On the tenth day of digital marketing planning, your boss will ask of you: TEN Content Marketing Questions. . .
NINE Lead Generation Strategies . . . EIGHT Google Ads PPC Success Secrets . . . SEVEN Email Guidelines . . . SIX Website Improvements . . . FIVE Lead Capture Strategies . . . FOUR SEO Factors . . . THREE Design Directives . . . TWO Website Questions . . . and ONE Measurable Marketing Plan . . .”
Are you getting the most out of every piece of Content you’ve created? (No sense baking those cookies and leaving out the milk if no one is going to take advantage of it . . .)
Review your efforts with these 10 Content Marketing questions:
1. Do you have Content tailored to each of your “buyer personas”?
Who are all of the decision-makers involved in a purchase from your company?
Think about what each of these decision-makers might be looking for – and deliver that Content. The more the “4 Cs” come into play (Cost, Change, Complexity, and Competition), the more it becomes important to deliver detailed Content that answers all of your decision-makers’ questions.
Each of your “buyer personas” are likely looking to answer different questions on your website. In a B2B situation, you may have:
- Multiple departments involved in a purchase decision (from IT, Engineering, Marketing, etc.).
- Employees at different levels in the company (from junior staffers conducting initial research, to middle managers conducting focused research in certain areas)
- Employees with different levels of familiarity with your category of solution.
Be sure your Content Strategy delivers answers to each of your personas’ most important questions.
2. Have you addressed Content needs at each stage of the sales process?
In the early stages of the sales process, your prospects are searching for information that helps them understand what categories of solutions might exist to solve their problem. They need to understand all of the possible solutions to their problem, and they need a way to compare those solutions.
Once a category of solution is selected, your prospects then search for companies with solutions in that category. Prospects then need to compare companies or brands.
At each of these steps in the sales process, your prospects’ Content needs are different. Make a list of key questions at each stage in the sales process – and then plan to include Content that answers each of these questions.
3. Are you re-using your Content across distribution channels?
You prepared a presentation for a trade show. That’s Content that could be used elsewhere — you could use it to create a video for YouTube, with a link from your website.
Maybe the information from those presentation slides is enough to create an eBook or a series of blog posts. Or maybe you summarize your presentation in a blog post.
You ran a series of webinars. Get the webinar transcripts and create blog posts. Use the webinar files to create podcasts.
Identify all of the pieces of Content that might exist in your Sales, Marketing, Business Development, and other areas of your company. Think of ways to take this existing useful Content and re-use it online to drive traffic, attract links, and give you new topics to talk about on social media.
4. Are you extending the life of your Content by combining, expanding, summarizing?
Could you take all of the blog posts on one topic and re-package them into an eBook?
Could you take one of your most popular blog posts and create a video on the same topic?
Could you take an old white paper and write a series of blog posts that update each topic from the white paper?
5. Are you enhancing your website with Content in interesting formats?
Is your website merely a collection of headlines and paragraphs?
Why not re-organize some of that Content into Checklists, Comparison Charts, Self-Assessment Surveys, eBooks, etc.?
There’s no law that says Content on your website can’t be in an interesting format. How about creating an infographic that summarizes your key points?
6. Are you delivering Content of real value to your audiences?
How disappointed are you when you click on a link promising information about a particular topic, only to find very basic or too little information?
When you promise valuable Content, be sure you deliver. Tell your audience “something they didn’t know.” Give them enough information to make the click worth their while.
Don’t be afraid of “too much Content” or “too many words” — focus on what your audience will learn from the Content.
If you had to explain the topic to someone in person, think of how many sentences it would take. Those same sentences likely need to be in a written explanation. Don’t short-change your audience by not delivering on your intriguing headline or link.
7. Are you using Content to reach new audiences on new sites?
If you’ve never posted a video on YouTube, or images on Instagram, you may find these sites to be useful for reaching your audience — or for reaching new audiences.
Are you posting articles on LinkedIn Pulse? Depending on your topic, you may find a sizeable audience for your Content on LinkedIn Pulse.
8. Are key influencers in your industry noticing your Content?
Be sure to post about your new Content on Twitter, which is where many bloggers find topics to cover.
Post on your company LinkedIn page as well as your individual LinkedIn page. You may have key influencers as your personal contacts.
9. Do your social media posts make your Content sound irresistible?
In your social media posts, always FLAG your audience on the first line of the post. Then, talk about the incredibly valuable things they’ll learn from your Content.
Be sure to illustrate the value of that Content to the prospect in each post. Give prospects some strong reasons to click to visit your site.
10. Are you turning some of your Content into measurable Offers?
As you plan your Content Strategy, think about where you can use particular Content formats (such as guides and eBooks) to create measurable Offers. What types of Content can you develop that will deliver enough value to make it worthwhile for prospects to provide you with their contact information?
Did you miss: NINE Lead Generation Strategies . . .
EIGHT Google Ads PPC Secrets , , ,
SEVEN Truths of Email Marketing . . . SIX Website Improvements . . .
FIVE Lead Capture Strategies . . .
FOUR SEO Factors THREE Design Directives TWO Website Questions and ONE Measurable Marketing Plan
If you need more detail on the planning points above, our new BEST-SELLING book, “The Results Obsession: ROI-Focused Digital Strategies to Transform Your Marketing” is now available on Amazon!
Learn more about The Results Obsession and see the Table of Contents
The book contains chapters on Content Strategy, Characteristics of Great Copy, Website Copywriting, and more.
Leave A Comment