Creating content is actually not a difficult thing.
How many people upload different types of content on internet and have different success rates.
From highly produced videos to simple memes, and which are the ones that end up with more views or likes?
It is not a secret that now a days even the less produced or thought content is the one that might actually get better results.
So, is there an actual real game plan or the perfect content marketing strategy?
Certainly, Internet has shown us that there is no perfect path to follow that will ensure results.
Lets take as example the Godzilla and Kong Meme in Spain, where Burger King and McDonalds where added, and then KFC made its adapted version, adding a dog with a bat.
Can you call that design? Probably not.
Can you call it smart and result giving? Definitive!
Are images like that one inside their content marketing plan? Probably not.
But businesses have to react quick.
People who search on social media and on internet want fresh and relevant content.
If companies are not creating up to date content and that is relatable to the current narrative, for sure companies might be swimming against the stream.
So what could be one of the best content marketing strategies out there to follow?
Just Try!
Cutting through the noise in the overwhelming digital landscape the world has today can be daunting. But nothing will happen if you don’t take the first step.
For me, there is no actually right or wrong, until you try.
The audience is the one deciding.
Capturing the attention of your target audience will drive customers to purchase. But in this era of information overload, a well-executed content marketing strategy is a must. Suppose you have already published several blog posts, videos, images, social media posts, and other types of content in the past. In that case, you have vast content to repurpose and utilize to your advantage.
Content inventory is crucial for any organization dreaming of hitting it big in the digital world. One of the contents in your library may be the one that will give you the traction you need. It may have failed to be successful in its first publication. But since the landscape changes rapidly, what didn’t work before may work perfectly today.
And if you are spending up time, just planning and trying to figure out what could be the best of A or B before executing, then you are wasting time.
A-B Testing is for that, for trying.
That is why Content Marketing is a cycle.
Listen, decide on themes, decide on topics, create, promote, measure, evaluate and re-purpose.
Practice makes the master.
And as you keep working and as you keep observing what is giving results and what is not, you will be tuning up your content marketing.
So what is the strategy that I prefer.
I prefer to aim for evergreen content and for the “symptoms” of the solution.
If you want to aim for content that also aims for low volume keywords, your blog posts would be just there, sitting down in the lonely spot of the internet.
I try to understand the customer journey, what are the “symptoms” that they are trying to “heal”.
I am trying to be their “doctor”.
Some people don’t know there might be a better way of doing things, so they just search for what they know or what they are trying to solve.
With a recent article that I created with the team, I am aiming to promote an ERP system.
I compared the keyword search volume of ERP with the term Inventory Control in Excel, and the second had more search volume.
Why? As simple as, people are trying to solve their inventory problem, they are trying to fix their “symptom”.
They might not know there are actually Software that could help them with not just Inventory, but also with Payroll, Sales, Expenses, Invoices, etc.
Therefore a combination of Evergreen Content with “Symptoms” is that one that I prefer to aim for.
I Aim for Engagement.
Remember that Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Tik Tok are businesses.
And their business is to keep people on their platform, not sending them out to your platform.
To be on Social Media is to be also part of the socializing.
Either by starting to conversation or being part of one.
This doesn’t mean that product ads or lead generation is useless on social media, simply those are different objectives that could also be achieved.
But I do rather prefer to create engagement and build a brand.
As a customer, I hate Email Marketing.
I dislike push strategies. I prefer pull strategies.
I aim to take leverage on Youtube SEO and also Evergreen Content, or content that doesn’t need to be updated to often.
Again, think on the “symptoms” that your customers are trying to “heal”.
Mixed content between Website and Youtube, can be a good tool to reach objectives.
And of course, for lead generation I think that it could be helpful to create free online tools, e-books, or digital give aways where you can trade off the information that you need from your potential customer.
This is just the content marketing strtategy that I prefer, and as I said so, there is no perfect strategy.
It would become perfect, if it start giving you the results that you are looking for.
As said:
If you want different results, don't do the same things.
Albert Einstein
To define content marketing:
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. By providing value through content, you can position your business as the leader and go-to in your industry. In doing this, you build trust and credibility. You'll have several loyal patrons to drive traffic to your site in no time, ultimately ranking you high on search engine results pages SERP. This is what many businesses yearn for. Because positioning your company as the leader means you're the first site they visit to learn about something and eventually convert this visit into a fruitful one.
Content Marketing Institute
To define content marketing:
When we talk about digital content we are referring to any piece of information that can be included in a digital media.
These are made up of texts, videos, maps, among others.
The different types of digital content are a key piece for any marketing strategy, especially in the case of Content Marketing, where one of the fundamental pillars of success is based on offering only quality content to the public.
Here we have from Smart Insights a Content Marketing Matrix with different content forms that could be created.
In most online businesses you can find a section dedicated to the blog on their pages, and it is through the implementation of the same that is expected to reach a particular sector.
That is why we must name this as one of the main digital content.
In these sections, the ideal is to create content that helps to solve the problems that the user may have, providing practical solutions that are not so difficult to apply.
Likewise, it is one of the most powerful tools when you want to achieve an improvement in SEO positioning.
One direct form of contact with customers that a business has today is the mail.
However, it is worthless if you send anything by this means.
To succeed in getting the message received, you must work on the content and design.
This type of digital content helps to create a relationship of loyalty with customers, as it serves as a means for them to be aware of news, service improvements, new offers, and many other things related to your business.
