Content marketing best practices

If you have been aware of content marketing for a few years, you will surely have seen how it has grown over time. From making content to draw in leads on your website, due to inbound marketing, content marketing has turned into a genuine marketing program that considers every aspect of the buying process.

Every marketing team now aims to develop your leads by addressing each of their needs and inquiries with a tailored content plan. However, while many marketers use content marketing to reach their objectives, the results produced are often rather weak. So, if you are new to this area, or if you plan to start your first campaign, here are the key parts of your content strategy.

Create a content strategy

And in writing, not orally, not something that’s on your mind. A goal that is not written down is just wishful thinking! We all have a clear vision for our life, career, marketing and campaign goals. If you don’t write them down, you won’t know how to act to achieve them. All organizations that have been successful in this area have understood the importance of a documented and planned strategy. This document allows them to define objectives and guides them in the series of actions to be implemented.

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Only 54% of marketers have a content strategy, and it’s actually even more complicated than that 1 in 5 marketers complain that they don’t really know why they create content !

Establish an editorial calendar and stick to it!

Over time, content marketing has taken on an increasingly important place in web marketing and has even established itself as one of the most effective conversion tools in the purchase funnel. To provide useful content in each of these phases, it is important to be able to exchange between departments, taking stock of the information to share to attract, convince and transform your leads.

Maintaining an editorial calendar allows you to effectively support the writing process and ensure a rhythmic and regular production. You can assign roles to everyone: collaborator, information source, graphic designer, etc. The editorial calendar also allows you to have a perspective on the topics to be covered. As a timeline, it will let you know if a topic is covered too often or not often enough. You can plan to provide content for different stages of the purchase funnel as well.

You can use Google Docs, Excel, Numbers, and many other collaboration tools to help you with this task.

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Create a content marketing mix

Just like you have a marketing mix, your content mix is ​​critically important in your content strategy. Indeed, it is interesting to divide the content you offer according to different criteria. This way you can plan not only blog posts, but also videos, infographics, eBooks, newsletters and guides for your users. By mixing content, you ensure you reach different types of users, coming from different segments with different habits.

It varies in-depth articles with snack content, tutorials and user guides, institutional content and more creative things. Target your channels intelligently, based on your industry, your type of organization, your budget and of course the resources at your disposal.

Differentiate yourself

In the field of content marketing, thinking «outside the box» allows you to provide different resources, in substance or form. Instead of reproducing tired recipes, you could very well bring a new idea, a different approach, a way of using a medium creatively, etc. So don’t hesitate to test new formulas, then measure the results and see if there is potential to repeat this type of action.

Write for people, not for Google

I have always refused to write for Google. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rejecting SEO, it’s one of the sources of traffic for this site. You need to optimize your content for search engines, however the rules have changed. Not long ago, people wrote content that ended up in Google’s recommendation registry.

The goal was to obtain maximum visibility and better positioning in the SERPs. However, we focus less on SEO and more on engagement. Search engines now tend to surface content that generates engagement and shares.

Google highlights items that seem to meet user needs. So, the click-through rate will help Google define which articles are the most effective. Links pointing to your site and different shares help search engines understand what content readers appreciate.

This is really great news! If you focus on the quality of your content and answer questions from your contacts and customers, Google will take this as an extremely positive sign. Emphatic content, the one that truly interests its readers, now counts much more than that created solely to position itself effectively.

Nurture your contacts

Lead nurturing is most naturally associated with email marketing and marketing automation. However, this concept also applies to content marketing. Today’s consumers are more informed than ever and have more control over their searches. After all, who will still ask the seller for advice? Now even in shops, consumers take out their smartphones and find out in real time about the product in front of them. They look for user reviews or online tests.

Therefore it is important to be able to intervene during the purchasing journey with engaging content. In the initial stages, it is better to focus more on providing information and training the leader. To do this, you can simply share your resources through email marketing and marketing automation. In fact, for these two levers to work, content is needed! Then, little by little, you can inform your lead about your product or service.

Finally, remember that this is a time-consuming process. It’s rare for a lead to convert in the very early stages of the purchase funnel. It happens, but it’s rare and often an impulse purchase. Your efforts will pay off over time.

Measure: by channel and content type

Come on, let’s imagine we’re face to face and I’ll immediately ask you which channel brings you more leads and which one converts better. Could you answer me or would you feel embarrassed? Companies that are successful in content marketing always measure their performance. Measuring means being able to identify:

• Which channels are most successful?
• What types of content are most successful?
• Which category of content can be deleted?
• Which channels should be optimized?
• What is the ROI of your content marketing?

To do this, you must:

1. Define the right KPIs (number of clicks, views, shares, conversions, downloads)
2. Define the right metric for each campaign/content type based on your goals
3. Measure the performance of each resource
4. Identify what improves your performance (social media, SEO, ads, etc.)

As a marketer, you need to keep an eye on trends, industry publications, studies, and various reports. They will guide you towards what is trendy and current.

Come on, I’ll tell you once again, if you don’t really organize it you will be one of those who in a few months will say that content marketing does not bring satisfactory results. And you will be wrong! If you are unsure of yourself, ask for help. As a content marketing consultant, I work with all types of companies from very different industries and we get quantified results. Contact me, I will be happy to work alongside you!