a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Content marketing is good for your bottom line — and your customers
Specifically, there are three key reasons — and benefits — for enterprises that use content marketing:- Increased sales
- Cost savings
- Better customers who have more loyalty
Marketing is impossible without great content
Regardless of what type of marketing tactics you use, content marketing should be part of your process, not something separate. Quality content is part of all forms of marketing:- Social media marketing: Content marketing strategy comes before your social media strategy.
- SEO: Search engines reward businesses that publish quality, consistent content.
- PR: Successful PR strategies address issues readers care about, not their business.
- PPC: For PPC to work, you need great content behind it.
- Inbound marketing: Content is key to driving inbound traffic and leads.
- Content strategy: Content strategy is part of most content marketing strategies.
How is content marketing different from other forms of marketing?
There is a lot of confusion about what content marketing is — and what it isn’t. While we don’t want to get wrapped up in semantics, it helps if everyone is using the same terms.Content marketing is related to — but different from — all of these forms of marketing:
- Native advertising
- Branded content
- Product marketing
- Traditional marketing
- Social media
- SEO
- Inbound marketing
- Public relations
- Influencer marketing
Describe content marketing methods
Five Content Marketing Examples
There are as many types of content marketing as there are types of content--far too many to cover here. My intent is to give you an introduction to content marketing and get you thinking like a content marketer so you’ll see the opportunities all around you. Soon you’ll be coming up with 50 content marketing ideas every day. You won’t be able to stop seeing opportunities to create content. Here are five examples to help your mind start percolating.
- Infographics. These are generally long, vertical graphics that include statistics, charts, graphs, and other information. If you need some examples, here are 197 infographics on the topic of content marketing curated by Michael Schmitz, head of Content Lab at Publicis, Munich. Infographics can be effective in that if one is good it can be passed around social media and posted on websites for years. You can get a professionally designed infographic by hiring a contractor on a site like oDesk or if you want to remove some of the risk you can go with a company like Visua.ly. A decent infographic will usually cost you at least $1,000 to have designed, but can cost several thousand dollars if you are hiring a contractor or agency to include strategy and planning, research, copywriting, and design. There is also the matter of promoting that infographic to bloggers and the media. Or you could set up a board on Pinterest and curate infographics on a topic related to your business. That is also a form of content marketing, and it costs nothing but your time. Hey, it worked for Michael.
- Webpages. What’s the difference between a normal webpage and a webpage that is content marketing? Consider The Beginner’s Guide to SEO from Moz, a provider of SEO related tools and resources. This resource, offered for free, has been viewed millions of times, bringing in countless customers who otherwise might never have stumbled across Moz and the services they offer. Or take a look at a case studyfrom the design firm Teehan+Lax. Most case studies are boring. Their case studies are fascinating. That’s the difference between simply putting content on your website, and content marketing.
- Podcasts. Michael Hyatt, author of the best-selling book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, practices what he preaches. His “This is Your Life” podcast is downloaded 250,000 times each month. As Hyatt elaborates on his blog post 4 Reasons You Should Consider Launching Your Own Podcast, “A podcast gives you visibility in a completely different world—primarily iTunes. I have had scores of new people say they had never heard of me until they stumbled onto me in iTunes.” Hyatt gives valuable information and advice in his podcast--all for free. But that podcast leads to more sales of his books, signups for his courses, and requests for him as a speaker.
- Videos. Gary Vaynerchuk is a master of content marketing using online video, just take a look at his YouTube channel. He got his start creating videos to promote his family’s wine store and through those videos and other online marketing he eventually grew it to a $45M empire. Videos and podcasts are a largely untapped form of content marketing because people think it’s expensive and hard. But with the falling cost of professional grade equipment creating high quality video and audio content is easier than ever. Amateur video content marketing has been used to sell blenders, launch new dental products, and market Hong Kong visa consulting services. What video could you throw together for your company that might change your fortunes overnight? It might be easier than you think.
- Books. Like movies, people often think of books as selling themselves, but savvy marketers don’t sell books just to sell books, they sell books as marketing tools. Michael Port’s sales manual Book Yourself Solid is a great read for entrepreneurs, salespeople, and marketers, and while I’m sure Port enjoys selling his book, the book is a tool for driving customers to his coaching and speaking services. Although with self-publishing it’s easier than ever to publish a book, there is still the perception that it’s difficult and that only reputable professionals can publish a business book. Publish your own, and even if people don’t read it you can still use it as a form of content marketing every time you’re introduced as “Author of…”
Those are just a few examples of content marketing. I could also have mentioned white papers, ebooks, apps, public speaking, presentations, and blogs. Entire books have been written on using each of these in content marketing efforts.
Explain the benefits of a content marketing campaign to a business
If this sounds like you, know that content marketing is one of the most practical, effective, and useful marketing strategies today. Let these top 10 benefits convince you:
1. More on-site content. It may seem like a simple observation, but more time spent on content marketing means you'll have more content on your site. That means your customers will have more reasons to stick around, more opportunities to become familiar with your brand, and more trust, which will lead to higher conversion rates. With great content, your users will stay on your site longer, and that's always a good thing. For more on why on-site content is a good thing, see The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging On Your Website.
2. Higher visibility in search engines. Every new post you add to your blog is another page that Google's going to index. More pages doesn't always correlate with more search traffic, but having more quality pages indexed can grant you more opportunities to rank for more search queries. If you target long-tail keywords and topics that your customers frequently search for, you should have no trouble appearing for those searches with your archive of information.
3. Higher domain authority. Writing more, higher quality content will increase the perceived expertise, authority, relevance, and trust of your site. If that content earns more inbound links from external sources, your website's domain authority will increase even further. A higher domain authority correlates strongly with higher search rankings, so the more quality content you produce, the more organic search visibility you'll stand to gain in all areas of your site.
