How to develop a content marketing strategy
12th February 2010 by Sarah Howard
With a change in buyer attitudes moving toward the credibility of content to help them make informed purchasing decisions and away from standard advertising methods, it is important for companies of all sizes to embrace good content strategies. ‘Good’ being the operative word as customers are more in control of what they read and know the difference between mediocre and great content.
Despite the recession easing, cutbacks in the media mean that there are voids in the media sector – industry specific content generators can fill this gap in the market. Selling to customers has also become more challenging, so a good approach to marketing is to establish your company as an authority in its field, becoming a trusted source of information, in turn helping to develop a loyal customer base.
Technology is cheap and easy to use, so both small and large companies can deliver good content to a specific customer base. Publishing content on websites, digital magazines and e-newsletters is inexpensive and can allow a small company to better target their client base than multi-million dollar large corporations.
With all these benefits, how does a company come up with a great content marketing strategy? Junta42 has devised a helpful content marketing roadmap – the B.E.S.T Formula – comprised of the following elements:
Behavioural: all communications should have a purpose and seek to make the customer feel an emotion and take a specific action such as buying a product.
Essential: include only what the customer needs to know by presenting the content in the most positive light as well as including the most important elements of the campaign.
Strategic: make sure the content fits in with your company’s strategic aims and integrates with other communication strategies.
Targeted: to target content, you need to understand your customer base and what motivates them. For example, how do they view the product or service you offer and what are their professional roles?
Now you know who you are targeting, lets move onto the most important bit – executing the plan. According to research by B2B Magazine and Junta42, the most effective way of putting the plan into motion is to outsource your content projects. Marketers can be so busy promoting their products that they can’t distance themselves enough to think about customers informational needs in the same way that journalists can. Writing is not a simple task and requires skills, patience and talent. As such, employing an online news provider or content marketing specialist is the way forward for most companies.
Such companies can provide an editorial plan, a high degree of research and vitally a project manager to oversee the whole process. Content providers can also help to identify sources of content and advise on where to place good content, from audio/video podcasts to news provisions. Other deciding factors in employing the services of an external content specialist include that they can provide valuable advice on content design, budgeting and assume responsibility for accomplishing the goals of the project.