Brands should be spending 90% of their marketing efforts doing something momentous and 10% exploring strategies. The majority of this should be spent on content marketing strategies; research has revealed that content marketing generates more than three times as many leads as outbound marketing.
How does content marketing help your current strategy:
- SEO – search engines recognise and reward companies who publish high-quality, relevant content
- Social media marketing – people will share content if its’s not too sales-y. Make 80% of your social media content educational and engaging and only 20% of your posts conversion-driven.
- Inbound marketing – Good content can drive more traffic and leads to your website.
When creating your content marketing strategy, consider what you would like to achieve: leads, sales or brand awareness… then consider the following:
- Are you aiming to convey brand recall?
- Your audience and how to get to know them better.
- Your audience’s preferred tone of voice.
- What kind of content is most relevant to your audience?
- How do you create two-way engagement?
All content marketing strategies should have a call to action (CTA), once you know which one it is, it will be easier to create…
- Lead acquisition
- Lead retention
- Sales
- Engagement
- Brand awareness
- Brand recall
- Customer loyalty
Once you know your CTA, incorporate it into your strategy, whether it’s through:
- Videos
- Infographics
- Interviews
- Guides
- Tutorials
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Pictorials
- Industry news
- FAQs
- Surveys and polls
- Blogs and opinion articles
Make sure that you use keywords specific to your target audience. Use free keyword tools such as Google AdWords to help you find relevant words and phrases. Once you know your aims and goals, consider your KPIs and start creating your plan.