4. More referral traffic. This one depends on your commitment to the guest publishing portion of your content strategy. When you contribute to external publications as a guest, you'll have the opportunity to link back to your site. Do so on a relevant, authoritative site with high traffic, and a single guest post could earn you thousands of new visitors to your site.
5. More social traffic (and followers!). Syndicate your content on your social media platforms for increased exposure. If you do this, more users will see and read your material--plus, users will have the opportunity to share your content with their friends and followers, greatly increasing your circle of followers. Over time, you'll earn more and more followers for your brand on social media, and more traffic from social media as a result.
6. Increased conversion potential. Your primary objectives with content are to engage, inform, help, and bring value for your readers. Once that's taken care of, you can use any remaining space you have to pitch one of your products or services. If done tactfully, you can easily increase the number of conversions you get. Just remember the keyword here is "tactfully"--don't turn your content into an advertisement.
7. Improved brand reputation. When people read your material, they'll be building an impression of your brand. If they find what they read helpful, informative, or enlightening, they'll think more highly of your brand. Furthermore, if they see your content published on external sources and showing up on their social newsfeeds, they'll perceive of you as a more trustworthy, established thought leader in the industry.
8. Tighter customer/reader relationships. A greater brand reputation can help with the size and recognition of your audience, but great content can also increase the loyalty and closeness of your customer relationships. If you use personal brands of individuals to write and share content, your customers could develop a more personal relationship with your company. If they start to rely on you as a primary source of information, their loyalty will be all but guaranteed for as long as they buy your products.
9. Universal utility. There's no such thing as a "bad" industry for content marketing. Literally any business in any industry can use content as a major strategy. Even traditional, "un-sexy" industries like manufacturing can still provide insights on industry developments or just make their industry more approachable and relatable to consumers.
10. Decreased marketing costs and compounding value. Content marketing only costs time. It's incredibly cost-effective, and even better--it offers compounding returns. Your first few months of a content marketing strategy might not yield much in the way of results, but your next few months will start to see growth. The few months after that will see more growth. By the time you're a few years in, your return could easily quadruple your investment (or more), consistently.
Content marketing is inexpensive, safe, available for anyone in any industry, and beneficial in many different areas. The sooner you start investing in it, the sooner you'll start to see results, and the better results you'll eventually see. Whether you're in it for the increased traffic, higher conversion rates, or just better relationships with your customers, there's no reason content marketing shouldn't be included in your marketing arsenal.
1.3 outline content marketing ideas for use in a campaign
A Crash Course In Best Of Class Content Marketing [Examples]
Who wouldn’t want 28 new content marketing ideas they can inject into their editorial calendar immediately? You would if you’re like most content marketers who are always in search of new quality content.
Of course, you’ll have to re-imagine these ideas to make them relevant to your business and target audience. But as Seth Godin pointed out, “Innovation is often the act of taking something that worked over there and using it over here.”
We are visual beings. As a result 83% of what we learn is via visual means according to Annalect.com. Seeing an example helps us to understand it better.
To get a crash course in how to create amazing content, here are 28 best-in-class content marketing examples including visuals chosen by well known experts in the field.
1. One of my favorite examples is Taxi Mike in Banff, Alberta in Canada. He produces the Taxi Mike dining guide that categorizes all the restaurants and bars in the area. He’s a one man Trip Advisor. Great content, and a terrific example of making the story bigger. He doesn’t create content about taxis, he creates content about what taxis help you do….enjoy yourself. (screen shot attached) Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, author of Youtility
Content Marketing Example – Taxi Mike via Jay Baer
2. Crimson Hexagon is a maker of social intelligence software. The category is crowded and it’s not a well understood category, which adds to the marketing challenge. They market to marketing directors and vice presidents. Through a series of white papers, industry case studies, blog posts, and webinars, their sales funnel continues to receive quality input that contributes to their business objectives. You’ll notice that their blog content analyzes current events through social media and displays the insights learned using their social analysis software product. Bernie Borges of Find and Convert and author of Marketing 2.0. [ Full disclosure: this is a client of Find and Convert. ]
3. One of the great examples of content marketing for me is the slideshare deck by Velocity Partners called “Stop Creating Crap.” I think it is provocative, designed well and delivers great value for the target audience. Michael Brenner of SAP and the B2B Insider blog.
4. I continue to love what GORUCK does with their brand. They are a lifestyle brand that builds military tough gear for everyday use. Their blog highlights their latest products, mixed with the latest adventures from members of their team.
They also do a series of live events and have recently began posting updates with branded photographs across their social channels during the events to give live updates for anyone to follow along. C.C. Chapman author of Amazing Things Will Happen and co-author of Content Rules.
When I think of great content, I think in terms of how well does it reinforce your brand while it drives lead generation and sales. Here are three examples that stand out and can be replicated by other businesses.
5. Ford’s Facebook Page. I love Ford’s cover photograph. It encompasses everything that good content should do. It’s branded by incorporating Ford’s employees. Even better, they’ve got plastic on the grass to protect it. Additionally, Ford has created Throwback Thursdays to use retro photographs from their archives and on Fridays, Ford gets consumers to share their photographs including Ford products in their Featured Fan Photograph. How can you leverage content from your firm’s archives and how can you get your customers involved in content creation? The beauty of this information is that it attracts interaction and engagement. Also, it doesn’t require a ton of content creation or overhead.
