Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It aims to drive profitable customer action by consistently delivering engaging content over time.
The Evolution of Content Marketing
Content marketing has rapidly grown in popularity and priority in recent years.
- In 2021, 70% of marketers said they will create more content than the prior year. [1]
- 75% of enterprise companies rely on content marketing. [2]
But what factors led content marketing to become an essential pillar of modern marketing?
The rise of digital media – Between social networks, websites, blogs, video platforms and more, consumers today are flooded with content choices. Content marketing emerged as an effective way to stand out.
Increased consumer skepticism – Traditional ads feel invasive and are widely ignored. Audiences engage more with valuable, subtle content.
Market saturation – As competition intensifies in many industries, brands need creative ways to differentiate. Unique content fills this need.
Data accessibility – Content performance can be tracked in detail through analytics. Data increasingly guides strategy.
Value focus – With endless free content online, marketers must provide tangible value to earn audiences’ limited time and attention.
Together, these digital era shifts drove brands to adopt content marketing. Next let’s look at how content marketing works.
Core Components of a Content Marketing Strategy
An effective content marketing strategy requires coordinating several key elements:
Setting Objectives
What does your content aim to ultimately achieve? Typical goals include:
- Increase website traffic
- Generate leads
- Boost brand awareness
- Educate about products/services
- Drive sales
- Improve customer retention
Align your goals with broader marketing and business objectives. Be specific in defining desired outcomes.
Understanding Your Audience
Analyze your target demographic thoroughly:
- Who are they? Age, location, gender, income level, education, interests etc.
- What information or entertainment do they want from your content?
- What platforms and formats do they prefer consuming content through?
Create buyer personas to represent your key segments.
Creating Valuable Content
Your content should address your audience’s needs, solve their problems, or satisfy their interests. Potential types of valuable content include:
- Blog articles/posts
- Ebooks, guides, whitepapers
- Videos – product demos, tutorials, animated explainers
- Podcasts
- Webinars/virtual events
- Infographics
- How-to articles
- Research reports, case studies
- Interactive tools like calculators, quizzes
Choose formats and topics tailored to your goals, audience preferences, and strengths as a brand. Keep an editorial calendar to develop content consistently.
Promoting and Distributing Content
How will you get your content in front of your audience? Leverage:
- Social media
- Email lists and newsletters
- Paid ads – banners, boosted posts
- SEO optimization
- Site visitors – banners, popups, recommended content
- Influencer outreach – guest contributions, sponsorships
- Live events – presentations, workshops, webinars
Use multi-channel promotion to maximize reach.
Measuring Results
Analytics provide the crucial data to refine your strategy. Track:
- Content consumption – pageviews, downloads, time on page, referrals
- Audience growth – followers, subscribers, inquiries
- Lead generation and sales
- Engagement – comments, shares, links, embeds
Set benchmarks to evaluate performance. Continually test and optimize based on data.
Now let’s examine some best practices to implement in your content marketing.
How to Create Compelling Content
Follow these tips to develop content that engages your audience:
Offer Truly Useful Information
- Conduct keyword research to identify high-value topics
- Interview your audience about their key pain points
- Curate and condense complex material into straightforward guidance
- Provide actionable takeaways readers can apply
Adopt Your Audience’s Mindset and Language
- Use natural language suited to their level of knowledge
- Avoid excessive industry jargon and explain necessary terms
- Address their goals and interests, not just your brand’s
- Feature their stories and use relatable examples
Structure Content for Skimmability
- Use descriptive headers and subheadings to chunk information
- Highlight key points with numbered lists and bullet points
- Bold important keywords and phrases
- Break up text with relevant images, graphics, quotes
Engage Multiple Content Formats
- Mix up blogs, videos, podcasts, ebooks.
- Interactive content performs exceptionally well.
Optimize Content for SEO
- Research relevant target keywords and long-tail variations
- Include keywords in titles, headers, image names, alt text, meta descriptions
- Use keywords naturally – 2-3% density in body text
- Create internal links between related content
Promote Content Creatively
- Repurpose content across platforms – infographics from reports, social posts from blog articles
- Serialize content to encourage follow-up
- Use intriguing headlines – how-tos, lists, questions
- Leverage influencers, paid promotion, live events
Next let’s explore the strengths of a few top content types.
Effective Content Marketing Content Types
While a balanced content mix is ideal, certain formats tend to deliver exceptional results.
