Content Marketing Strategy - Benefits of Being a Likeable Brand

Did you know? 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing, making it critical that you develop a good content strategy to compete in your industry.

An effective content marketing strategy will answer specific questions like:

• Who will be reading your content? How many audiences do you need to create content for? Just as your business might have more than one type of customer, your content strategy can cater to more than one type of user.
• What problem will you be solving for your audiences? Ideally, your product or service solves a problem you know your audience has. A sound content strategy supports people on both sides of your product: those who are still figuring out what their main challenges are, and those who are already using your product to overcome these challenges.
• What makes you different from your competitors—both perceived and actual. To prove why you're worth buying from, you need to prove why you're worth listening to. Once you figure that out, permeate that message in your content. your potential customers need to know what makes yours better — or, at least, different.
• What content formats will you focus on? Just as you can create content in different formats, you'll also have various channels you can publish to, from your website to social media.
• How will you manage content creation and publication? Who is responsible for creating it? Where and how will it be published?

According to HubSpot, a content strategy is a plan in which you use content (audio, visual, and/or written) to achieve your business goals. A successful content strategy will attract your target audience at every funnel stage and keep them engaged even after a purchase. A content marketing strategy helps you be prepared to have reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic, lead generation, and offering continued value to clients. It prevents distraction, keeps you organized, unifies your message, allows you to justify spending a higher percentage of the marketing budget on content marketing, and builds brand credibility.

The challenge is to not become overwhelmed by the process. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you post on social media.

There is no shortage of the types of content that you can create: ads, blog posts, books, comics, infographics, memes, online trainings, podcasts, polls, videos, visualizations, webinars, and white papers to name a few…but don’t worry there are plenty more! The key is to think in terms of message, not tactic. Every message can be delivered in any number of ways, so get clear on your messages to make creating the tactics easier.

Choose your dominant Content Marketing Strategy: Timeless or Timely.

Timeless means that the content that you create is just as relevant to your market today as it is in five years with minimal tweaking. This allows you to prepare content further in advance and have a library of resources available. On the other hand, Timely means that your content is relevant today, tomorrow, and if you are lucky enough in six weeks. After that, it is considered outdated, irrelevant, or a period piece of content. This means you will need to have someone constantly creating new content and delivering it regularly for you.

It’s not about choosing one or the other, it’s a blend of both. So, what is your percentage of each? When you choose only one, you risk being perceived or tagged by the search engines as “not relevant” with a Timeless strategy or getting burnt out with a Timely strategy. We recommend a minimum of an 80/20 split—regardless of which one you choose as your dominant strategy. Do note that the higher your Timely strategy (typically over 50%), the more likely you will have to have someone managing and creating your content daily.

Within each of the dominant strategies are five subcategories: Educate, Inform, Inspire or Persuade, Entertain, and Promote and Sell.

• Educate – the how-to of your industry and the services that you offer. This is usually how your target market will discover who you are. The focus is to answer an immediate question that they have.
• Inform or Persuade – now that you’ve answered the base-level questions, these are the deeper questions about your industry or services that you offer. These can be great resources for clients who need more clarification about a topic.
• Inspire – this is the content that makes us feel good about ourselves and the world. Positive messages or relevant cute animal memes go in this category.
• Entertain – content that allows the user to step outside of the day-to-day experience and relax, laugh or be entertained in some way.
• Promote and Sell – you are in business to make money after all. Yes, you are allowed to pitch your product or service, we just don’t lead with this

Remember, your content won't just help attract leads, it will also educate your prospects and generate awareness for your brand.

Omicle delivers brand clarity, marketing strategy, and operational efficiency to prepare leaders to scale their business. If you are ready to scale your business, contact us today to get started.