5. Ford’s Facebook Page. I love Ford’s cover photograph. It encompasses everything that good content should do. It’s branded by incorporating Ford’s employees. Even better, they’ve got plastic on the grass to protect it. Additionally, Ford has created Throwback Thursdays to use retro photographs from their archives and on Fridays, Ford gets consumers to share their photographs including Ford products in their Featured Fan Photograph. How can you leverage content from your firm’s archives and how can you get your customers involved in content creation? The beauty of this information is that it attracts interaction and engagement. Also, it doesn’t require a ton of content creation or overhead.
Ford Motor Company Facebook Cover Image – Branded Content
Ford Motor Company Facebook Page – Featured Fan Photo – User Content
6. King Arthur’s Flour Blog – Flourish. King Arthur’s Flour incorporated their product into their blog name, Flourish. They give away recipes with step by step instructions including amazing photographs of the finished product and the process. They link to their product pages where appropriate in the recipe. As if this weren’t enough, they build on existing trends and memes. For example, this Greens and Grains Pizza recipeincludes kale, the hot new food trend.
King Arthur’s Flour Blog – Flourish Supplies Recipes With Photographs
King Arthur’s Flour Blog Includes Step by Step Photographs and Lists of Ingredients that Link to Product Pages
7. Altimeter’s Research on Slideshare. Altimeter Group is a research and advisory consulting firm. To attract customers, they share meaty, original research on Slideshare (and other platforms) like this example by Rebecca Lieb. The presentations are branded in terms of look and feel as well as in terms of their thought leadership on current business issues. This approach can be used by any services firm or solopreneur by showcasing your expertise in a consistent, branded way.
Altimeter Group Shares Original Research on Slideshare
Heidi Cohen – Riverside Marketing Strategies
8. Since January of 2011, we have hosted a monthly open-house teaching event called “Wine & Web.” The idea was to invite clients, prospects and friends into our space and teach our latest web marketing techniques.
Andy Crestodina and Gini Dietrich at Wine & Web event in Chicago
It’s not difficult, expensive or time consuming. We simply include the link in the Thursday newsletter for the event on the following Tuesday. Our larger conference room can hold around 30 people, so we order 15-20 bottles of wine and order a half dozen pizzas.
This little event has sold out for the last 22 months in a row. Some people come almost every month and these hard core attendees have formed the “5 Time Club” and we’re finding ways to reward them with a small gift. Some times we have guest speakers, which offers me a chance to learn at my own event! Once we used an interview format, and Gini Dietrich was our guest (see attached)
I love Wine & Web because it pushes me to teach new things, but it’s in a comfortable environment. The presentations often lead to blog posts and other content. It’s low cost for us, high value for attendees and there’s no commute required. I just walk down the hall and teach something new to a room full of happy people.
Other marketing companies in town are catching on and many similar (near identical) event have appeared, including “Drink and Think” and “Sip ‘n Share.” We’ve created our own spinoff event called “Design Brew” which features beer and web design topics. Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media and author of Content Chemistry.
9. I mentioned Dove: not only did they engage in great research, but that research has formed the underlying passion points of the brand.
Dove’s Positive Image Campaign
10. I also think Red Bull has done a superb job. They always stay on passion point of what it means for people to be extreme. They brought that to the famous example of a world-breaking freefall. Take note of the trajectory of content creation which began with an event, which spawned a website, videos, PR coverage, and more.
11. When it comes to events, GE has also provided us with a great example. They’ve taken virtual ownership of events like Pi Day and Inventors’ Day. The idea of owning an event, whether real or imagined, can be a powerful focus of content creation.
Ric Dragon of Dragon Search and author of Social Marketology.
Ric Dragon of Dragon Search and author of Social Marketology.
12. Super tough questions here because it remains rare that companies have content marketing down and in my world the best ones tend to be in the marketing space… Marketo comes to mind… Buffer… HubSpot, etc. As a rock and roll junkie who devours music mags, I’d give a nod to Paste Magazine whose free offerings and content curation inspires me to spend money and stay loyal.
As for marketers in other walks of life, I keep my eye on my clients’ competitors. One of my clients is in the talent recruitment space, so thanks to Google Alerts, I’ve discovered theundercoverrecruiter.com. I have to say, this company gets it. They have clearly ID’d the various personas they target, recruited (sorry) top-notch talent, and ceaselessly deliver every conceivable form of useful content. Above all, they do great email. If you don’t do great email, you’re not in the big leagues.
Barry Feldman, author of The Plan to Grow Your Business with Effective Online Marketing, a free e-book.
13. I think that Zagat does a great job with their content marketing on Google+. They are fun and interesting while staying on brand. 3.6 million people follow them on Google+ so what they’re doing works. It’s a perfect mix of information on travel and just plain food and travel posts which people love. All their content is high quality and I love their conversational tone when posting.
Peg Fitzpatrick one of the ringleaders at 12Most.
Two of my favorite content marketing examples? Currently my two very favorite examples of doing content marketing right are:
14. My Froggy Stuff, for all things artistic, creative, and just plain mind boggling for doll lovers. They create absolutely mind-blowing “how-to” craft videos for doll lovers and even if you don’t love dolls, you will love these jaw-dropping videos. The company has a blog and Etsy store so if your crafting skills aren’t up to snuff, you can purchase the creations on-line. My froggy stuff has a cult following of crafters young and old and the most inspiring thing about her marketing is that there is nothing about production of crafts or content itself( video, blog, images) that can’t be done by the average person.
14. My Froggy Stuff, for all things artistic, creative, and just plain mind boggling for doll lovers. They create absolutely mind-blowing “how-to” craft videos for doll lovers and even if you don’t love dolls, you will love these jaw-dropping videos. The company has a blog and Etsy store so if your crafting skills aren’t up to snuff, you can purchase the creations on-line. My froggy stuff has a cult following of crafters young and old and the most inspiring thing about her marketing is that there is nothing about production of crafts or content itself( video, blog, images) that can’t be done by the average person.
