Content Marketing Creates Customers

“Content is king” When Bill Gates was making this statement is1996, I am fairly certain even he was unaware that this phrase would continue to hold relevance, almost 25 years later.

The question is, has nothing changed in the world of ‘content creation’ that a statement can resonate even after decades have gone by? Actually the answer to that is quite the opposite. The evolution of content has grown at such an exponential rate, with the addition of a large spectrum of content types and platforms, that now each word has become a monetizable entity.

You create content, you create cash…!

Infact, with the vast database of content that is created daily, the question now is- How do you differentiate to monetize your content? For that, you need a well structured content marketing strategy.

Content Marketing Strategy is focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

There are three types ways startups view their content marketing strategy-

1. Some view it as being secondary;
2. Some identify its importance, but don’t really strategize it making it non-fruitful;
3. While there are only a select few startups who properly plan their content marketing strategy, execute it well and reap the long-term, sustainable benefits.

It’s important to understand that content marketing is not about discussing the products or services in a piece of content. It has to be about publishing useful and relevant content to solve your target audience’s problems.

(Like we are doing for you… through this post!!) 

Steps to Create a Content Marketing Strategy: 

(Source: Techsoup)

Stage 1: Content Alignment

• Align your content with the customer journey
• Identify what topics, needs and questions will be addressed through your content
• Knowing how to align content to the needs of the users requires a deep understanding of how the users navigate your site and social media.

Define the content marketing objectives. These can include:

1. Brand Awareness
2. Customer Education
3. Brand Loyalty
4. Customer Engagement
5. Talent Recruitment

Key Action Plan- The content marketing objectives need to be “SMART”

1. Specific – breakdown abstract goals into specific measurable actions
2. Measurable – Attach KPIs to objectives (Key Performance Indicators)
3. Attainable- Keep them realistic. Break down big goals into smaller milestones
4. Relevant – Objectives/goals must relevant to your specific business
5. Timely – Assign realistic timelines to different goals

Stage 2: Content Audit 

• Audit the existing content to determine what can be used as is;
• What needs to be updated
• What must be created from scratch

Key Action Plan– An audit can help to identify how one can optimize their content and where in the user journey one might engage their audiences more.

1. Review the Web Analytics- Google analytics, Referral traffic, Search engines optimization KPIs
2. Conduct audit of content- identify which platforms, types of content is driving maximum engagement
3. Gap Analysis- identify content gaps to know what needs to be updated, removed or added to develop a “Content Calendar”
4. Identify your target audience

Stage 3: Production Plan- Create a Content Calendar 

• Determine the genre and format of each content piece individually
• Identify who will the subject matter experts, authors and other contributors
• Idea is to map out, what type of content is to be produced and by whom
• Each content piece created must be done so keeping in mind the target audience it is created for
• Build a content calendar for next 6 months, which can be updated depending on acceptance levels of consumers.

Key Action Plan- there are 3 approaches to developing content calendars

1. Do everything by yourself- For a small startup, this works. But as you scale up this may not give long term results.
2. Outsourcing your content marketing efforts- hire a freelance content marketer, or outsource to a whole agency, depending on on budget limits
3. Build an in-house content marketing team- the most cost efficient method, but initial investment can be relatively expensive. This team can include- content creator, content strategist, editors, graphic designers, and videographers.

Stage 4: Performance Measures 

Once you’ve developed your content topics and overall production calendar, it’s important to determine –

• What you would like each content asset to accomplish;
• Then you can track and measure success

Key Action Plan- Although KPIs can be industry specific, here is a list of common KPIs to for content marketing-

1. Lead generation- for eg- get a specific number of new email subscribers
2. Increase in organic traffic to your website
3. Reach a specific amount of revenue increase within a specific timeframe
4. Engagements and shares on social media
5. Reach and impressions- metrics to see how many people viewed the content
6. Bounce rate- how many users exit the website without performing an action
7. Conversion rate, if the content asks for CTA (Call-to-action)

Stage 5: Content Distribution Plan 

• No matter how good the content is, it won’t bring any value if no-one consumes it
• Identify what online and offline channels will be used to distribute content
• Idea is to know which channels to choose to optimize time, resources, and overall engagement with the audience.
• Use channel specific metrics to develop short- and long- term strategies
• A strategy can incorporate online channels (including social media) as well as offline channels such as conferences and direct mail.

Key Action Plan- how the content is promoted on various channels, is just as important as content creation.

Here are some important distribution channels to consider:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)- the content that loads up first on a google engine, gets the most traffic.
2. Email Marketing- these help to increase conversion rates and maintain consistency with consumers
3. Social Media Marketing- these include-

1. Organic social media efforts (building own followers for promotions)
2. Paid social media advertising
3. Influencer marketing

Conclusion: For a startup, content marketing done well, can prove to be an important growth channel. Content is a relatively inexpensive form of marketing and gives the content creator the opportunity to showcase their expertise and develop an authoritative voice.

You could have the perfect product/service, but if the users are not hearing/ looking or reading about it, no one’s going to know.

Make your words, create your way…!!!

Author(s) :

Swadha Agarwal
Brijesh Damodaran Nair