5 Content Marketing Strategies To Indulge In.

Do I really need to create a content marketing strategy?

That should be your first question before you even look at possible options to support your marketing strategy.

Yes! As we’ve learned time and time again, not only do you need a content marketing strategy, but it needs to be documented. If you do this, you’ll feel significantly less challenged with every aspect of content marketing, and will be able to use content marketing tactics and social media channels much more effectively. With a clear, documented strategy, you’ll be able to justify spending a higher percentage of your marketing budget on content marketing.

Content Goals.

Your content marketing plan should centre around a consistent content mission. It should describe your purpose for creating content and how you intend to use that content to help your customers solve their business problems.

You need to invest your time in developing a content mission that will help you develop a “best answer” approach for your customers. Furthermore, adapt your content mission into a single statement that you can share with your audience and use to decide what content you will and will not create.

Use the following recipe to develop a content mission:

• Determine who your content mission is for.
• Identify your message and determine how you will deliver the content to your audience.
• Set benchmarks for your desired outcome.

Content Calendar.

Carbohydrates provide your body with energy and let’s face it, they’re delicious. No grill out is complete without some tasty potato salad. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a good way to plan your content appropriately without overdoing it (just like when you find yourself facing down an enormous bread basket).

A well-developed content calendar will help keep you on track and aligned with your content mission. It’ll also help you and your team stick to deadlines – by setting a date well in advance, everyone involved can plan ahead and leave plenty of time for extra research, evaluation, or anything else that would normally disrupt a deadline.

Check out this great tutorial from Hootsuite if you need more help creating a content calendar.

Use the following recipe to develop a content calendar:

• Always identify who each piece of content is for.
• Create a consistent experience across all digital marketing channels to build confidence with your audience.
• Do research to ensure that all content is optimised for your customers and search engines.

Content Measurement.

In the heat of the moment, a very important element is often overlooked. To balance the fat and calories in some of the other dishes, make sure you can adjust the setup easily and update your plan effectively. Another often overlooked element of marketing programs is the importance of tying content to business objective and then measuring their impact.

You can use a wide variety of tracking software and analytics to monitor the performance of your content. It doesn’t matter if you get a bad result – you can use this information to create new content that will engage better with your audience.

Use the following recipe for content measurement:

• Identify benchmarks and set performance goals prior to launching content campaigns or assets.
• Utilise unique tracking URLs and tracking codes to properly identify sources for conversions.
• Review your metrics, see what is working and what is not and use that information to evolve your content strategy.

Unique Content Marketing Strategies.

Every once in awhile, you might bring something new into the mix and find that you’re pleasantly satisfied with the outcome. You never know, adding a little surprise or sudden change could potentially deliver excellent results!

Like the unexpected success and simplicity of a grilled steak, it’s important to provide your audience with something new from time to time that captures their attention. Testing new content types can help break marketers out of a content rut and create more stickiness with your audience.

Use the following recipe for developing unique content types:

• Collect information from your audience to determine which content types resonate with them the most.
• Go outside of your comfort zone and try something new, such as video interviews, infographics, interactive content, motion graphics, live-streaming video and more.
• Both successes and failures will teach you an incredible amount, and you’ll quickly learn how to delight your audience with unexpected content. They’ll stick with you because you’re giving them content they’re not getting anywhere else.

Looking at a content marketing strategy? We have qualified trained experts on standby to support your every move – read up on our Content Marketing.