15. Michelle Phan was just a make-up fan passionate about tutorials back in 2007 when she launched her first video for her non-existing community and audience. Her make-up instructional have turned her into a global enterprise, inspiring the L’Oreal Group to help her launch a new cosmetic line called EM Michelle Phan.
Within a span of 5 years, Michelle has successfully turned her passion into content, and her content into a brand. Michelle has produced a great three minute video on her story that outlines how her brand came about — great for content marketers and making the case on “why and how”.
Michelle Phan’s make up tutorials built a community and a brand
Kelly Hungerford – Paper.li
16. I’ve will always love Jones Soda and their use customer’s images on their bottles. They were one of the first to get the story was never about them. They were certainly my inspiration for crowdsourcing content for my board game, GiftTRAP back in 2005.
17. I’m also a huge fan of Lululemon and their use of Instagram is very cute – they also happen to have a very photographic customer demographic.
Today it still feels like few brands really get the power of social is not about their story but that of their customers
18. I also love to see brands that keep their message constant over time. This example from Geico is very cool – they reinforce their old faithful “15% saving” message with a fresh spin by telling people everyone knows that and then adds in a fun fact that’s irrelevant, but memorable.
Here’s a fun collection of videos from Geico’s “Did You Know Campaign“. There is nothing better than serializing a successful creative to keep your brand on topic, but also be fun and creative.
Geico has won big time, with 99,000 videos on Youtube for the search term “Geico Parody” and many millions of views. Geico is certainly working the paid, earned and owned media game to good effect. Nick Kellet of Listly.
19. I think one of the most impressive examples of content marketing is from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which uses content to attract and engage every licensed pilot and aircraft owner, in order to sell them memberships, services, and products. Probably the most prominent example of this is the association’s safety content, which is accessible to all pilots, regardless of whether they are association members or not. Over the last 5 years, AOPA has assembled dozens of online courses, quizzes, and case studies that are accessed on a regular basis by a substantial percentage of the 600,000 licensed pilots in the US (see screen shots). AOPA uses this content — which in many cases requires registration — to gather information that is more current and detailed than what is available in federal pilot registration databases. More importantly, it helps identify pilots who are active and eager to learn — prime targets for association membership. Perhaps most impressively of all, the content in many cases gets paid for by sponsors — a virtuous circle that would be the envy of every content marketer! Michael Kolowich – KnowledgeVision
20. Dollar Shave Club Video:
Why it’s great: The Dollar Shave Club video is not only funny and appeals to a wide audience, but it is sharable. It also communicates all of the necessary information in a short time and makes the decision to sign up something that seems to have no bad side effects. The video is written completely about the product without coming off too serious or stereotypically “salesy” and empowers the watcher with humor and light heartedness ultimately making for one awesome piece of content. Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures and author of Accelerate.
21. Quick Sprout’s “advanced guides” are so detailed that most people wouldn’t dare to copy them, but they generate so many links and a lot of good will, that it is worth creating them. [ NOTE: Under most circumstances, this blog wouldn’t accept a thought leader’s own work but because Patel’s advanced guides are the equivalent of text books that I would recommend, I made an exception. —HC ] Neil Patel of Kiss Metrics and Crazy Egg and blogger at QuickSprout.
22. Big company – Jyske Bank TV – the first media company with its own bank
23. Small Company – OpenView Labs from OpenView Venture Partners. Must read information for entrepreneurs looking for funding. Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing Institute and Author of Epic Content, Managing Content Marketing and Get Content Get Customers.
24. I’m fascinated with the LinkedIn Influencer program right now. They’ve engaged 400 thought leaders to share original content directly with LinkedIn’s 225+ million members, who can then connect with the authors through threaded comments. There’s tremendous value creation for the LinkedIn brand, the influencers and the members. It’s early in the program’s development, but it’s shown significant potential.
According to a recent blog post by Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot co-founder and LinkedIn Influencer, he has published 30 LinkedIn articles, with an average of 123,000 pageviews. His most popular article has more than 1.2 million views and 4,200 comments.
Imagine the impact as LinkedIn opens up the Influencer program to more professionals, and brands. Paul Roetzer of PR 20/20 and author of The Marketing Agency Blueprint.
25. Coca-Cola: They just create epic content. They are fantastic at weaving a story, engaging their audience, and adding human intrigue into each and every campaign. I loved the Share a Coke campaign where they recognized their customers by printing 250 of the most popular names on bottles and asking that people tweet out photos if they found a Coke with their name on it. Another facet of this campaign is providing coke cans that twist apart into 2 smaller cans to share.
26. #lowesfixinsix: I love this Vine campaign because it is innovative and useful. They found a really great way to leverage the 6 seconds that vine offers to create fixes to some of the most common household problems. Dayna Rothman of Marketo.
27. Ocean Frontiers uses Facebook to get dive clients returning year after year. David Meerman Scott author of Real Time Marketing and PR.
28. One project that really opened my eyes and helped me in how I approach content marketing projects is Completely London by one of London’s leading estate agencies Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward. At the beginning of the worst real-estate crisis in our memory, in 2009, the agency wanted a communications vehicle that would help to build and consolidate their positioning in the UK’s capital. They hired August Media, a content marketing agency – August Media wanted to ensure the solution was not simply a wrapper for countless property adverts. Equally they wanted to keep it fresh and therefore developed a solution centered around a clear theme each quarter – multiple award-winning Completely London print custom magazine. The publication avoids the typical property listings formula, traditionally employed by estate agents, and instead, talks to Londoners about London. It’s been bringing truly awe-inspiring results and it is a firm foundation for their other channels added later – social media, a blog… See more: Nenad Senic, Disput.si.
