Three ways to optimize your content marketing efforts
The popularity of Content Marketing as an increasingly popular marketing tactics is discernable. Be it marketing agencies or companies with popular brands, everyone seems to have figured out its strategic importance to achieve their core marketing objectives. It’s not surprising then to learn that almost 2 million blog articles are posted every day along with billions of Tweets, Facebook posts, and other content on the rest of the social media platforms.
In such a massive flood of content, it becomes increasingly difficult for marketers to define success through regular initiatives. The need for a new approach can be defined by 3Ts of Content Marketing, intrinsically ascribed as Tactics, Tools, and Tenacity.
To figure out the right mix of attributes, it’s important to define the primary goal of the initiative. Once you have the strategy or the tactics in place, the execution becomes the next critical step that needs to be managed with aplomb. The success of the campaign can be quantified only if you have the right tools to measure it and acquiring the tools needs to be planned according to the initial strategy.
There are occasions when the program may not be able to demonstrate quick success, and this is when persistence and expertise of the team come into play. The cycle of tracking huge amount of data, analyzing it with the chosen tools to generate quality insights can sometimes appear endless. Here, the tenacity to optimize the process iteratively becomes one of the essential aspects of the initiative. For better understanding, each of the three core attributes is discussed below in detail.
1. Tactics
The onset of a content marketing programs has to start with a strategy that defines its path and progress. Both the short and long-term success of the program depends on the content that has a firm focus on the program’s objective, and developing it requires extensive knowledge of the requirements to achieve the goal. A winning strategy can be built around a series of vital guidelines such as:
i. Defining the target audience: The relevancy of the content typically depends on details that define your target group. Only when the marketers have a thorough idea of the audience, they’ll be able to engage them with the content that the readers can enjoy.
ii. Focusing on latest industry trends: One of the best ways to be innovative is to stay abreast with the current trends in the market. Keeping a tap on the new features developed by the competitors not just helps to compare your success you’d be able to improvise on your ideas.
iii. Branding the content: The entire content has to reflect the brand’s image and stay connected with the objective of the program. For instance, a firm that creates consumer-centric products and wants to come across as a happy-go-lucky brand can make its content livelier with a touch of humor. Brands that wish t have a rich appeal can focus on the aesthetics and can craft their content to appear classy and elegant.
iv. Integrating Customer Service with Social presence: All social platforms can be implicitly used to maximize engagement with the target audience. However, smart brands can go a step further to use the social platforms to interact directly with their customers and even address the concerns immediately, which will not just make the customer happy but also improve the efficiency and brand image.
v. On the whole, these tips point to the clear need for a strategy which aims to create content that is not just relevant to the consumers but also inspires them to turn brand evangelists.
Read more: B2B Content Marketing – The Do’s and Don’ts
2. Tools
Optimization of operational efficiency requires the inevitable use of technology. Automated tools are a vital part of the Content Marketing programs, and their significance is outlined by the real-time analytics which delivers actionable insights. Be it content creation or distribution, curation or publishing, the automated tools such as CMS software, are an integral part of the Content Marketing lifecycle. However, the selection of tools should essentially depend upon the primary goal of the program and the parameters you wish to consider for measuring the success. Also, the ability of the tools to churn out quick and efficient content, while offering seamless integration and simple user-interface to measure the performance, must be taken into consideration. Some of the features of an ideal content management tool include:
i. Distribution and Scheduling: The automated tools must allow for efficient scheduling and distribution of content across all major social networks.
ii. Tracking: Once the content is published, the tools must enable marketers to keep a tap on conversations.
iii. Analytics: The tools should provide the campaign managers all the right metrics to measure the ROI.
iv. Security: As the customer info and market-related data is highly valuable, the tools should provide ample security features to protect it against sabotage.
3. Tenacity
Companies that have been known to diligently carry out all the best practices of content management initiatives have been able to rapidly grow their customer base through a simple blog and social media posts. However, the firms need to be tenacious and keep working as per the long-term roadmap that is aligned with the overall corporate goal. Campaigns can be built around seasonal promotions, product rollouts, but enough attention to other common components of Content Marketing program that include premium content assets such as webinars and live streaming of industry events. Some of the activities that can be utilized include:
i. Guidelines and Deadline: A content calendar can be effectively utilized to set publishing deadlines, whereas, all the actions aimed at creation and development of new content should be made to conform to the editorial guidelines.
ii. Experimentation and innovation: Various content formats such as video posts, infographics or eBooks can be utilized to maximize the visibility.
iii. Regular Renewal and Rejuvenation: Renewing previous content to make it appeal to the evolving audience and buyer personas is another way of innovative experimentation, which also helps in proactively addressing the gaps in the content.