A guide for your individual content marketing strategy
Credit: Photo by Steven Lelham on Unsplash
Content marketing is a popular way to showcase your expertise, provide quality content for social media and generate qualified traffic via Google searches. In my experience, content marketing seems relatively simple at the beginning. However, as soon as it comes to content orientation and operational processes, it quickly becomes complex. A guide with the most important 10 questions at the beginning helps to keep the focus - also in the operational work.
The following points are covered in the article:
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10 questions you should answer for a content concept
1) What do we want to achieve with content marketing?
On a meta-level, this could be: "Acquire new customers for our brand XY".
I find it helpful to write down another sentence that illustrates how content marketing can achieve this, e.g. "Present our expertise so that potential new customers consider us as a legitimate and trustworthy partner - even before they have had contact with our sales team."
Goal: What do we want to achieve? | Acquiring new customers for brand XY. | Attracting qualified employees. |
Prioritisation | Prio 1 | Prio 2 |
How do we want to achieve this? | Present our expertise: We are seen as a trustworthy partner. | Offer insights into our workplace: We are an attractive employer & are recognised as such. |
There can also be several goals or target groups, e.g. "attract qualified employees / position ourselves as an attractive employer". See also my article on data-driven employer branding.
In any case, I recommend prioritising the goals so as not to lose focus.
2) In which phase of the funnel should my content marketing start? What kind of content is suitable for this?
It seems obvious that, for example, the acquisition of new customers is a sensible goal.
However, it is essential to consider on which phase of the funnel you want to focus on in order to achieve this goal. Depending on the phase, different formats and content are suitable for 1. generating attention, 2. informing or 3. acquiring.
For example, I can use studies on industry trends to create awareness and generate new leads (top of the funnel), whereas I tend to use product descriptions and demos in the "consideration / evaluation phase".
The dividing line here is not always very sharp. In the past, clients have also told me that industry reports have been brought into board meetings to support the need for a topic.
In any case, you should talk to the sales team and ask for their opinion.
The content marketing agency "House of Yas" has prepared how to use content in the different phases in the section "Top, Middle and Bottom: Optimised content offer for each phase".
3) Who are we addressing? Who is our target group?
Especially in the b2b sector, there are long and complex sales cycles in which different people are looking for different information.
My recommendation: Work out your most important personas that are (decision-) relevant in the sales cycle and take them into account in content marketing.
What is the role of this person in the sales cycle and what kind of information is he likely to be looking for? What added value does the solution offer to that person?
Typically there are cross-departmental buying groups, or it may be that the decision is made at board level. When providing relevant content, it is essential to take into account the person's prior knowledge. The users of your solution know complicated technical terms, but they are not necessarily the final decision makers.
4) How do we want to position / present ourselves?
You have probably already answered this question in the context of branding & co, and it could sound like this, for example:
"We are seen as an expert in our industry.
We position ourselves as a health tech company towards customer group XY, and avoid the word "startup". We present our legitimacy through successful reference projects.
We show a modern corporate culture that is hip but serious."
These key points - in combination with the personas - help with practical decisions such as:
Tonality - informal versus formal
In what language do we publish content?
5) In what form do we want to publish content (format, layout, design)?
You have already thought about what kind of information is relevant for your target group and which phases in the marketing funnel you want to focus on. You can now choose between several versions of how to present this content, e.g.
written articles
Videos
Podcasts
Reports / magazines
Events
Infographics
In some cases you can use your content for several types of presentation: e.g. transcribe an interview as part of a podcast and make it available as an article on your blog.
Nevertheless, I would focus on one type of content, especially in the beginning. As soon as you have found a good rhythm and publish it regularly, you can re-use the content on other channels or prepare a completely new content format.
6) How often do we want to publish content?
The effort behind creating and publishing content varies depending on the form of content you want to publish. Mostly, however, I experience that the effort is underestimated.
I recommend starting with a supposedly low number of content pieces per month (e.g. biweekly) and gradually increasing this as soon as your processes are well established.
7) Where do we want to publish our content? How do we ensure that it is seen?
Once you have decided in which format you want to publish your content and which channels are relevant for your target group / personas, you can decide on which platforms you want to make your content available. These can include: your website, social media channels, Medium, guest articles in other media, press releases, Slideshare, LinkedIn profiles of the founders and more.
Important: You put a lot of effort into producing the content. In this step, you should think carefully about how this content will be made accessible to as large a part of your target group as possible.
Tip: An easy way to increase the reach is to share the content on your social media channels as a post and to sponsor this post.
8) What expertise do we have in the company? Who can provide their input on the respective topics?
Especially if you serve complex topics and markets, this question is central to the execution of your content strategy. After I have broken down in a simple Excel sheet which content is relevant for the personas in the sales cycle, I consider who in our company has the necessary knowledge as well as the time to pass it on.
By the way: For a written article, I plan a briefing of about 30-60 minutes between author and input provider.
For less complex topics, that have been covered before, it is not absolutely necessary to call on internal experts. A good content producer can carry out independent research and prepare the content accordingly.
9) Who should produce the content?
The crucial question is: Who will actually produce the content? Depending on the complexity of the content and the effort behind the production of the chosen format, there are several possibilities. I am a fan of working with external partners. Why? Unfortunately, content production can easily get lost in day-to-day operations, especially if you don't have a dedicated team member for it and instead someone takes it on "in addition" to the existing area of responsibility.
10) How will we track whether our content marketing is meeting our expectations?
Depending on the goal I am pursuing with content marketing, I use different KPIs to measure it. I like to combine qualitative with quantitative KPIs.
Examples of KPIs that reflect the performance of content marketing strategies:
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* The Click-Through Rate tells how many people who saw an article preview also clicked on it. (Clicks / Impressions)
However, I often learn about the impact of content marketing in the b2b sector through completely different channels, for example:
the sales team reporting positive feedback from customers
A person in the buyer's circle who actively asks us if we have more whitepapers because they use them for internal persuasion
An employee who has shared an article and thereby generated a lead himself/herself
Content marketing as a starting point for market automation
Finally, I would like to make the following recommendation: Especially if you have longer sales cycles, content can help keep the audience engaged and bridge the gap between the marketing and sales teams.
How does this work? After leads are generated via attractive content, the ongoing "lead nurturing" starts, by which we mean the nurturing of generated leads. The goal of lead nurturing is to give prospects exactly the information they need to make a solid buying decision.
Using automated email workflows, you can provide your target audience with relevant content and prepare them to be approached by the sales team.
Note
This is my personal approach. It does not necessarily represent the right approach for you.
I share my knowledge and past experiences as a possible guide and source of inspiration.
About me
I have been active in the Austrian startup industry since 2014 and have been responsible for the development and implementation of marketing strategies in successful scaleups.
In particular, I support b2b-oriented start-ups with a strong technological component to successfully position themselves on the market with their expertise and to generate reach in the relevant target group.