Whether you're just starting out with content marketing or you've been using the same approach for a while, it never hurts to revisit your content strategy plan -- to make sure it's up-to-date, innovative, and strong.
After all, you've got more competition than ever. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 70% of B2B marketers surveyed say they are creating more content this year than they did in 2016.
The first step to getting a leg up on the competition is to have a solid, smart content marketing plan in place. If you're having trouble planning for the upcoming year or need some fresh ideas to include in your plan, read on.
Click here to sharpen your skills with the help of our content marketing workbook.
In this post, we'll dive into why your business needs a content marketing plan and the exact steps you will need to take to create one.
What is Content Strategy?
In short, your content strategy is the piece of your marketing plan and development that refers to the management of pretty much any tangible media that you create and own -- written, visual, downloadable -- you get the picture.
You may have heard how important content creation is, but as we'll get into throughout this post, it needs to have a well-planned purpose. When you develop a content strategy, there are some key things to consider:
- Who you're creating it for
- The problem it's going to solve for that audience
- How it will be unique
- The formats you'll focus on
- The channels where it will be published
- How you will schedule and manage creation and publication
Why Do Marketers Need to Create a Content Marketing Strategy?
Content marketing helps businesses prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic and new leads. Think about it -- if you can create just one blog post that gets a steady amount of organic traffic, an embedded link to an ebook or free tool will continue generating leads for you as time goes on.
The reliable source of traffic and leads from your evergreen content will give you the flexibility to experiment with other marketing tactics to generate revenue, such as sponsored content, social media advertising, and distributed content. Plus, your content will not only help attract leads -- it will also help educate your target prospects and generate awareness for your brand.
Now, let's dive in to learn the specifics of how to create a content marketing plan.
7 Steps for Creating a Content Marketing Strategy
1) Define your goal.
What's your aim for developing a content marketing plan? Why do you want to produce content and create a content marketing plan? Know your goals before you begin planning, and you'll have an easier time determining what's best for your strategy. (Want help figuring out the right goals? Download this goal planning template.)
2) Conduct persona research.
To develop a successful plan, you need to clearly define your content's target audience -- also known as your buyer persona.
This is especially important for those who are starting out or are new to marketing. By knowing your target audience, you can produce more relevant and valuable content that they'll want to read and convert on.
If you're an experienced marketer, your target may have changed. Do you want to target a new group of people or expand your current target market? Do you want to keep the same target audience? Revisiting your audience parameters by conducting market research each year is crucial to growing your audience.
3) Run a content audit.
Most people start out with blog posts, but if you want to venture out and try producing other content pieces, consider which ones you want to make. For instance, if you've been doing weekly blog posts for the past year, creating an ebook that distills all your blog posts into one ultimate guide would be a one way to offer information in a different format. We'll go over several different types of content you can use further down on the list.
If you've been in business for a while, review your content marketing efforts and the results from it in the last year. Figure out what you can do differently in the upcoming year and set new goals to reach. (Pro tip: Now is a great time to align your team's goals with the rest of your organization's goals.)
4) Determine a content management system.
Have a system in place where you can manage your content. A few vital parts of content management include content creation, content publication, and content analytics.
If you're a HubSpot customer, you can plan, produce, publish, and measure your results all in one place using HubSpot software. Other content management system options include CoSchedule and WordPress (although we can't speak to the full range of capabilities of these sites).
5) Brainstorm content ideas.
Now, it's time to start coming up with ideas for your next content project. Here are some tools to get the wheels turning:
- HubSpot's Website Grader: HubSpot's Website Grader is a great tool to use when you want to see where you're at with your marketing. From your blogging efforts to your social media marketing, Website Grader grades vital areas of your marketing and sends you a detailed report to help you optimize and improve each area. With this tool, you can figure out how to make your website more SEO-friendly and discover new content ideas.
- What To Write: Get your mind gears going with What To Write's unique content idea generator. This tool asks you questions that will help jumpstart your brainstorming. It also generates several blog post ideas for you after you've completed the questions, so you can use those ideas in your content marketing plan.
- HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator: Get blog post ideas for an entire year with HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator. All you need to do is enter general topics or terms you'd like to write about, and this content idea generator does all the work for you.
- Feedly: This popular RSS feed is a wonderful way to keep track of trendy topics in your industry and find content ideas at the same time.
- BuzzSumo: Discover popular content and content ideas at BuzzSumo. BuzzSumo uses social media shares to determine if a piece of content is popular and well-liked, so this information will help you see which content ideas will do well.
- Content Forest: Content Forest offers free tools, which include KeywordKiwi and ContentIdeator. These tools will help you find popular content from your competitors, effective keywords to use in your content, and great content ideas all in one spot.
- Blog Post Headline Analyzer: CoSchedule's tool analyzes headlines and titles and provides feedback on length, word choice, grammar, and keyword search volume. If you have an idea in mind, run a few title options through the Headline Analyzer to see how you could make it stronger, and to move your idea further along in the brainstorming process.
6) Determine which types of content you want to create.
There are a variety of options out there for content you can create. Here are some of the most popular content formats marketers are creating and tools and templates to get you started.
Blog posts
If you haven't already noticed, you're currently perusing a blog post. Blog posts live on a website and should be published regularly in order to attract new visitors. Posts should provide valuable content for your audience that makes them inclined to share posts on social media and across other websites. We recommend that blog posts be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, but experiment to see if your audience prefers longer or shorter reads.
Check out our free templates for writing great how-to, listicle, curation, SlideShare presentation, and newsjacking posts on your own blog.
Ebooks
Ebooks are lead generation tools that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. They're typically longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which are written to attract visitors to a website. Ebooks are the next step in the inbound marketing process: After reading a blog post (such as this one), visitors might want more content from an ebook and submit their contact information to learn more valuable information for their business. In turn, the business producing the ebook has a new lead for the sales team to contact.
