The Content Marketing Institute, an online resource for information on all things content marketing related, defines content marketing as a “marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” Many small business owners might be scratching your heads asking why it’s important to develop your own content marketing strategy. Well, for starters, content marketing raises awareness and educates your target customers. And when done correctly, the ROI can be a game-changer in terms of leads and sales.
However, most small businesses either haven’t developed a content marketing strategy or haven’t done so successfully. The Content Marketing Institute recently did a survey of marketers and found that 90 percent had a content marketing strategy. Yet only 34 percent considered their strategies effective – that’s a 66 percent failure rate. So what can you do to set your business up for success when putting together a content marketing strategy? Here are our three top tips:
Understand your audience
In order to create effective content, you need to first understand for whom you’re creating content. Start by building customer personas. This is a representation of who your ideal customer is and what she will be most interested in reading about in relation to your service/product and industry. Use actual customer data from your existing base – demographics, behaviors, habits, motivations and needs – to create the most accurate picture of who your customers are. Once you’ve figured that out, you can begin creating content that will address their needs and motivations, and ultimately push them to the next stage in the sales funnel.
Stick to a schedule
Consistency is key when it comes to implementing a successful marketing strategy. You can’t post three times a week for a month on the company blog and then essentially “ghost” your loyal readers. Create an editorial calendar laying out what you plan to cover over the next week, month or quarter – whatever works best for you. This will keep you on track and get the team into a rhythm that will be easier to maintain.
Measure the results
If the ultimate goal of creating a content marketing strategy is to get more leads and sales then use that to measure success. However, this isn’t always the goal across the board. For some it can be to improve customer experience and loyalty. If that’s the case, then measure sentiment among your customer base. This can be done with an email survey or gauged during customer support calls or chats. Whatever the goal may be, make sure you’re measuring success and adjusting as needed.
Content marketing takes commitment and alignment across the organization. It is essentially the foundation for your sales and marketing team to succeed, which is why it’s important that everyone is clear on the overarching goal behind your strategy. Even better, it is sure to give your small business an edge over competitors.
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