Want to know how content marketing helps a business or brand to grow? You can use this guide to know content marketing strategies that are of great importance to your business and communication goals, such as attracting the target audience, increasing interaction, and sales.
Content marketing activities carried out to reach consumers in online channels, respond to consumers’ questions, interact, and increase sales are also of great importance for the brand’s online reputation management. Despite this, many brands have not developed a specific content marketing strategy and are marketing content with random methods.
Research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute CMI reveals that two-thirds of companies do not have a programmatic content marketing strategy. The research reveals that companies with a specific strategy are more effective in all aspects of content marketing than others.
A well-structured, research-based, and well-programmed content marketing strategy will be one of the most important components for the first to achieve its business goals. The strategy enables the content plan to be managed in the most efficient way, to follow the decision-making processes of the consumers, to evaluate whether the campaigns have reached their business and communication goals.
How to build a communication channel with the target audience?
Brands aim to establish continuous communication with their target audience and turn them into loyal customers. However, without a strong strategic framework, it is not possible for marketers to influence the target audience, increase interaction, and establish an ongoing relationship with consumers.
Content marketing activities that will be carried out with tactical approaches for a short period of time will not benefit in the long term and will not contribute to the further improvement of the brand’s content marketing efforts.
What are the technologies that marketers use for content marketing?
85% of the marketers in tech companies use social media publishing tools and 82% estimate using email marketing software. Among these, there are a few more technologies that marketers are using widely:
- Marketing Automation
- Project management tools
- Content management tools
- Analytics.
So, what should be considered when creating a content marketing strategy?
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Audit
It would be a good start to examine the company’s current content marketing efforts to create a content marketing strategy. A general and objective evaluation should be made by examining whether the existing content is related to the target audience, topics, publication frequency, sources, or format.
Existing content should be analyzed, it should be investigated what kinds of content will provide more interaction, how interactive content is consumed, and how it will affect consumer behavior. Creating such attractive content is a time-consuming task and requires target audience analysis. You can ask for assistance from professional writers or you can just look for Wikipedia writers for hire. Letting them write your content is worth considering because such experts know how to attract readers through blogs and articles.
In addition to this research, it will be very useful to examine how competitors create their content, which channels they share, the topics, and interactions of their content.
Goals
In light of research and reviews, the next step for companies to develop a strategy should be to define clear targets to be achieved. The business and communication goals to be determined for the content marketing strategy will be an important factor in measuring the success and effectiveness of the company’s work. At this point, the most important point to be considered; is the necessity of shaping the targets in line with the expectations and needs of the target audience.
Research
The content marketing strategy cannot be ignored while developing and the most important condition for the success of the strategy is the target audience. The strategy should be based on attracting the target audience giving confidence, arousing curiosity, and creating a loyal customer base.
A strategy created without knowing the target audience will not be successful. Many questions need to be answered, such as their interests, expectations, life opinions, the work of competitors, the strategies of successful companies, and what is effective in the purchasing decisions of consumers. In this process, creating a persona that represents the target audience will greatly contribute to the strategy.
By creating a persona, the brand defines the people it wants to reach and what is important to them. Brands can gain insight into the expectations, needs, and interests of the target audience by using web tools or by reviewing forums and industry blogs.
Interaction
In order for content marketing to be successful, it must be planned on direct interaction with the
target audience. Typically, the consumers take the following steps while making a purchasing decision:
- Emergence of need
- Identifying alternatives
- Evaluation of alternatives
- Making the purchase decision
Research and the persona created will provide data that indicates how the target audience will interact with the brand in various ways. The interaction depends entirely on the target audience and the product or service offered. Some consumers will reach the brand through organic search, some will click on ads, and it is more convenient for some to call by phone.
Build a Strong Platform for Content Marketing
The most important factors for the implementation of the content strategy will be the creation of a good team and the provision of technological infrastructure. A team of content experts and a successful leader will play a major role in managing and developing a content strategy.
A useful and functional content management system is of great importance in content marketing. A powerful content platform is one of the basic elements to support digital marketing efforts such as SEO, social media, advertising, and PR. Thanks to a consistent strategy, content created through extensive research around the target audience and platforms will be developed and reshaped according to the needs of the target audience and platforms. Read More about Digital Marketing.