Templates
Templates are a handy content format to try because they generate leads for you while providing tremendous value to your audience. When you provide your audience with template tools to save them time and help them succeed, they're more likely to keep engaging with your content in the future.
Infographics
Infographics can organize and visualize data in a more compelling way than words alone. These are great content formats to use if you're trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
If you're ready to get started, get our templates for creating beautiful infographics in less than an hour.
Videos
Videos are a highly engaging content medium that are shareable across social media platforms and websites alike. Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity -- after all, it's 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content -- it's a medium worth experimenting with.
Podcasts
Starting a podcast will help audiences find your brand if they don't have time or interest in reading content every day. The number of podcast listeners is growing -- in 2016, an estimated 57 million people listened to podcasts each month. If you have interesting people to interview or conversations to host, consider podcasting as another content format to experiment with.
Here's our comprehensive guide to starting a podcast.
External Content
Once you've been regularly publishing content on your own site for a while, it might be time to start thinking about distributing your content on other sites. This could entail a few things:
- Publishing website content on social media sites, such as LinkedIn
- Repurposing content into new formats and publishing them on your blog or social media sites
- Creating original content specifically for external sites, such as Medium
And speaking of Medium, if you're considering that platform, check out our insights from our first year of publishing original content on ThinkGrowth.org.
When you're ready for more ideas, there are a plethora of different content types to diversify your website. Check them out below:
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7) Publish and manage your content.
Your marketing plan should go beyond the types of content you'll create -- it should also cover you'll organize your content. With the help of an editorial calendar, you'll be on the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content library on your website. Then, create a social media content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on other sites.
Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen -- they're just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn't ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate spikes of traffic.
Most people count on incorporating popular holidays such as New Year's and Thanksgiving in their marketing efforts, but you don't have to limit yourself to these important marketing dates. If there are niche holidays that might appeal to your audience, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media. HubSpot Staff Writer Sophia Bernazzani compiled this ultimate list of social media holidays -- keep an eye on it when you're planning your calendar.
As the growth of content marketing explodes into 2015, it has become increasingly difficult to stand out as a business amongst all the online noise. To become effective you need to create compelling content on a consistent basis and deliver it to the right platform at the right time to ensure that it will be seen by a large portion of your target audience.
These tasks can be overwhelming if they are not clearly planned, managed and delivered and they will ultimately limit the effectiveness of the results. Take a look at these percentages taken from organisations surveyed about their content marketing methods:
- 60% with documented strategy considers their organization to be effective at content marketing
- 32% with verbal strategy considers their organization to be effective at content marketing
- 7% with no strategy considers their organization to be effective at content marketing
It shows that at the heart of maintaining an online presence there should be an effective content marketing strategy, with a clear, well documented framework of what, you as a business, would like to achieve in the digital space.
Content can get lost in the Crowd
Let’s look at five factors to consider when planning your content marketing strategy.
1.Goals and Objectives
Obviously your marketing goals should align with your business goals so decide on these with your business aims in mind.
Write them down! Have a brainstorm of all the business goals you can think of and then prioritise them according to how realistic they are, their potential returns and their scalability.
Look at setting the larger long term goals first and then narrow these down to short term objectives so they can be built on step by step. These short term aims can be created with resource and budgetary requirements in mind.
Make sure that the main goals have the ability to be measured; whether based on statistical evidence or sentiment score. The ultimate measurement should be the ROI you have gained through the implementation of your overall marketing strategy.
Defining these goals and objectives from the start can make the planning of a strategy so much easier as you work on implementing small productive steps that contribute to the wider aim.
2.Target Audience and their Online Location
The determination of your target audience will be based on both internal data and industry | competitor research.
Internal Data Analysis
If you have an established database of clients and have been collecting the RIGHT data you should be able to build up a number of client profiles based on age, location, buying habits, interests etc.
Who is your Target Market?
Internal data can also show the query types that may require customer service resource on an on-going basis such as email and phone. This information can be used to determine the type of content you wish to create to educate the client as you turn the query resolutions into accessible, evergreen content.
All this data is extremely valuable given the ability social platforms have to narrow the target focus of their users when it comes to online content promotion.
Industry & Competitor Research
If you are a new business or have not used data collection as a marketing tool then there is a wealth of general data already online. Use search to find how similar businesses are using the online space by checking out the social platforms they use, the type of content they create and the level of engagement on it and also how they use content on their websites.
All this is valuable information but do not use this type of research to plagiarise. You want to stand out from the crowd remember!
Where are your Clients?
The results of your research will identify the main platforms that your target market will read and engage on.
The great, yet also scary thing is that your clients can talk about your brand wherever they please online and if you do not employ listening tools and find that conversation then you are missing a huge opportunity to get involved and direct the client to the relevant content or resolution to their query. Seeking out the conversation should lead to a decision as to whether to promote your content on that particular platform.
Research into your target audience and listening to their online conversation around your brand will also determine the type of content that is required within your strategy. It can be a factor in the topics you decide on, the delivery of this content and the scheduling consistency for maximum impact. Make sure you do your research!
3.Content Type
The type of content created is the key representation of your brand online so you need to consider what will create the maximum impact for your target audience.
Competitor research will indicate which type of content generates the most engagement online and this will allow you to brainstorm the different content sections you need for your strategy. This could be:
- Educational
- Creating awareness
- Humorous
- Opinion driven
Content Marketing: Decide your Content type.
Once you have a list you can narrow down the number you wish to focus on. Providing a good mix of content substance will determine that your online brand appeals to a broader segment of your target audience. This can be dependent on business type, of course (I mean you don’t want to provide humorous content if you are in the funeral home business) however these types of decisions are ones that will come naturally; based purely on sensibility and logic!
