Much has been said about how important content is to the marketing strategy of a business. Yet, many entrepreneurs and newbie marketers fail to grasp the fundamentals of content marketing beyond posting blogs on their respective websites. As such, it is important to have a more detailed discussion about its basics. This way, companies can unlock the true potential of content marketing and use it to grow their brands.
SEO marketing experts in Utah have weighed in and summed it up into three important factors.
Clear Business Objectives
The phrase “art for art’s sake” has been widely criticized for good reason. In Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of it, he said it is akin to a worm chewing its own tail. That same criticism applies to content — in that there is no such thing as content for content’s sake.
Excellent content strategy is hinged on clear business objectives. Goals have to be specified in order to track and monitor the right metrics in ensuring the campaign’s overall efficacy. Measure something quantifiable, identify that, and rationalize why that matters to the content that you are creating.
Ask yourself why you are planning on using content for marketing in the first place. Is it to generate more traffic to your website? Is it to boost your brand’s authoritativeness? The answers to your questions matter and should be central to your strategy.
An Understanding of Your Audience
No type of content works for anyone. It is always tailored to a specific demographic with which the content is highly likely to be relatable. Data shows that seven out of 10 consumers find content to be effective in improving how much they feel close to a particular brand. Thus, it is crucial to understand your audience well enough so that you can create the right type of content for them.
The goal should not be to get your content published and indexed on Google, but to answer the questions and sate the curiosities of your target audience. Make use of every available data point in understanding your audience. From CRM and web traffic to search data and social listening, there are a lot of methods, techniques, and information you can use to paint a clear picture of who you need to market to.
Cohesion with Other Marketing Efforts
Your content strategy should be cohesive with every other marketing effort you make. Content does not exist in a vacuum, which means whatever you publish is simply a small part of your brand identity.
Messaging in all marketing efforts should be consistent so as to avoid confusion and improve impact. This step requires a certain level of coordination among every member of your team working on your marketing efforts. Everybody has to be on the same page as to why you are doing what you are doing.
Content strategy definitely goes beyond updating your blog each month. If you want to make sure that what you put online ticks the right boxes, be sure to incorporate these three elements into your overall game plan.