Educational Blog Posts
Blog articles are a foundational content format – 88% of B2B marketers use them in their strategy. [3] Their popularity stems from key benefits:
- Search visibility – blogs highly optimize for SEO
- Lead generation – gated blog posts convert visitors to leads
- Audience building – consistent blogging develops following
- Flexibility – wide range of relevant topics to address
Craft blog posts that teach readers new skills related to your niche. Include specific how-to steps and actionable takeaways.
Explainer and Demo Videos
Videos lucidly demonstrate how your product or service works:
- Higher conversion rates – videos boost likelihood of purchase by 1.6X [4]
- Appealing format – 65% prefer watching videos to reading text [5]
- Virality – videos are highly shareable on social media
- Authority – videos add credibility, boost trust
Keep videos short and engaging – aim for 2-3 minutes maximum. Animation and screen recordings work well.
Research Reports and Guides
In-depth guides and reports establish your expertise:
- Thought leadership – reports demonstrate real insights
- Lead magnets – gating reports converts visitors to leads
- Brand lift – reports enhance professional reputation
- Ongoing value – evergreen appeal with updated editions
Promote your reports through email nurturing sequences and gated access.
Interactive Tools
Calculators, quizzes, assessments and other interactive tools cater to customer needs:
- Customer service – tools help users solve problems
- Viral marketing – tools encourage shares across social media
- Lead generation – request contact info in exchange for results
- Branding – tools showcase your specialized expertise
The hands-on, personalized experience of tools fosters engagement and conversions.
There are many more impactful content formats to explore including ebooks, case studies, and webinars. Test different mediums and measure the response.
Now let’s walk through the process of creating a content marketing plan.
How to Create a Content Marketing Plan
Follow these steps to develop an effective, executable content marketing plan:
1. Set Goals and KPIs
Define specific goals and key performance indicators to track, such as:
- Increase website traffic by 25%
- Generate 500 new leads in 6 months
- Improve lead conversion rate by 10%
2. Analyze Your Audience
Conduct in-depth audience research using surveys, interviews, and analytics. Create buyer personas.
3. Audit Existing Content
Review your current content types, performance, and search rankings. Identify content gaps.
4. Outline Content Themes
Plan content buckets focused on audience needs – product features, thought leadership, customer stories etc.
5. Develop an Editorial Calendar
Map out the specific content pieces you will create – blogs, videos, tools etc. Schedule content over time, factoring in resources.
6. Promote and Distribute
Develop a targeted distribution plan for each content asset – email, social, SEO.
7. Track and Refine
Use analytics to identify your best content. Double down on high-performing formats and topics. Cut ineffective content.
Execute this structured approach to maximize the impact of your content marketing.
Now that we’ve covered what content marketing entails, let’s briefly touch on how to measure your strategy’s effectiveness.
Tracking Content Marketing Results
How can you determine if your content is achieving its objectives? Lean on these key metrics:
- Traffic – where visitors come from, pageviews, time on site
- Leads – lead volume, cost per lead, lead quality
- Rankings – search rankings for target keywords
- Engagement – social shares, links, comments, embeds
- Conversions – sign ups, purchases, contract renewals
Set specific benchmarks for each metric you track. Analyze how your content contributes to broader sales and revenue goals. Refine based on the data – double down on what works and cut ineffective initiatives.
Advanced analytics provide powerful insights. But even simply monitoring traffic from each distribution channel will help gauge content performance.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
- Content marketing is an essential, fast-growing strategy that attracts and retains audiences by consistently delivering valuable content.
- To succeed, brands must clearly define goals, deeply understand their audience, produce diverse content formats, and promote through multiple channels.
- Focus on creating educational, actionable content tailored to your audience’s needs and interests. Interactive content performs exceptionally well.
- Executing a structured editorial calendar tied to overarching objectives ensures consistent, effective content output.
- Regularly track key metrics around traffic, leads, rankings, engagement, and conversions to refine your approach and maximize results.
For more guidance, check out our in-depth content marketing toolkit here [link]. Content marketing works, but only with a strategic, metrics-driven approach. Audit your current content, assess gaps, and start planning how impactful content can contribute to your growth.
Sources:
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2021/10/content-marketing-research/
- https://www.superside.com/blog/content-marketing-statistics
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2021-b2b-research.pdf
- https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics
- https://www.business2community.com/video-marketing/video-marketing-statistics-2022-the-state-of-video-marketing-02436662