Published on July 29th, 2016 | by Guest

Anatomy of a fully executed content marketing strategy

Content marketing, when done correctly, is an effective strategy to create and share content that promotes ideas, targets a specific audience and calls them to take a certain action. Why is it so essential for companies to perfect their content marketing strategy? A recent survey showed that 70% of consumers prefer articles to ads when it comes to getting to know companies, and 60% feel positive about brands after reading their content. Follow these steps to craft a fully executed content marketing strategy:

Keep it consistent.

Successful content marketing can involve many different channels, from blogs, social media advertising and pay-per-click ads to informational brochures and email campaigns. Although the content may vary between each of these channels, one thing has to remain consistent: branding. The purpose of branding is to make your company’s name recognizable to consumers. If you present your brand in different ways depending on the channel, consumers will have trouble remembering who you are and what they know about the brand.

Listen to customers.

Before writing any content, marketers must take the time to listen to their customers. Identify what needs they have, what questions they need answered, and what information they seek out. Prepare the necessary content in a way that’s easy for your audience to understand. For example, a business that repairs cars for consumers could write easy to understand content pieces on how to know when a car is in need of repair. However, if this company sold replacement parts to car dealerships or other mechanics, their content could be much more detailed and in-depth, since these audiences have a higher level of knowledge about the topic.

Focus on quality.

Many marketing managers wrongly assume that quantity is more important than quality when it comes to producing content. Yes, Google does take the quantity of content pieces into consideration when determining search engine rank for brands. However, quality is by far the most important factor when it comes to content. Without quality, consumers will never revisit your site, and you will have failed to develop a relationship with a potential new customer. Take the time to produce one quality piece instead of pumping out 20 poorly written articles.

Optimize it.

Speaking of Google rankings, be sure that your content pieces are optimized for SEO. Consult with the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to search for keywords that are relevant to your brand and popular with consumers. Try to find one that has a balance between high number of searches and low to moderate competition. Once you’ve identified keywords, begin including these naturally within your content. To properly optimize the content, try to include the keywords in your article title, first sentence and at least one header.

Call to action.

What’s the point of your content? Do you want consumers to click through your website to find more information? Sign up for a consultation? Purchase a product that will fulfill a need you identified for them? Whatever it is, make sure you explicitly state a call to action. For many channels, asking consumers to share the post or blog is a preferred call to action to increase reach and go viral. Be sure to only give consumers one call to action per content piece so as not to overwhelm or confuse them.

Remember, the key to any marketing plan is to evaluate and adjust as you go. If one strategy or content piece is working better than others, try to assess why it was such a success and use these findings to make changes to the strategy going forward.

Author bio:

Jonathon Ohayon is the COO of Brilliance.com and has been managing companies and motivating people since the 6th grade. As a proven business leader and gemologist, he is uniquely skilled in navigating the ever changing e-commerce landscape. When he is not answering emails into the wee hours of the night, he can be found spending time with his wife and three children.

Tags: anatomy, content, marketing, strategy