Turn your definitive content list into a Content Calendar, determining the substance, frequency and platform you wish to share your post on. We will cover this topic in more detail in a future post so keep an eye out!
Evergreen Content
The great thing about digital content versus traditional advertising is in the longevity of the interaction with the target audience. Evergreen content is content that can be referred to over a long period of time and still holds value for the client. As mentioned previously; a way to manage resource and cost efficiency is to deliver educational, evergreen content that will limit the time and cost of other forms of customer service communication like email or phone.
Types of evergreen content can include:
- An extensive FAQ page on your website can reduce the amount of calls made to your staff.
- Using blogs and infographics to exhibit products and the functionality of the same by writing quick step guides that will also alleviate the time taken to answer client queries.
- Converting those quick step guides into a video playlist to communicate trouble shooting resolutions is also a good way to manage efficiency.
4.Resource Efficiency
Whether you are a sole trader or have many cross –functional departments it is advisable to assess the scale of the content marketing strategy you wish to execute and then make a decision on the type and size of the resource needed to manage the workload.
When planning and implementing a content marketing strategy a business has the option of using internal resources or a content outsource solution.
Internal Resource
Manage Your Resources
This could be a key member of staff or a full scale marketing team. Whoever works on a content marketing strategy within the business should have a wide understanding of every function or communicate with the experts in each area and encourage them to become an integral part of the strategy with their own content creation. This is a great way to naturally create brand advocates within the organisation.
Employees should have clear roles and responsibilities and an understanding of the ethos and brand image that you wish to portray. This is important as the work they show will most probably be the first impression a potential customer has with your brand online.
They should implement the strategy as a framework for consistencyyet be flexible enough when monitoring online conversation around the brand to change or add to the strategy within a given situation.
Content Outsource Solution
A content outsource solution alleviates the budget and time limitations that a business may have. Often more cost effective than employing a marketing executive on a full time salary; this solution also limits the need for ongoing training and holiday cover amongst other things.
A content outsource solution works effectively when presented with a detailed brief of the tasks they need to implement which is why a clear content strategy is vital when outsourcing. Clarity of objectives means there is there is limited opportunity for misrepresentation and, in most cases; the experts will provide ideas and solutions with regards to digital that you may never have thought of. Most content providers will also already have the most up to date tools needed to provide measurement data on your strategy too and will use their knowledge and expertise to make recommendations for future improvement.
Whichever the resource suitable for your business, the framework and detail of the strategy will be the most important factor in driving your business online.
5.Measure and Analyse Results
A company should always be finding ways to improve all aspects of their business on all levels. Through analysing and executing on strategy in all areas of development a business can utilise data to become a lead differentiator within their field.
Analyse Your Results
Customer insight is key to improvement strategy. A busy agent dealing with queries and mentions on a daily basis is not going to have the time to be strategic and pick up on innovative ideas that can be found in an online engagement around a piece of content and its topic.
This is why it is important to employ strategic insight from the intelligence data and use the brand experience as related by the consumer to look out for successful commercial opportunities and ideas they may have to implement in your future content marketing strategy.
There is always room for improvement and the online consumer’s appetite for content will ensure that content methods and marketing strategies will consistently shift to match their requirements.
Explain the legal requirements to be considered for content marketing
Legal requirements
1.5a) Copyright
1.5b) product/trades descriptions
1.5c) trademarks
1.5d) patents
Factors
1.4a) Aims and objectives
1.4b) target audience
1.4c) available skills and resources
1.4d) cost
1.4e) time
1.4f) accessibility
1.4g) legal
1.4h) copyright
1.4i) relevance of context
1.4j) ethical
Understand technology used in content marketing
explain how technical constraints influence the choice of content media types
Constraints
2.1a) File types
2.1b) file size
2.1c) data rates
2.1d) cross platform compatibility
2.1e) end-user hardware
2.1f) network speed etc.
2.1a) File types
2.1b) file size
2.1c) data rates
2.1d) cross platform compatibility
2.1e) end-user hardware
2.1f) network speed etc.
Well how do I know if I’ve done it right?
Below, I have compiled everything there is to look for, so that you can be completely secure in the knowledge that you’ve made it with your Content Marketing campaign…
Perfect, what could possibly go wrong?
Although Content Marketing as a whole is a really useful and good way of promoting your campaign, nothing is perfect in this world, including Content Marketing. There are a few technical constraints that you should be aware of if you decide to create your own Content Marketing campaign.
The File Type is one of such constraints. When producing your various methods of content, it is likely there will be different file types. This can cause problems as sites like WordPress or Drupal won’t accept all uploaded file types. When uploading content for publishing, the safest option is to use a PDF format, as this is readable on everything.
Next, I can guarantee we’ve all been in that infuriating situation when you are about to download your recent photos or that great new film that’s come out, until you realise you don’t have any storage space. Or even worse; the dreaded buffering symbol. If your File Sizeand Network Speed isn’t to the required standard, customers will get bored waiting for their downloads or videos to buffer, and may look elsewhere. However, there are ways to avoid this. Make sure you optimize your file sizes, and if need be, you can purchase specific CDNs that are particularly compatible with programmes like WordPress, to ensure the speedy upload and viewing of your content.
People don’t just sit at a computer to use the internet these days, though. There are numerous ways to use the internet, and on numerous platforms. To ensure all of your audience can view your content, it needs to be compatible to view on different platforms and browsers. Again, the PDF format is a safe bet to go with, as it can function on Windows, Android and Apple devices, an example of Cross Platform Compatibility. It can be difficult make your website perfectly accessible, and some things may be out of your control, but the aim is always to market to as wide an audience as possible, as that will get you the most publicity.
