When a plane takes off for a flight, it doesn't leave without a flight plan. Similarly, you shouldn't dive into inbound marketing without a content plan. While 93 percent of B2B marketers use content marketing, only 44 percent have a content strategy.
With this in mind, it's evident that developing an effective content strategy can go a long way toward setting your business apart from the competition and helping you succeed. If you're unfamiliar with strategy development, here are tips to help you get started.
We know you want your content strategy to be effective, so here are some things that you may want to consider to make it the best it can be. Take these things into account:
When developing a content strategy, consider the goals your executive team has for your business. These certainly can change from year-to-year, so keep those lines of communication open with your executive team and be flexible. How can your content strategy be tailored specifically towards helping your business achieve goals? How about sales goals? Lead goals? Customer service goals?
If you don't have target buyer personas, create one now. If you do, your plan should seek to speak directly to those people and appeal to them at different stages of the buyer's journey. In most cases, it's wise to develop two or three personas in order to ensure you're appealing to your entire audience.
See also: Here's an article about how you can put together target personas for your company.
Your content plan should consider your distribution channels and tailor content to the format of each platform. Some examples:
If your aim is to gain wider awareness of your product or service, you'll also need to consider outreach to industry associations, experts, journalists, etc. that might help you distribute your content. You can also pay for distribution via online advertising, content sponsorships or purchased email lists.
It's impossible to develop an effective strategy without an idea of the type of content you want to produce. In order to write valuable copy, you need to come up with content ideas that support your goals.
Every company has a story. The words on your website, your sales presentations, and social media should take into account where your business came from, what it seeks to do, and how it's going to get there. This will help you communicate your message and differentiate your business from the competition.
With all the talk about writing content, it's not difficult to overlook that content needs to be designed, too, especially if you're putting together a whitepaper, ebook or downloadable content. A skilled graphic designer will ensure that your content puts its best foot forward when it hits the inbox or screen of your prospect.