Did you know that about 84% of organisations have a content strategy in place? Amazing right? Seeing how relevant content is, it will not be wrong to say one of the key factors in determining a business’
success is through the success of its content strategy.
As said by Andrew Davis –
“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.”
Today, the best place for a business is to be online and create content that drives your business towards its potential growth.
By building your strategy the right way, you can make sure that among the 79% of companies using content marketing to generate potential leads, yours is the one that stands apart.
There is no cheat sheet, no quick tips, just one way to succeed at it. Eager to know what it is? It is when a reader says:
“This content was written especially for me.”
Now, you must be wondering how to make a promising strategy. What needs to be done? Well, you’re at the right place. In this blog, we will introduce you to its 3 core elements you should be familiar with. But first, let’s explore some basics.
What is a Content Strategy?
Content strategy is a process of converting business goals and purposes into a blueprint that uses content as the principal source of fulfilling those goals.
A strategy is essential as it facilitates the planning of your content marketing campaign. In the absence of a strategy, you will basically be jumping from tactics to tactics with little or no result. It is like shooting darts in the dark, hoping that some time you will hit the target.
However, with the help of a well-laid-out strategy, you can develop a thorough plan of action. This doesn’t mean that your strategy should be rigid. Depending on what is working for you, you can and should change your strategy from time to time.
Let’s understand the importance of an effective strategy with the help of a real-time case study:
“Urbanbound,” a B2B software company, was facing issues generating leads owing to the scattered content efforts. Hence, they chose to curate a content-rich customer-centric campaign. The campaign involved steps for deciding which topics to focus on, they identified customer pressure points and the primary topic to circle their content on. By generating multiple forms of content such as blog posts, webinars, ebooks, infographics, and more, they achieved significant results – a 37% rise in blog traffic, a 35% rise in potential leads, and so on.
Also Read: what is content marketing strategy
Fundaental components of a robust content strategy
To build a robust strategy that furnishes results, it is crucial to take care of its three core components. With these components combined, an effective strategy is formed. Let’s discuss what these components are.
- Content Creation & Distribution
“An ordinary person consumes an average of 7 hours of content daily”
Content creation is an ever-evolving component of a result-oriented strategy. It is the process of creating appealing content that appeals to your target audience while also aligning with your goals. Content creation can be done in various forms – written, visual, verbal, or more.
You can create content around ideas that best serve your potential visitors and optimise your content with relevant SEO backlinks from time to time to keep the content ranking higher, as you wouldn’t want your content to be lost in a big pile. Targeting topics and ideas with higher rankings while keeping the company goals in mind is an essential step.
Once you’ve decided on the content ideas you want to move on with, ensure you establish a well-planned distribution plan. Make a content calendar consisting of pieces to be published and when to be published, upcoming promotional events, updates on published content, and more.
The next steps are to decide how, where, and when to publish. Deciding on different marketing channels, such as paid media, free media, or earned media – that line up with objectives and audience profiles is important.
Enlightening Fact: A whopping 89% of companies distribute their content through organic search channels.
Also, make sure to decide on frequency, as it is a dicey part; there’s a fine line between finding the perfect frequency. Too little audience won’t engage; too many visitors might get exhausted. Finding an ideal frequency where quantity meets engagement is the way to go.
- Content Marketing
The next unbeatable component is content marketing. Content marketing can be called the “King of All.” Even if you create compelling content and distribute it effectively, it still won’t achieve its desired results if it isn’t marketed correctly.
Now, if you think it’s a new concept, then let me break your bubble; it isn’t.
Content marketing has been there for as long as we can think. If you’ve got the idea that Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms are where content marketing takes place. let me stop you right there. Content marketing has been around far before the Internet came into existence.
How?
Content marketing is all about storytelling, and we’ve been telling stories for so long now. Even with all the changes taking place, with the appropriate marketing channels, there are plenty of opportunities on the way.
To define content marketing concisely: Content marketing is a marketing technique to engage and retain an audience via creating and sharing captivating content in various forms. This technique promotes your brand in the most subtle manner so that when it’s time to buy what you sell, you’ll be at the top of your audience’s mind.
Some relevant statistics related to content marketing are:
- Businesses having a working blog gain 67% more potential leads than other businesses.
- 72% of B2B marketers state that functional content marketing strategies enhance the engagement and the number of leads they make.
- Now, how can you market your content the way it shoots up your engagement? Below are a few step to take –
- Use a combination of diverse social media platforms.
- Include rich media
- Make use of paid media
- Go for guest blogging
- Be consistent with the content frequency
- Human touch is the key.
- Keep the content engaging and crisp
- Expand to advertising and PR
Next, last but not the least component is content analysis (also known as content audit). So, without taking any more of your precious time, let’s get to it.
- Content Analysis
Without this element, no strategy is successful. Whether or not, you’ve built the most successful strategy, you still won’t be able to get it to its full potential if you’ve not analysed it. In easy terms, the performance of the content you create and publish can be tracked by performing the content review.
It’s pretty easy, actually,
All you need to do is establish specific KPIs according to your goals, and these KPIs can be your standard to measure your content performance. There can be different metrics to measure, such as search engine ranking, social shares, conversion rate, traffic, and more – it all depends on your set goals. Apart from this, you can also analyse your competition. Getting an understanding of your competitor’s content performance can, in turn, help you make better content strategies.
Let’s understand this with an example: by performing content analysis in qualitative research, you can check if there are certain keywords your competitor ranks for, but you do not. After knowing about these keywords, you can create content around them to raise your website’s organic traffic.
If I may add, there are two content analysis method to be aware of. Both serve different purposes. However, both can help you evaluate your content. Not just separate pieces but your whole strategy. These methods are –
(Get ready for the big reveal!)
- Quantitative content analysis
- Qualitative content analysis
Further, there are a few tools you can use to thoroughly analyse your content. Some of my favourites are:
- Google Analytics
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Google Search Console
Content analysis not only helps you find gaps in your strategy but also helps you find leading trends and a deeper understanding of your target audience.
Final Words
The content industry is experiencing a boom at this time, and with the industry being flooded with content, it becomes vital to stand out. And the only way to do that is to build a robust content strategy. The powerful combination of these three components will undoubtedly lead your website to fruitful results. Yes, it might not be an overnight result, but it surely will get you real results.
Read More : 5 Most Popular Content Marketing Types
