Content is King but Strategy is Emperor: Building a Long-Term Content Strategy for Business Growth
02 May 2024
In today’s digital landscape, content reigns supreme. It’s the fuel that attracts customers, builds brand loyalty, and ultimately drives business success. But simply throwing content out there isn’t enough. You need a strategic approach – one that aligns with your long-term goals and delivers value to your audience.
Content strategy is something I am a huge proponent of. It is an area I am passionate about and, if I remember correctly, is the longest chapter of my book, Digital Marketing Strategy. There is a great deal to consider in content strategy to ensure you are visible, trustworthy and convincing i.e. you perform well on search, deliver engaging content on social, build authority and gain leads and sales on your platforms (and off them).
For those of you who know me well you won’t be surprised to hear that your content strategy needs to start from one place…
Goals First: Aligning your Content Strategy with your Business Objectives
Whether you’re a B2B company selling enterprise software or a B2C bakery aiming to expand your local customer base, your content strategy should be built with clear goals in mind. Here are some examples:
Brand awareness: Inform a wider audience about your brand and its offerings. This could involve creating educational or entertaining content that showcases your expertise and unique value proposition.
Lead generation: Attract potential customers and gather their contact information to nurture them down the sales funnel. This may involve offering valuable resources such as ebooks, webinars, or email courses in exchange for their email addresses.
Thought leadership: Establish yourself or your company as a leader in your industry by providing valuable insights and perspectives through the content you create. This can help build trust and credibility with potential customers.
Customer retention: Nurture existing customers and keep them engaged with your brand through informative, helpful content. This could include product tutorials, case studies, or customer success stories.
Generating sales: Drive direct sales through targeted, persuasive content that highlights the benefits and features of your products or services. This requires a deep understanding of your audience’s needs and preferences, allowing you to craft messages that resonate and compel them to make a purchase.
Let’s just take a pause here and define content. It may seem obvious but it’s clear to understand how your content strategy feeds into every part of your marketing.
Exploring the Forms of Marketing Content
In the realms of digital marketing, content takes on various forms, each serving unique purposes in engaging the target audience, building brand presence, and driving conversions. Here’s a closer look at the different types of marketing content available to brands:
eBooks: These comprehensive, long-form content pieces are potent tools for lead generation. By offering in-depth insights on topics relevant to your audience, eBooks position your brand as an authority, while also providing substantial value through information.
Webinars: This live, interactive format enables real-time engagement with your audience. Webinars are excellent for demonstrating expertise, building community, and generating leads by offering valuable knowledge in an engaging, personable manner.
Blogs: The backbone of many content strategies, blogs are versatile and vital for SEO. Regularly updating your website with fresh blog posts keeps your audience coming back, helps in establishing thought leadership, and improves your search engine rankings by targeting specific keywords.
YouTube Videos: With video content’s rising popularity, YouTube stands as a crucial platform for engaging potential customers. Videos can range from educational content, behind-the-scenes looks, to product demonstrations, catering to viewers’ preferences for visual, engaging content.
TikTok Videos: Capturing the essence of your brand in short, snappy videos can propel your message on this burgeoning social media platform. TikTok videos favor creativity and trends, making it an ideal space for brands to showcase their playful side and connect with a younger audience.
Social Media Posts: Regular updates across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter can keep your audience engaged and informed. Tailoring content to each platform’s strengths and audience preferences allows for a diversified approach to brand storytelling.
Product Descriptions: Compelling and informative product descriptions help bridge the gap between browsing and purchasing. By focusing on benefits and highlighting unique features, these descriptions play a crucial role in convincing potential customers to make a purchase.
User Generated Content (UGC): Leveraging content created by your users, such as reviews, testimonials, or social media posts, can boost credibility and trust. UGC acts as social proof, showcasing real-life satisfaction and endorsement from your customer base.
Email Plans: A well-crafted email strategy can nurture leads, retain customers, and drive sales. From personalized promotions to informative newsletters, email content must be targeted and relevant to meet the diverse needs of your email list.
Event Materials: Whether it’s for virtual or in-person events, the materials you create—ranging from promotional assets to presentations—must reflect your brand’s value and engage attendees, fostering a memorable connection.
Sales Brochures: Traditional yet effective, sales brochures provide a tangible take on your products or services. Well-designed brochures can succinctly convey your value proposition and key benefits, serving as crucial tools in the sales process.
There are of course many more but the key is that each form of content serves specific strategic purposes, from nurturing leads to converting sales. A robust content strategy leverages a mix of these content types, optimized for different stages of the customer journey, to build a cohesive and compelling narrative that drives business growth.
Repurposing for Efficiency: Maximizing Your Content's Reach
Creating high-quality content takes time and effort. The good news? You can leverage existing content across different channels to amplify its reach and maximize its impact.
Blog post to infographic: Convert key takeaways from a blog post into a visually appealing infographic for social media sharing. This not only adds variety to your content mix but also helps in breaking down complex information for easy consumption.
Webinar recording to podcast: Repurpose a recorded webinar into a podcast episode, making it accessible to listeners who prefer audio format. You can also extract key points and turn them into shorter video clips for social media sharing.
Social media posts to blog post: Expand on a popular social media post by creating a more comprehensive blog post around the topic. This can attract new readers to your website and provide valuable information for those seeking it.
Event presentation to SlideShare deck: Transform an event presentation into a visually appealing SlideShare deck, making it easily shareable and accessible beyond the event attendees.
