Your business needs content marketing. But what good is a content marketing strategy if it's not driving results? You know the drill — without quality leads, your business will suffer. You can ensure your content marketing is driving leads and conversions by taking simple steps to create better content.
14 Steps to Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy
At its core, content marketing is all about creating and sharing valuable content to attract and retain customers. But it's not always easy to develop quality content. To help you get started, we've put together a list of 14 steps you can take to improve your content marketing:
1. Create Personas.
You need to know who your target audience is. Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on market research and accurate data about your customers. Once you have a few buyer persona profiles fleshed out, you'll better understand what content to create and how to target it.
2. Define the Purpose of Your Content.
You’ve probably heard about how important it is to have a blog and create social content, but do you know why? Ask yourself:
- Does the content align with your business model?
- Does the content format align with your business?
- How can you use content storytelling to educate users about your brand?
- Do you have the necessary resources to keep up with the demands of a blog?
Content marketing can be a lot of work. It can be even harder if you don’t learn basic content marketing best practices such as creating buyer personas or targeting different stages of the marketing funnel.
3. Decide on Keyword Targets.
Identify keywords, phrases and terms that serve your business. You’ll want to put yourself in your customers’ shoes to figure out their search intent and what they might be looking for out of your company.
4. Use Input From Across Departments.
Your content marketing strategy should collaborate between your sales, marketing and product teams. Each department has valuable insights that can help to improve your content. Your sales team is closest to customers and can provide feedback on what type of content is resonating (and what isn't).
Your marketing team understands the buyer journey and can help to map out content that will guide prospects through each stage, while your product team can provide insights on what type of content will be most helpful in selling your product or service.
5. Research Competitors.
Part of improving your content marketing involves understanding what type of content your competitors are creating and how they're targeting their audience. This doesn't mean that you should copy their strategy — instead, use their content as inspiration for your own unique content marketing approach.
6. Curate Industry News.
Your target audience is likely interested in industry news and trends but doesn't have time to sift through all of the noise to find the truly valuable information. This is where you can come in by curating the best industry news and sharing it with your audience. This will not only position you as a thought leader, but it will also help establish your brand as a trusted resource.
7. Showcase Thought Leadership.
Thought leadership content is a great way to improve your content marketing strategy. This type of content showcases your company's expertise and helps to build trust with your audience. When creating thought leadership content, focus on addressing common pain points and providing solutions that will help your target audience.
8. Be Empathetic to Your Client’s Needs.
The 12th Annual Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends: Insights for 2022 report reveals that about half of its survey respondents found that 2021 made capturing their target audience’s attention more difficult.
The solution? Adjusting marketing tone. Empathetic content marketing allows your business to form deeper relationships with your consumers by focusing on what really matters to them.
Your content should always be focused on your target audience and their needs. Take the time to put yourself in their shoes and understand what type of content will be most helpful to them.
9. Utilize Educational Content.
Educational content is an effective way to improve your content marketing. This type of content helps to establish your brand as an expert in your industry and can be used to attract new customers.
When creating an educational content marketing plan, focus on topics relevant to your target audience and offer practical information that they can use.
10. Establish Clear Content KPIs.
Content marketing tactics can be a great way to improve your business, but only if you establish clear KPIs. Without KPIs, it's difficult to measure the success of your content marketing strategy and make necessary changes. When setting up your KPIs, be sure to focus on metrics relevant to your business goals.
11. Create a Content Calendar.
To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your content marketing, it's essential to create a content calendar. A content calendar will help you map out your content strategy, plan for upcoming topics and help you deliver content that is timely and relevant.
When creating your content calendar, be sure to consider:
- Your target audience
- Your business goals
- Your content strategy
- Your resources
By taking the time to create a well-researched content calendar, you can help your business attract and retain customers.
12. License Content From World-Renowned Publications.
Outsourcing content development and creation can benefit organizations of all sizes.
The top challenge for marketers (65%) looking to outsource content is topical expertise.
How can you improve your cross-platform content strategy and ensure that you’re leveraging top-notch topical expertise?
License content from world-renowned publications, such as The New York Times. This type of content will help to improve your brand's image and position you as a thought leader in your industry.
When licensing content, be sure to consider the following:
- The publication's reputation
- The quality of the content
- The cost of licensing
- The rights that are included
By taking the time to license content from high-quality publications, you can improve your content marketing strategy and position your brand for success.
13. Use Social Media to Your Advantage.
It is important to note that there is a difference between social media marketing and content marketing. Although, they can work together, social media involves focusing on engagement across different channels, whil content marketing focuses on the assets themselves. Content will help drive social engagement, while social can ensure your content is reaching the correct audience. Make sure you decide on the right type of social media for your content. If you write industry-specific articles on topics considered shareable on social media, you will likely do better with social link building on networks such as Facebook and Twitter. If you utilize licensed images, or produce your own, Instagram and Pinterest can be good networks to attract users to your site.
14. Don’t Be Afraid to Make Adjustments.
Finally, don't be afraid to adjust your content marketing strategy. As your business grows and changes, your content marketing strategy should, too. By being willing to make changes, you can keep your content marketing strategy aligned with your business goals.
Final Thoughts
If you're like most businesses, you understand the importance of having a solid marketing strategy. But what you may not realize is that your strategy is only as good as your content. That's why it's crucial to choose a content provider that can give you the features and support you need to keep you up and running.
And that's where NYTLicensing comes in. We offer a variety of content specifically designed for businesses of all sizes. We also provide full support, so you can always reach us if you have any questions or concerns.