1. Budget constraints
Crafting enough quality content isn’t cheap. From e-books and white papers to blog posts and articles, the cost of creating the content that’ll drive revenues adds up fast. Budget constraints are the biggest obstacle for marketers to overcome in content marketing.
2. Content creation resources
Let’s face it. Anyone can call themselves a writer, but you need to find the perfect fit for your business. You need someone who understands your industry and the science behind content marketing. Finding these resources is a struggle, especially in technical industries.
3. Content strategy
It’s not enough to create content. You need a strategy to weave it together and promote it across multiple platforms and channels.
Strategic content serves your business goals. Random, sporadic content might work, but it’ll be far less effective. If you don’t have the employee manpower to craft a strong strategy, working with a consultant can help.
4. Lack of data to measure success.
We live in a data-driven world, but to access the important data behind your marketing, you need to have the right tools in place. Set yourself up to measure your successes by using data tracking tools, such as Google Analytics, social media, and your customers’ inboxes.
5. Lack of management support
With budget constraints, lack of resources and strategy, and not enough data to measure success, getting management on board isn’t always easy. By forming the framework of a content strategy and using case studies and showing how competitors have profited as a result of content marketing, you’ll make a stronger case for this powerful marketing strategy.
Volkswagen
advert 2008
The ASA ruled that this advert could only be shown after the
9pm watershed due to the level of violence shown.
Article explaining why the ASA received complaints regarding
a Snickers advert.
Wonga radio advert which was banned by the ASA.
Article explaining why the Wonga radio advert was banned.
This article refers to some of the most complained about TV
adverts and why the complaint was upheld/not upheld.
The major themes that emerged included tying content marketing efforts to business value, limited resources and internal tensions that hinder the content production process. Let’s take a closer look at 12 of the biggest challenges that are keeping marketers up at night.
- Content Marketing ROI
Many marketers are struggling to show the ROI of their content marketing efforts. Marketers from the agency side, for example, shared that some of their clients are wanting to know how many conversions can be attributed to a specific piece of content or channel. Often times these are brands whose digital conversion paths cannot be tracked or analyzed.
To combat this, marketers use a purchase intent model that assigns different weights to customer interactions with a piece of content, but they admit that this model isn’t perfect.
For other marketers, their biggest challenge is tying content to conversions and defining relevant, appropriate metrics to measure and evaluate the impact their content marketing programs make on the business’ bottom line.
- Video Virality
Marketers can create great video content, but how do they guarantee that it is seen by their target audience? How do they guarantee that the message of the video was viewed? The cost of guaranteeing that messages are seen is becoming increasingly more expensive, and the industry needs to be prepared for the increased cost.
Other marketers are facing time and resource constraints to produce quality videos. Some marketers also struggle with building out a sustainable video content strategy that can product videos which can live and scale across multiple markets.
- Consistent Content Operations
Different teams and organizations within a company all produce content to support various programs and channels they own, and this creates content quality and consistency issues. Marketers are looking to manage and govern their content creation process more efficiently to ensure all content produced is compelling, consistent and effective for their target audience.
- Credibility And Authority
For many marketers, they struggle with finding and establishing a credible and authoritative voice for their brands, and cutting through the noise to capture their target audience’s attention. The financial space, for example, is filled with “experts” offering advice and insights to consumers, which makes it extremely difficult for brands to stand out with their content.
Marketers are thus looking to develop an effective content strategy that will allow them to maintain the brand’s identity and boost marketing ROI, while improving their brand’s authority and thought leadership in the space.
- Budget
Budget remains one of the top challenges marketers face when it comes to justifying the cost and investment in their content marketing programs. Many senior leaders compare content marketing to more mature marketing programs and channels that have a more linear or positive ROI, which makes it very challenging to fight for budget toward content marketing.
- Approval Processes
Marketers on the agency side shared the same sentiment when it comes to their client approval process being too long. Some stakeholders are wanting to provide input at every step of the content creation process, which creates bottlenecks and delays in production timeline.
For both agency and non-agency marketers, staying timely and relevant with the long, clunky approval processes they need to go through with content creation is one of the biggest challenges that’s keeping them up at night.
- Branding
Marketers face various branding challenges when it comes to content marketing. Some struggle with maintaining their brand voice as brands expand their in-house teams and outsource content creation to external agencies and partners. Others struggle with maintaining their individual brand identities while working under a bigger umbrella brand.
- Volume, Quality And Speed
One of the biggest challenges many marketers share is figuring out how to deliver engaging, compelling content with speed, without compromising on quality and volume. Trying to stay nimble and agile within a large corporate structure also proves to be a big pain point for many marketers.
- Strategic Alignment
For many brands, there is a lack of alignment in strategy and messaging across different platforms, which can hurt the customer experience and content marketing success. Cross-team collaboration becomes a big challenge for marketers when individuals and teams are working in silos and towards different visions and goals.
- Continuous Learning
The ever-changing marketing landscape means marketers need to dedicate themselves to lifelong learning and innovation to reinvent themselves, or risk extinction. Training their teams on the latest marketing practices is another top challenge for many marketers as they are also trying to navigate the learning curve themselves.
- Customer-centric Mindset
This may sound surprising to some, but convincing brands to put customers first is still a challenge many marketers face when creating content. They need to help brands change their mindset about the value of content and understand that content marketing isn’t the same as advertising. Content marketing is about being helpful and providing real value to customers, by giving them what they want and need at each stage of the customer journey.
- Influencer Marketing
Identifying influencers to help amplify content is another challenge many marketers face with their content marketing efforts. Creating great content is not enough anymore, you need an effective promotion strategy to help customers find and see your content.
