Content marketing is about more than just branding and SEO. It’s the evidence, analysis and information to back up your branding message and SEO strategies.
The primary aim of content marketing is to position your business as a thought leader within your market. Your content proves that you know your space, and can help those within your industry find solutions.
Effective content marketing is content that grabs the attention of your audience, over the competition. The goal is engagement and becoming top of mind, and this should be your focus.
To achieve this, it’s important to use content to demonstrate your value as a company. Blogs, videos, graphics and more need to be more engaging than others’ within your market, and be useful to prospects.
Ultimately, content needs to be the center of your marketing, including inbound, outbound and paid to improve lead generation.
Know your Buyer: Who Should Consume Your Content?
The first element of a successful content marketing strategy is to research your buyers. You need to know who, specifically, your content is targeting. To produce impactful and valuable content, you need to identify the problems they are having, and how to help.
To begin, research your competitors. Get to know their valuable customers, including demographics and further details. It is also important to take into account your current customers. Your product and content resonated with them, so define what they have in common.
Once you have a group of relevant buyers or potential buyers, narrow them down to demographics. Then, utilize some educated guesswork to break down their interests, hobbies, job roles and further details.
It is important to be as detailed as possible when identifying your buyer. Create a full profile, including their name, business, job, home life and more. This will help you to define their concerns and potentially relevant solutions. Your content will be guided by their motivations and problems.
Set your Goals
Consider what you want to achieve with your marketing strategy. Again, be specific. You should set a goal for each element of your strategy, and what you expect your content to achieve.
However, it is important to be realistic. Setting unachievable goals is setting your campaigns up for failure.
For example, define an increase in conversions or engagement. Use your previous analytics to identify what is achievable.
It’s also important to be realistic about your timeframe. This is especially true for SEO content, as it can take time to see results from optimization and inbound strategies.
Metrics and analytics are also important for measuring your success. Use them to establish where your strategy is performing, and where it’s not meeting expectations. The majority of website platforms, video platforms and social media sites offer analytics for your content.
Goals are important, as they guide your strategy. Your goal will decide whether your strategy has been successful. If you don’t meet your targets, use your goal to guide tests and changes to your strategy.
Clarify your Message
Your message is what you’re communicating with your buyer. Often, your message will be related to the problems they have, the potential solutions, or topics around their market. Your communication with your audience needs to be clear, and concise.
Make use of your buyers’ persona. Your profile details their working life, including the industry that they work in. Consider the problems within that industry. Your message should resonate with your buyer, and show that you understand their pain points.
Again, be specific with your message. Your business is valuable to them but define how. Ultimately, your business will be the solution within your content. However, it’s important to demonstrate that you have an in-depth understanding of their specific problems and your solution is worthy.
Ensure your message is timely, to stay ahead of the competition within your industry. This builds trust, as your prospects use your content as a primary resource. This demonstrates that you want to contribute to your field, and stay up to date.
Varied Content
It is important to use a varied selection of content. This could include blogs, white paper, infographics, videos and more. It can be easy to focus on written content, as this is the most recognisable form of content within marketing strategies. Blog uploads should be regular, but avoid relying on them as your only form of content.
A good content marketing strategy makes use of both multimedia and written content. It is important to demonstrate your experience, in a variety of mediums.
However, your target audience should guide your choice of content. Consider where your buyers’ persona spends their time looking for solutions. For example, younger buyers may spend more time on social media or LinkedIn. Multimedia content, including video, is more likely to succeed on social media platforms.
Generally, it is ideal to form a presence on many platforms. Create a website to host blogs and white papers, and maintain a social media presence. This will allow you to grab the attention of your buyers, provide value wherever possible, and stand out in your market.
Optimization and Distribution
The main benefit of content marketing is that it supplements all of your existing marketing efforts. Typically, content marketing is implemented into inbound marketing strategies. However, it can be in both outbound and paid strategies, too.
- SEO: When well optimized, your content can generate organic traffic. Ensure that you’re focusing on keywords, and following SEO rules. Blogs and white papers are ideal for SEO, and should rank well on the search engines like Google. However, video is also optimizable. YouTube is a popular search engine, and video titles and descriptions should be optimized to rank well in search.
- Outbound: Use your outbound strategies to distribute your valuable content. Consider offering content in your email campaigns. Multimedia emails will stand out from competitors in your buyers’ inbox. Your sequences should offer relevant content, in exchange for their conversion. This builds trust in your communications.
- Paid: Content can increase the conversion rate of your paid ads. Content is a much easier sell, as there is no pressure to take meetings or express further interest. Content with paid ads allows your prospects to approach you autonomously. On your next ad campaign, consider offering the download of a useful white paper, rather than “contact us now”.
Ensure you’re achieving maximum distribution of your content, to reach the furthest audience. Content should be the hook in all of your marketing strategies.
At Nituno, we have the expertise to create a wide variety of content. We integrate content into inbound, outbound and paid marketing strategies for B2B businesses. Get in touch with us today for quality content creation and improved lead generation.
