In the words of the great Seth Godin, Content Marketing is the only marketing left. Why? Brand storytelling has become a must, according to Forbes. Markets are oversaturated and all the survival guides point to one thing: creating value through brand storytelling. Content Marketing adds purpose to your company, creates relationships with your stakeholders, and helps you accomplish collateral prospects like increased sales, cost savings, and profit elevation. But it cannot be effective without a great strategy. Here are 3 tips for a successful content marketing strategy:
Know your audience in order to establish the content marketing strategy
Your content marketing strategy must glean from audience-driven communication. Understanding your customers can prove a vital key point in achieving your lower-to-high funnel marketing prospects, and as Neil Patel suggests, knowledge can be obtained through optimizing customer experience and development. You can provide first-hand insights by interacting with your audience through customer service channels. Customer journey maps are a valuable tool, as well. The method implies a detailed mapping of the customer’s journey, which determines the critical interactions between the stakeholder and your brand.
Another required step in creating your audience’s profile is data collection. Digital Marketing Institute recommends tools such as Google Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Surveys that offer you higher-quality insights at reduced costs. This research cannot be a stand-alone point in creating the needed profile, as you must pay attention to the current socio-economical changes and their impact on your stakeholders’ outlook.
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the changes in the purchase behaviours and business conduction perspectives have become more visible by the day. According to the EY Future Consumer Index, post-pandemic consumers choose how to spend their time and money more cautiously. It also shows a growing interest in the social impact of their actions, including purchasing wise ones. Thus, your audience might be harder-to-reach and your content might not be relevant without a great strategy.
Find out your purpose
Although indispensable in the build-up of a content marketing strategy, knowing your audience cannot prove effective without aligning your message to your brand’s core values. Purpose of business is an essential discussion matter in the Deloitte Insights’ 2022 Global Marketing Trends, which provides insight on the emerging purpose-related factors that can shape a brand’s positioning.
In this case, the purpose is seen as the response of a bigger ‘’why?’’. What drives your company to operate business besides financial earnings? What social impact do your actions have? Find the truest form of your organizational ethos and refine it through stakeholders’ expectations and values. Furthermore, ensure your purpose spreads throughout all levels of your company. The goal is to create an enterprise-wide alignment of your values. As the research concludes, base your communication efforts on providing trust and authenticity. Find the story that resonates best and disseminate it.
Write your channel plan
Since you’ve already established your story, the following step is to choose HOW you will tell it. As simple as it may sound, channel planning requires combining all your previous efforts for greater results. According to the Content Marketing Institute, the first step is to establish your current situation as well as where you could tell your story most effectively. Afterwards, you set your channel objectives and the content plan correspondingly to your goals. Don’t forget about your audience. Choose the channel that not only cater to the story but each stakeholder persona. Don’t overlook the importance of metrics, content management, and editorial planning. They ensure performance and stability and help shape your story.
Conclusion
Brand storytelling would not be as effective without a well-defined content marketing strategy. To ensure success, you must create a people-oriented ecosystem that can generate relevant, authentic stories with the most appropriate consideration to the channel planning strategies.
And now you’re probably wondering how effective such a tactic could be for your business. What KPIs to follow in a content marketing strategy, what costs they generate, and when to expect results, in the article below? You may find the answers here.