Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable and relevant content for the target audience. A content marketing strategy is a part of a business’s digital marketing strategy that delivers the said content consistently and engagingly. The main aim of a content marketing strategy is to bring in new users and keep the current ones engaged.
The most critical aspect of content marketing is creating quality and unique content. To develop this content, you need to research the subject, create content around it, and publish it. The next step is promoting it to ensure it reaches your target audience. You can create content in any format – text-based like blogs and articles, videos, audios, podcasts, or graphics.
Importance of Content Marketing for Business Growth
Content marketing is essential as it can generate three times more leads than paid advertising. Seems incredible? That’s because it is.
But writing great content is only a part of the story. A strategic approach to developing and distributing content can work wonders for your lead generation. Let’s see a few things that a great content marketing strategy can do for you.
Tells your brand’s story. Your content is like your visiting card that gives your potential customers a feel of your brand. The tone, approach, language, and other parameters connect with the audience and tell your story.
Generates leads. When the content is engaging, it may be a blog or a meme, the word spreads. Users share the content and bring new users to engage with the brand. These new engagements lead to a broader reach for the business and an expansion of its customer base.
Guides the buyer’s journey. Engaging content shows the users where to begin the exploration of the brand and how to move forward. It can convert visitors into customers by leading them towards the desired outcome by delivering a convincing call to action.
Developing a Robust Content Marketing Strategy
Think of content marketing as a job interview, where your content is the candidate looking to get hired by your potential customers. Interaction with the content means it got the interview, and fulfilling the call to action means it got hired.
Writing quality content gets you in the door. Making sure it’s unique and different from your competitors makes it that much more attractive as a candidate. Promoting the content through the proper channels ensures that the right ‘recruiters’ see it and take action.
Let’s now discuss the top things you need to put in place for a robust and effective content marketing strategy.
Best Practices to Follow While Developing a Content Marketing Strategy
1. Know Your Target Audience
This step is the first and foremost aspect of designing your content marketing strategy. Your content and its format get decided by the nature and interest of the target audience. Suppose you write a 1000-word article and publish it on Medium for your target audience of young girls looking to pick up makeup tips. Do you think your content will do well? Of course not! Common sense dictates that you would do well to create a video and rope in a social influencer for extra points.
Pro tip: Keep asking your audiences for feedback and even ask them to create stuff and send it to you.
2. Do Your Technical Due Diligence Properly
Performing SEO and competitive research before creating content are critical for delivering unique and high-quality assets. This step seems obvious, but often, businesses cut corners here. Many cheap options are available in the market, but investing in the right people and technical tools pays rich dividends in the long run.
Instead of hiring experts to handle various aspects of content marketing, they prefer one person who can function in multiple roles. Such practices are often a mistake, as everyone has their specific expertise and may not do justice to multiple positions.
For example, asking your content creators to double up as campaign managers may seem logical, but it can backfire when campaign strategy gets more complex.
Pro tip: Invest in tools that can scale with your business and people who gel with our values.
3. Have a Distinct Voice
Having a strong brand identity and converting it into a distinct voice is the key to a successful content marketing strategy. Apple’s distinctive way of creating visuals and the signature style of writing the copy make them instantly recognizable. They keep their narrative consistent and always aligned to the brand’s vision.
When people associate a signature style to your content and connect with your message, you know you have hit the sweet spot of developing a brand following. This distinct voice becomes your USP and helps you stand apart from your competitors.
Pro tip: Experiment with different ways of delivering your message to find your voice.
4. Use AI-driven Analytics to Know What’s Working
We cannot emphasize enough the importance of using analytics to understand what is working and what is not. Modern analytics tools use AI to dive deep into the user data collected and dig out insights and patterns that are simply not possible for humans to spot.
AI-driven tools can severely cut down the need to monitor data and automate many reporting functionalities. Getting timely reports allows you to fine-tune your strategy and reap greater rewards.
Pro tip: Hand over repetitive tasks to AI tools and see your marketing efficiency increase!
5. Be Consistent in Delivering New Content
Many brands have created a solid social presence using content in new and exciting formats. Their audiences look to engage with their content actively.
For example, take Wistia, a professional video marketing and hosting provider. It delivers information about its offerings in a TV format and uses humor to drive its point of view home. The TV series that the brand is showcasing is both engaging and effective.
Pro tip: Do not shy away from breaking stereotypes and using new formats to broadcast your message.
Conclusion
Content marketing has changed a lot over the years, and while there are basic practices that deliver results, the most successful strategies require consistent and constant effort. Connect with us to know how you can design one that produces leads and drives user engagement consistently.
