. This content marketing strategy should include designing the right content based on the needs of your audience, creating a manageable content program calendar, and promoting all your content using social media and digital advertising in order to drive traffic, leads, and sales. Your strategy should also include ways to measure the results of your content marketing program so you can clearly demonstrate to the organization how you’re making an impact.
Content Marketing Strategy Steps
The first step is for you to identify your content marketing goals, determine what you are trying to accomplish, and define the business benefits that you’re trying to achieve. In this step, you will also create the metrics you need to understand the impact you are making.
The second step is to review your website analytics, your competitors’ websites, and the content you already have through a comprehensive content audit.
Once we have that base in place, the third step is to create an editorial calendar so that you have a solid plan in place to create the content for your program. This will include creating a specific plan for who’s going to write or create the content you need for your program.
The fourth and final step is leveraging your content for results. This includes building your brand, engaging with your customers, getting leads, and ultimately growing sales. You’ll learn about how to use all of your content for SEO, digital advertising, e-mail, and a number of other programs.
To learn more about Content Marketing, download the complete Content Marketing Strategy White Paper.
