Before the introduction of the modern marketing landscape, marketing businesses used to be quite easy. A billboard here and a magazine ad there would suffice advertise to the target audience. However, as the marketing landscape evolved and the digital native became the primary consumer, companies ventured onto the internet to reach such consumers.
Sadly, the advent of ad blockers crippled the marketing industry with every consumer looking to quiet down all the noise that these ads made. This meant that only the savvy marketers would manage to reach this audience and those that have been embracing content marketing have always made it when it came to interacting with such an audience. If you struggle to keep up with this trend, then this is the article for you.
Here is why you ought to include content marketing in your marketing arsenal and how to do so:
Why You Need Content Marketing
Unlike ads, content provides some form of value to your target customer. In fact, people will consume an average of 11.4 pieces of content before choosing to move forward with a purchasing decision. Since the typical modern buyer might not make decisions by following ads, content marketing provides a non-invasive way of promoting your brand.
Additionally, content marketing also helps to create a story for your brand through which people can relate. In times of crisis, content creation will also work as a strong platform through which you can move forward with your brand’s PR strategy.
Steps for Approaching Content Marketing
Content marketing is more than a one-time thing. You will need to commit to it fully. Other than working on blog posts and social media posts, you will also need to concentrate on measuring the success of your strategies. Here is how to best approach content marketing:
1. Review Last Year’s Goals
Did you achieve the goals that you had planned last year? Pay attention to the metrics that you had set and determine whether the outcomes were as you expected. If you feel that you fell short of any of your goals, look for the root cause of the failures.
Did you need to use more content or would approaching negative reviews in a different manner have worked for you? Answering these questions will help. If you hadn’t started out with content marketing, now would be the right time to set up accounts for analytics as well as set up the right parameters.
2. Identify Who Your Audience Is
How specific can you be in defining your target audience? The more specific your buyer persona is, the easier it will be to reach them with your content. The trick is identifying their pain points and learning what makes them tick. Here is a sample of what you need to understand about your target demographics:
- Interests
- Location: where exactly are they located?
- Their jobs
- What kind of product would they like from you?
- What are some of the concerns they have with such products?
- What is the average age of the demographic?
- What websites do they spend most of their time on?
This knowledge of the target demographic will help you to create content that resonates with them. Information such as the websites they like to visit will also help you to determine how to best connect with them.
3. Create Specific Marketing Goals
Vague goals will not suffice in the quest to have measurable results. Goals such as ‘increased revenue’ aren’t actionable enough. Your goals need to be SMART:
- Specific: they should be aimed at a specific thing such as boosting website traffic to 100,000 visitors.
- Measurable: the goals ought to have metrics that can easily be used to determine that they have been achieved.
- Achievable: the bar that you set through these goals should be easy to reach within the limited time frame.
- Relevant: the goals ought to provide an intersection between the profitability of your business and your customer needs.
- Timely: set a deadline for achieving these goals. This can be monthly or even quarterly.
4. How Will the Goals Be Achieved?
Brainstorm what you think might be the best way to achieve these goals that you have set. If you think that committing to case studies will interest your customers, why not commit to them? Talk with your marketing team if you have one so that you can try and tweak these ideas into actionable steps.
5. What Resources Do You Have at Your Disposal?
Pay attention to the time and resources that you will need to commit to these goals. This will ensure that you do not set goals that aren’t within your reach. If you need to invest in something first, ensure that you have the financial capacity to do so. A well-defined path should include items such as social media dashboards, Google Analytics or even working with a content marketing company.
6. Commit to Reviewing Your Strategy
Once you start committing to your goals, it only makes sense to keep measuring how close you are to achieving them; track your progress every month. If you feel that you are veering off your goals, look for ways to make changes to your pieces of content. Add some complexity to your content marketing strategy such as by including email marketing. If the places you share your content are the issue, why not switch it up? Make new goals if you feel that you have achieved your current ones.
7. Work with a Content Development Firm
While creating a content marketing strategy might seem easy, getting it implemented might be a struggle due to time constraints. It might be wise to work with content marketing agencies such as RapidEssay. Such companies will not only help save you time but also offer quality content that your potential customer can relate to.
Content marketing is an easy and non-invasive way to draw in your target demographic. However, your success rate trickles down to how you commit to your content marketing goals. Consider the steps above to fortify your online brand identity.
