The internet, social and mobile revolutions have completely altered the state of play in how we all connect – there is now a seamless flow of instant information. [1] No longer is the impression of your business driven by a singular marketing pitch or ad, your business is constantly exposed to an evolving audience. You need a Content Marketing Strategy to ensure your messaging and channel usage makes you visible and relevant amidst the ‘noise’ of the market.
Content Marketing Strategy requires that you know who your customers are, where they are in the buying process and what kinds of content and channel they prefer. It defines a targeted marketing method for each market segment, and then determines the correct resources to produce a consistent stream of relevant content mapped according to their needs. This is a complete change to the nature of marketing from the traditional linear marketing approach, which just isn’t as effective as it used to be. [2]
Content Marketing Strategy ensures your content is engaging and relevant according to each customer type and it maintains consistency in messaging. Your customers will have an optimal information search experience because each market segment will have individual content paths created maximizing conversion rates (the conversion rate being the percentage of visitors to a website who take a specific action beyond a website visit, as a result of subtle or direct requests from marketers or content creators) as your content will be highly relevant.
Content Marketing Strategy drives content development efficiency because it outlines the relevant tone, theme and structure of information as well as how content should be used over time so you are not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Ideally content should be produced only if it can be re-used, e.g. turning a blog post into a video or a series of tweets, or an e-book. [3]
The overall aim of Content Marketing Strategy is to create greater customer loyalty and retention through customer education as early as possible in the buying process. However, incrementally the implementation of Content Marketing Strategy could well rescue marketing for your business because it forces you understand your customers, the stages of your buying process, your channel effectiveness and your business environment. It is the customer’s advocate for content within your business.
Sources
[1] “What Is A Content Strategy And Why Do You Need It? – Forbes”
[2] “Will Content Strategy Save Marketing? – B2B Marketing Insider”
[3] http://barbragago.com/blog/