A content marketing strategy is the “why are brands creating the content,” who are they helping, and how this will help them in a way no other brand can. Content marketing is usually used to build a target audience and reach one profitable goal, either increase in revenue or lower costs. Brands who do have a content marketing strategy usually have successful marketing tactics compared to the ones that don’t. There are several steps companies have to go through to have an effective strategy, like setting their mission and goals, establish KPI’s, knowing their target audience, finding the best content channels, creating the content, distribute and market, and measuring the results.
First, setting their mission and goals is a good starting point to get a brand content to their consumers. A brief statement makes it easier to focus on what’s important, and in creating content that allows a brand’s strategy to stay on track. The mission statement should show the company’s target audience, the content to reach them, and the benefit they will gain. Typical goals should be included as well, such as SEO success, social media engagement, and making more sales. All of these essential factors can lead to more traffic and the brand from receiving more high-quality leads.
Second, establishing KPIs allows businesses to make their goals specific and measurable. KPIs include milestones for the company to achieve, like in traffic, revenue, and different aspects like social media metrics. A business’s KPI can be to improve its search ranking, while others in the same market can be to get more email subscribers.
Third, a brand has to know their target audience to create the right content to reach them. Companies need to collect demographic data on their visitors, social media followers, and website subscribers like age, income, gender, and education. They will get insights on their key interests and elements on their typical consumer. With this information, they can create a buyer persona, to describe their ideal customer and know their pain points, sources of information, and challenges. This makes it easier for brands to create content for their audience.
They also need to find the best content channels to reach their consumers. Brands need to see what social media platforms their consumers are using, and their best performing platforms. For example, Google Analytics shows business the main social networks where their content is being shared and how well that content is performing among a wide array of platforms.
Creating content is one of the most essential steps in this process. Brands keep all of their information together to create their blog post, their image, or article. When creating the content, the main point is to reflect the brand’s personality in the content. Something unique, creative, and professional that will have the consumers wanting to know more. For distributing and marketing, companies can notify any influencers mentioning their product or service to help spread the word or use email marketing to distribute the content to their subscribers and post on their social media channels.
Lastly, measuring results is when the companies refer back to their KPI and see what changed, and whether their content is truly impacting their consumers. Websites like Google Analytics, and Buzzsumo can help track how the content is performing and measuring the social sharing activity.
As a social media coordinator for a local fitness studio, we are constantly forming content marketing strategies to keep up with trends and surpass our competitors. For example, we have to make a new content market strategy quarterly to attract new consumers and keep our current client base engaged. We make mini challenges for them to complete, create interactive content like mini-quizzes, and promote free webinars on nutrition to help them through their fitness journey. All of the different steps and tactics mentioned are essential elements brands need to make an effective and successful content marketing strategy and out-perform the competitors in their industry and reach their company goals.