Create a Content Marketing Strategy Your Customers will LOVE, in 7 Steps
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The document outlines a 7-step process for creating an effective content marketing strategy: 1) Define objectives, 2) Identify your brand's unique value proposition, 3) Establish metrics for measurement, 4) Profile target audiences, 5) Research audience needs, 6) Plan appropriate content formats, and 7) Develop an amplification plan to promote content. The strategy emphasizes understanding audiences, creating useful content, and distributing content through multiple channels to meet business goals such as increasing awareness, sales, or loyalty.
Create a Content Marketing Strategy Your Customers will LOVE, in 7 Steps
- 1. Create a Content Marketing Strategy Your Customers Will Love, in 7 Steps
- 3. Content Marketing Isn’t New
- 4. How to keep your plants watered on vacation, circa 1910 (from U.K. cigarette company)
- 5. How to keep your plants watered on vacation, circa 2013 (from Lowe’s, via Vine video)
- 6. Content Creates Trust, and This Has Always Been True
- 7. And Trust is the Filter Through Which All Business Success Must Pass
- 8. Our Emphasis on Content is What’s New
- 9. Nearly a third of B2B marketers are spending 25% of their budget (or more) on content marketing Content Marketing Institute, 2014
- 10. Why? ! The Old Ways of Marketing Don’t Work (like they used to)
- 11. Top-of-mind Awareness is Difficult and Expensive
- 12. Inbound Marketing is Only Half the Battle
- 13. Inbound marketing doesn’t create demand for your products, it simply fulfills it. Nobody goes to Google and says “just surprise me.”
- 14. Content Marketing Works if it is Useful, Inspirational, Motivational.
- 15. if you have a documented strategy
- 16. 83% of B2B marketers have a content strategy, but only 35% have it documented Content Marketing Institute, 2014
- 17. let’s fix that also, my company - Convince & Convert - creates killer content marketing strategic plans for some of the most interesting companies in the world. ! ! ConvinceAndConvert.com
- 18. Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps objectives 1 what’s your one thing? 2 measurement 3 audiences 4 audience needs 5 content executions 6 content amplification 7
- 19. 1 Objectives
- 20. Why are you doing this at all?
- 21. Is Content Marketing going to increase awareness?
- 22. Is Content Marketing going to increase sales?
- 23. Is Content Marketing going to increase loyalty?
- 24. Content objectives are all over the board. Don’t do that. Pick a rationale for content marketing and stick with it.
- 25. Remember: the goal is NOT to be good at content. ! The goal is to be good at business because of content.
- 26. document this: Because of content marketing, our customers will _______, our prospective customers will ________, and our business will _________.
- 27. 2 What’s Your One Thing?
- 28. Guess what? Someone has already thought of your great idea.
- 29. What’s special about YOU and YOUR content?
- 30. It’s usually not your products and services
- 31. Your “ONE THING” is the soul of your company that shines through all your content marketing
- 32. Give yourself permission to make the story BIGGER
- 33. How to buy a used car infographic….from a locksmith!
- 34. document this: People will care about our content because of _______. Our content will inspire and motivate them because of _________.
- 35. 3 Measurement
- 36. Your objectives dictate your metrics
- 37. If your objective is brand awareness, you must measure that, not something else
- 38. The 4 Categories of Content Marketing Metrics
- 39. Remember: if you want to track behavior, you have to do something that is trackable
- 40. ! ! ! ConvinceAndConvert.com
- 41. Don’t track everything. Track a few things that actually matter
- 42. document this: We will know our content is working because we will track _______, ________, and ____________.
- 43. 4 Audiences
- 44. Your objectives also dictate your audiences
- 45. Use personas to model your desired audiences
- 46. Who are they? What do they like? How do they spend their time? What influences them?
- 47. document this: The audiences for our content marketing are described by this persona (_______), this persona (_______), and this persona (_______).
- 48. 5 Audience Needs
- 49. What content do your audiences WANT from you? ! What is Youtility for them?
- 50. Youtility is marketing so useful, people would pay for it ! ! ! YoutilityBook.com (free resources)
- 51. Multiple sources to find audience NEEDS: ! • Web analytics (popular content) • Internal search data • Search analytics (popular search terms) • Social listening • Sales/customer service • Customer interviews
- 52. Remember: don’t settle for data. ! Get real insights.
- 53. Organize your audience needs by persona and buying stage
- 54. Awareness! Confirmation! Interest! Purchase! features price suitability and risk avoidance
- 55. How much content do you need?
- 56. Personas X Buying Stages X Questions per Stage
- 57. Personas (5) X Buying Stages (4) X Questions per Stage (5) = 100 pieces of content
- 58. Don’t be afraid to pursue Cooperative Content
- 59. Instagram photo posted by dog lover, and noticed by NestlePurina’s Beggin Strips brand
- 60. With permission, Beggin re-crops photo and posts to it own Instagram account
- 61. Beggin then re-crops again, adds watermark and headline, and posts to its Facebook page. Cooperative Content at work!
- 62. Employees are also a great source of Cooperative Content
- 63. document this: Our buying stages are_______, _______,_______ and ______. We have listed all the questions our personas need to move through each stage here: _______.
- 65. Remember: don’t do this step out of order. ! You don’t have to have a blog, you have to satisfy audience needs.
- 66. Use personas and audience research to determine optimal content types
- 67. What works in content marketing varies considerably. Content Marketing Institute, 2014
- 68. Remember: don’t rely on other people’s case studies…do your own research
- 69. Remember: if you only pay attention to averages, you’ll always be an average marketer
- 70. Two main types of content executions: Bricks Feathers
- 71. Bricks are: ! • Heavier • More permanent • More production value • Passed along and saved • Usually targeted closer to decision
- 72. Awareness! Confirmation! Interest! Purchase! features price suitability and risk avoidance
- 73. Feathers are: ! • Lighter • Disposable • Less production value • Usually targeted at initial stages
- 74. Awareness! Confirmation! Interest! Purchase! features price suitability and risk avoidance
- 75. This very detailed research report is a brick
- 76. This blog post is a feather
- 77. Unless personas have VERY clear content format preferences, consider atomizing content across multiple types
- 78. Remember: you can take your bricks and turn them into many feathers, in many places
- 79. The BBC now creates 15-second news stories with Instagram video. A BBC television broadcast is a brick. This is a feather.
- 80. Create a content planning worksheet: Date Format/Channel Author Description Persona(s) Audience Need(s) Funnel Stage Call-to-Action Measurement
- 83. Remember: define WHAT you want content consumers to do next !
- 84. Put your content strategy on a detailed calendar with views by week, month, quarter, year
- 85. Excel or Google docs at first, dedicated software eventually for calendaring
- 86. document this: For each audience need, we will create content in one or more ways, and will create a worksheet to organize content, timelines, and calls-to-action.
- 88. The fact that you created some content does NOT mean anyone will see it (or care about it)
- 89. Remember: Content is fire. ! Social media is gasoline. !
- 90. You must market your marketing and create a distribution plan for each piece of content
- 91. Amplification options: Employees’ social Customers’ social Email (internal + external) Organic search Paid search Display ads Organice social Paid social Guest posts Earned meda (PR) Offline ads
- 92. document this: For this piece of content, we will amplify it with ______, ______, and ______.
- 93. Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps objectives 1 what’s your one thing? 2 measurement 3 audiences 4 audience needs 5 content executions 6 content amplification 7
- 94. Remember: your job is not to make brochures ! Your job is to tell interesting and informative stories.
- 95. ConvinceAndConvert.com how can we help you?