Five Goals to Consider for Your Content Marketing

Jayson DeMers, writer for MarketingLand.com, a website on all things Internet marketing related, shares five goals for us to consider when implementing our content marketing strategy.

As the Internet content marketing trend continues to rise, businesses are spending more time and money on it. DeMers says that a third of B2B marketing budgets already are spent on content marketing, and more than half of B2B marketers say they plan to increase it even more.

DeMers shares useful data from the Content Marketing Institute which shows how certain techniques work universally, including:

• Case Studies: 64% effective
• Webinars: 61% effective
• Blogs: 59% effective
• Video: 58% effective
• eNewsletters: 58% effective
• Articles (on your own website): 53% effective

DeMers says the problem with just following a list is that not all organizations are alike. They each have different needs, talents and goals.

For starters, figure out what your company is trying to accomplish. Do you want to generate leads or just create buzz? DeMers provides five content marketing goals to consider:

1. Help and Educate

Marketers have earned a certain amount of distrust over the past few years sending spammy emails and making cold calls to busy business oweners. Marketers can overcome this reluctance of trust by giving customers something they truly want or need. People will gladly trade their email address in exchange for expert advice about solving their problems.

Case studies and webinars are a great way to provide valuable and educational content. You’ll also build a solid and steady-growing email list of subscribers.

2. Build a Community

According to DeMers, community can be more important when you’re marketing to a business than when you’re trying to reach a consumer. With a business, you’re asking leaders to make a decision that will affect their bottom line. Build that trust and relationship by building a community.

DeMers says that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are often the first thing that people think of when they talk about building a community around a product or brand. However, there are other ways too.

Blogs allow you to relax your presentation. Use your blog to announce new products, educate potential customers or address their concerns. Read comments and answer them in a meaningful way.

3. Demonstrate Your Expertise

DeMers says that anyone can write an article and host it on their own site without any editorial review. But if you write something for another site, it establishes credibility, builds authority, and aligns your brand with that publisher, thus building trust in your business.

4. Help the Search Engines Help You

You need search engines to direct people coming back to your website. Posting and publishing new content through your social media or blog posts will have many more indexed pages than those with static content.

5. Keep in Touch With Customers

DeMers suggests that a weekly or monthly newsletter helps bring people back to your website and improves sales because it keeps your business top-of-mind. Give customers something they can’t get anywhere else and supplement that with links to other content you have worked hard to create.

Like DeMers says, you cannot jump into content marketing without solid planning. Determine measurable goals for your team to accomplish and set up a timeframe to do so. Once your figure out what works, get better at it.

We can help your business with its content marketing strategy and implementation to engage with your audience. Let’s chat to get started!

Read the full article by Jayson DeMers.