Are you confused about how to achieve a successful content marketing strategy?
Whilst the vast majority of B2B marketers use some form of content marketing, many of them are still unsure when it comes to its effectiveness.
To help you develop effective content marketing plans, here is a simple guide, outlining the six main components of a solid strategy.
1. Targets — setting well-defined goals and working towards them is essential. It´s impossible to achieve all of them at once; a chaotic approach is unlikely to do any good. Think small; start with one marketing segment and work your way up from there, the Content Marketing Institute advises.
2. Context — it is very important that you fully understand the context of a customer´s situation. Examine the entire buyer journey and identify points to be emphasised, such as customer motivation.
3. Conversion goals — set small goals for conversion that will not only help you push customers through the buyer journey, but will also help you track your performance along the way.
4. Points of contact — this is extremely important. Identifying where exactly you want to reach your customers, i.e. by e-mail or social media, will give you a better idea as to the shape your content is going to take. Take into account the possibility that clients might reach you first, through search engines or recommendations, and be prepared to reply.
5. Alignment — all of the above points should come together at some point to create a whole strategy. Think of how contextual understanding, points of contact and the actual content you deliver work together.
6. Scale — being able to scale might be the answer to one of the biggest problems in content marketing – producing enough quality content. For instance, long pieces of content could be broken down to smaller sections, while a series of short pieces could be repackaged as a bigger item.
If you find you don´t have the time or resources to produce regular, quality-written content, you need to consider outsourcing to content generation experts. M2 Bespoke are online content specialists and produce a wide range of engaging content to all sorts of industries. If you want to remove the stress of producing content yourselves, contact our friendly team today and see how we can help.
By Ben Hollom