E-book to blog series: Break down a lengthy eBook into shorter blog posts, creating a series of related content that keeps your audience engaged and coming back for more.
There are a huge number of opportunities for re-purposing content. Ensure it matches your overall strategy and audience needs but, if so, make sure you are making the most of your content to maximise it’s strength. Not only does this save you time and money but it also drives awareness and reassurance to your audience through consistency.
The Power of Relevance: Keeping Your Audience Engaged
Once you’ve defined your goals and understand the art of the possible, it’s time to focus on what truly matters – creating relevant content that resonates with your target audience.
Know your audience: Conduct market research and buyer persona exercises to understand their needs, challenges, and preferred content formats. If you don’t have the resources to do this at scale then try small single question surveys on your website or social media, look for patterns in your data sets and monitor KPIs such as engagement levels and time on site.
Variety is key: Experiment with different content types like blog posts, infographics, videos, and social media content to cater to diverse learning styles. Never stop testing. Always look to try different formats, designs, headlines, times and more to continuously optimise performance.
Solve problems: Address your audience’s pain points and offer valuable solutions through your content. Keep in mind that many people, especially when using search (and don’t forget social and video are also a form of search), are trying to solve a problem. If you can be the person that solves it then you gain enormous trust and potentially sales and recommendations.
Stay fresh: Publish content consistently and keep it current with industry trends and news. This demonstrates expertise but also pleases the search and social algorithms.
Content Beyond Acquisition: Building Relationships that Last
Great content isn’t just about acquiring new customers. Consider within your strategy whether you should actually be more focussed on retention or upselling for example. Nurturing existing relationships and fostering brand loyalty can be far more valuable then focussing on acquisition.
Customer education: Provide ongoing educational content that helps your customers get the most out of your product or service. Can you run free courses or deliver guides? Does your blog educate or just self-promote? Can you run free webinars and learning sessions to help clients get past frustrations and simultaneously guide them into a more commercial use of your product?
Community building: Foster a community around your brand by creating engaging content that sparks conversations and interactions. UGC is powerful and, despite needing some monitoring, can enormously grow awareness of your brand. Don’t forget that this doesn’t have to be on your community – you can take advantage of other communities to grow this with little investment.
Exclusive content: Offer exclusive content like webinars or case studies to loyal customers to show appreciation and deepen connections. This can serve like an exclusive club and, if you message it right, can encourage others to do more with you in order to be part of it.
Distribution Channels: Tailoring Your Approach
The channels you choose to distribute your content will depend on your audience and goals of course but it’s worth taking a quick look at how this can differ for B2B and B2C companies. You will naturally have different goals and approaches but keep in mind that, B2B or B2C, you are still selling to people.
B2B companies: Utilize professional networks like LinkedIn, industry publications, and email marketing for targeted outreach.
B2C companies: Leverage social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to connect with a broader audience in an engaging way.
Regulated industries can also have their own content marketing challenges. My agency, SK, is a specialist marketing agency for financial services for example. In FS, companies must adhere to strict compliance regulations when creating and distributing content. This means that it’s vital to understand, not just what your clients need, but also how to guide them in the right direction without breaking any rules on advice or misleading them – even with the best intentions. This doesn’t stop you doing any of the strategies we have discussed but it does mean you need to be smart about how you use your data, how you target and how you message with precision to ensure highly relevant content journeys for every customer segment.
Analyzing Content Performance across Channels
To effectively measure the impact of your content marketing efforts, it’s paramount to analyze performance across various channels, including social media, your website, and other digital platforms. Here’s how to approach this complex but crucial task:
Social Media Analytics: Each social media platform offers its own analytics tools (e.g., Twitter Analytics, Facebook Insights). Utilize these to track engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates. Pay close attention to the content types and topics that resonate most with your audience to inform future content creation.
Google Analytics for Websites: Google Analytics is a powerhouse for understanding how users interact with your website. Key metrics to track include page views, bounce rate, average session duration, and conversion rates. Analyzing the behavior flow can help identify which content keeps users engaged and which might be causing them to leave.
Email Marketing Metrics: If email is part of your distribution strategy, track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. These metrics can help identify the most compelling subject lines and content that encourages readers to take action.
Content Performance on Other Channels: For channels such as webinars, podcasts, or guest blogging, look at attendance rates, listen/download numbers, and the traffic or leads generated from these activities. It’s important to also gather qualitative feedback when possible to understand the perceived value of your content.
Cross-Channel Analysis: Use tools like Google Data Studio or Tableau to create dashboards that combine data sources, providing a holistic view of content performance. This approach allows for comparing effectiveness across channels and identifying the best platforms for different types of content.
Utilize UTM Parameters: By tagging your content links with UTM parameters, you can track precisely how users interact with your content across channels. This data is invaluable for understanding which campaigns drive traffic, engagement, and conversions.
In summary, regularly analyzing content performance enables marketers to refine their strategy, focusing on what works best for their audience and business objectives. By leveraging the respective analytics tools and adopting a data-driven approach, you can enhance content relevance, engagement, and ultimately, ROI.
Content as a Strategic Investment
By building a long-term content strategy that aligns with your business goals, you can achieve sustainable growth and build lasting relationships with your audience. Remember, content is an investment, not a cost. When done right, it can be the foundation of all of your other marketing activity and can ensure a highly cost-effective marketing strategy.
If you need help with your content strategy, get in touch to see how I can help you.