Four Tips to an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Originally posted at https://www.angeloakcreative.com/four-tips-for-content-strategy/

If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousand times (in just the last week) – Content, Content, Content. Google “content marketing strategy,” and you’ll get more than 94 MILLION hits! “Marketing communications strategy” only garners 30 million hits. So, it should go without saying, there are as many suggestions around managing content as there are people in Ethiopia!

SO HOW DO WE FIGURE OUT THE RIGHT STRATEGY FOR OUR ORGANIZATION?

While there is no silver bullet, there are some basic tips and tricks to help us develop and execute a successful content marketing strategy.

Four Tips to Improve your Content Marketing Strategy

1. PLAN AHEAD.

While it is important to be prepared to respond to current events to demonstrate our awareness of our industries of focus, it is just as important to develop an editorial calendar that supports your annual marketing goals. At AOC, we’ve created a quarterly plan that focuses on key areas of our broader marketing strategy including issues around B Corps, nonprofit engagement, fundraising and Nonprofit Awareness season (think Thanksgiving-New Year’s Eve).

2. UTILIZE HERO CONTENT.

Generating content is probably the number one problem marketers face in executing on a content marketing strategy. We’ve chosen to take an approach recommended by LinkedIn and other organizations. We create a package of hero content from which we draw our content for the quarter. For our first quarter’s focus on B Corps, this has taken the form of video interviews with 3-4 thought leaders in this area, including our Founder and President, Caitlin Clinard. This has enabled us to create a branded effort we called the “B Corp Guide” that allows us to be consistent with both our message and our design. While we heavily rely on our “rock” of content, we are able to recycle and reuse this content by breaking out quotes from videos into blog posts and tweets. Throughout the quarter we do sprinkle in other subjects as appropriate to respond to current events and topics of interest (such as this blog), but everything is anchored by our hero content.

3. KEEP IT RICH.

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE AVERAGE USER SPENDS 88% MORE TIME ON A WEBSITE WITH VIDEO THAN ONE WITHOUT?

 While static content still has a place (again, this blog post is a perfect example), expectations are high for rich content. Visitors expect to see videos, infographics, podcasts and other dynamic content. In fact 59% of executives prefer video over text. So whip out that camera and crank out some interesting and engaging rich content.

4. MEASURE.

Data drives decisions. Measuring the success of our content marketing efforts is proving to be useful in determining where to spend our time and money. This is something we’re still working on mastering; knowing it matters. We would rather spend a few hours shooting a video or creating an infographic that is going to be viewed and shared instead of hours coming up with a witty blog post that just sits there. We utilize everything from Google Analytics to Sprout Social’s analytic reports to better understand what gets our audience engaged. As they say, if you can’t (or don’t) measure it, don’t do it!