It’s time to get serious about your content marketing strategy. You can’t just wing it. It’s not about how much you produce, but more about what you produce. Your digital marketing team has to create content with a purpose. That means knowing your audience, their likes and dislikes, how your content will be distributed on social media and how that content will incentivize your audience. It means having a plan, one that adheres to the interests, needs and wants of each of your buyer personas. So, does your team have a plan or is it just going day-to-day hoping for the best?
It’s time to put yourself in your customers' shoes and produce thought-provoking and engaging content. Now, engaging content means different things to different audiences. What works for some buyer personas may not work for others, which is why having a plan is critical. Your content marketing plan can be encapsulated in a content marketing calendar, one that maps out your content pieces ahead of time, and one that allows you to pool your internal resources so that your publishing dates coincide with critical events throughout the year. Here are some questions to answer about your content marketing approach.
How well do you know your audience?
Your digital marketing team should have well-defined buyer personas. However, those character descriptions are never static or stationary. You have to constantly update what makes these personas tick. You must combine your historical data and customer knowledge with a forward-looking approach that considers emerging trends, ones that are changing your market's landscape. The success or failure of your entire content strategy depends upon how well you know your audience so getting this right is the all-important first step.
How well does your content perform?
Knowing which content pieces work best and why is critical to creating more engaging pieces. However, if you’re completely unaware of how your content is performing, or which content pieces your customers gravitate to, then you’ll always be left with your assumptions, and that never works. Your digital marketing team must be able to quantify your best content pieces and duplicate that success with an aggressive plan.
Are you tracking that performance?
It’s not just about the page views or the amount of time visitors spend on a given landing page. It’s what happens when they get there and whether you’re converting visitors. Your team should be tracking the performance of each of your landing pages and you should come up with a schedule of those reviews. Your customers are reacting in real-time and your content reviews must be a continuous effort, one where you’re constantly reviewing performance and making adjustments. Establishing key performance indicators (KPI) that track traffic and conversions is one way to bring stability to your reviews.
Do you follow your content marketing schedule?
This is where a content marketing calendar comes into play. A calendar allows you to plan content for trade shows, conferences, exhibits, special events and specific customer visits. It allows you to bring all your internal resources together so that you’re planning publishing dates to coincide with new product launches or product upgrades.
Your internal resources are key. For instance, if your audience includes engineers and technicians, then your own engineers and technicians may be the best resource for defining the types of content these personas would need. Try to align your buyer personas with your own internal resources. You’ll find that extra layer will help your digital marketing team produce content that makes an impact.
Do you put in the research legwork before committing to a topic?
That content calendar isn't just about identifying publishing dates. It’s really about planning how that content will be produced. You need to research a given topic from the perspective of your buyer personas. Focus on how your content will address their needs. Identify how it will interest them, engage them and convert them. Identify the topic, why it matters to your personas, and how your solution resolves your persona's problem.
Do you use CTAs?
There is nothing worse than reading elongated text with no images, no graphics, no videos and no call-to-action (CTA). Unfortunately, this is more prevalent than some might think. Your landing page's CTA is critical to converting visitors. It’s that all-important question that needs to be answered. You can produce excellent content that customers want to share - and do - but still fall short if you don’t use a CTA that captivates and motivates your audience.
Are your landing pages cluttered?
A high bounce rate is typically indicative of a landing page that lacks focus and purpose. It could be due to the search terms not matching the content on the page, or it could be because the landing page is cluttered and confusing. Trying to answer every possible question your customer might have doesn’t work. A cluttered landing page won’t convert. Keep it simple. We live in a world of instant gratification and customers aren’t interested in searching aimlessly for answers.
Is your audience confused about what to do next?
It’s common for a company to have great content and still not convert. You tend to see this when the time spent on a given page is high but conversions are low. This may be an indication that customers aren’t sure how to proceed. It could be that your CTA is not well placed. It can also be that they’re not convinced by your argument, or that the subject matter is interesting to them, but not exactly what they need. When visitors start randomly moving around your website, after spending a sufficient amount of time on your original landing page, then it’s a sure sign they’re intrigued, but don’t know how to proceed. Find out what is causing this issue and correct it.
Does your content have variety and is it focused on conversions?
You’ll never convert if all you do is present your visitors with elongated text. Your content needs to make an impact. You need variety. Ebooks, business whitepapers, customer case studies, infographics, videos, podcasts and webcasts, blog posts for both social media and your company’s blog, are all required to compete in today’s content marketplace. In fact, these are considered prerequisites nowadays as more digital marketing teams focus on apps and chatbots as customer engagement tools. Your content is meant to convert. Increasing conversion rates is a continuous effort that requires constant testing and tweaking. That means it must have a natural flow so that the customer is convinced of your argument and clicks on a CTA that closes the deal.
If you know your content needs to be upgraded, but you simply don't have the time to make the necessary changes, then an inbound marketing company may just be the solution you're looking for. They will take full responsibility for content creation. They can work with you to define your market and your customers while enacting a plan to grow traffic and increase conversion rates.
Do you need an inbound marketing company to put the content marketing pieces together for you? Get your business on track for success in 2018. The Connection Model team will work with you to help your business grow. Contact us now and request an assessment.
Written By: David Carpenter