This is the ideal content if you want to offer your knowledge as a method of helping users.
They are usually longer than a simple post, and you can also incorporate other elements, such as infographics and creativities, to support the information.
If you want to improve your lead generation, you can think about this type of content.
What it will do for you is to get users to register with their contact details in order to download the eBook, so you can easily and effortlessly increase your database.
This is perhaps the digital content that works best on websites, blogs and social networks.
And they are really useful tools because they can show products or services, solve doubts, and everything you need to share.
If you use them in social networks, for example, they can be a great tool for you to connect with the human side, and exploit the creativity of your project.
In the sections of web pages, or blog posts, it will make users stay longer on the site, increasing web browsing time.
In the case of photographs, or creativities with images, we can say that they are one of the most used contents.
And with them you can make everything much more visual and attractive for the user, improving his experience.
If you don’t believe us, you might be interested to know that Facebook posts with images are liked 53% more than those without, or a tweet with a photo receives 18% more clicks and up to 89% more favorites than a simpler one.
In case you didn’t know, infographics are contents that help transmit information in a visual and attractive way.
This type of digital content is designed with the intention of making a web page much more liked, what is inside it seems more interesting to be shared.
In the same way that videos, when the creation of content is oriented to podcasts you can have an increase in the time visitors stay on websites or blogs, as they will have to stay to listen to them.
And they serve as a fun way to convey information.
If you have recurring doubts from users, or you have a very technical language on your website, this type of digital content can be very useful.
It is all about providing solutions to doubts or problems in order to improve the experience.
When we talk about a webinar we are referring to a content that brings a lot of authority to any online project, making it possible to capture leads from users who are interested in making them.
Ideal for education websites.
In the same way that happens with eBooks, these digital contents, when we relate them to our industry, helps to capture leads, apart from positioning any project.
It is good content for press releases in different media, so it gives the opportunity to have greater visibility.
When we talk about a content creation strategy, we are referring to the planning that aims to improve your online presence.
And it is essential in case you want to know how to reach your audience.
To understand more about these strategies we have to be aware that content is everything we get to consume every day on the network.
But this is not simply structured randomly, it is done in a way that may be of interest to us.
Perhaps in the beginning it may have been useful for everything to be presented to us in the same way, but with the passage of time, and the various branches of online content, it is necessary to know the right way to express it.
For example, it is not the same if you are looking for comparisons between products, or information about a service.
Yes, the truth is that everything is content, but the creation strategy has to follow specific standards of the categories where they are pigeonholed to ensure that they serve us.
The importance of a content marketing strategy is enormous.
Because, when we have a website, we can’t just create it because we want to.
It requires a planning process, with steps to follow, so that it is successful in the eyes of the reader.
We all know that when someone creates content is to increase their online presence, but this intention is not enough for it to be successful.
A plan could help you to turn visitors become frequent visitors, and these frequent visitors become customers.
Having a content creation strategy is undoubtedly something more than positive for any website, and we are talking about a process already thought, planned, and executed, which follows guidelines that have been marked and organized in a way that helps to achieve the goals of each one.
The immediate benefit that you will see is that the traffic to your website will start to increase like crazy, but you will also be able to take into account aspects that will help you achieve your goals in many other ways.
It is just a matter of knowing what you are doing.
If you are interested in knowing the profile of a digital content marketing strategist, you should know that it is a professional in charge of planning and developing valuable materials that are shared within the digital environment.
Generally, the creation of digital content is carried out based on a comprehensive online marketing strategy.
So it has to be a person who not only knows how to do it, but also has the notions of which way to go, and why it should be this way.
In case you’re wondering what the advantages of content creation strategies are, we bring you three of them that will undoubtedly make you want to start planning right now.
And you may not have seen it this way until now!
In case you have a plan to follow that allows you to give answers to your potential customers' questions, or give them the information they need whenever they have a problem directly from your site, you will not get out of their minds.
This will make you always be the first option to consult, no matter if it is to solve a doubt, to buy a product, or to acquire a service. They know that, in your online space, they will find what they are looking for.
When you plan one of these strategies you always get to the point where you start sharing personalized information with users.
That will help them to know who you are, what sector you work in, or to choose the right product based on their needs.
The idea of planning what you are going to say, or write, goes hand in hand with the idea that there are no redundancies.
And that each text fulfills an informative mission. This way all the content they will find on your website will be relevant, and they will know they can trust it.
If your content creation strategy is successful, and you hit the nail on the head with all the information you share, people will start to look at you as an advisor, and not so much as a slick person trying to sell their image.
Let's remember that we live in an era where pushy salespeople are beginning to be forgotten, and the masses are following those trusted advisors who, while advertising their products or services, do so in an everyday chatty manner.
Always promoting like someone talking to a friend.
At this point we will give you an example of a content creation strategy based on all the key points you have to take into account when putting one together.
Some key aspects consider while doing the plan:
You will need to carry out a study that allows you to know the age range of your audience, where they are located, what their interests are, and how they reach your content.
Other variables can be the content they normally interact with it, for example.
The theme is the overall and general message to be covered.
Defining what is the theme of your content will just set up the framework for the following content pieces to be created.
Inside the theme, there will be topics and subtopics.
Content under certain topic will address more specific information.
As an example, one of this website’s overall theme is Digital Marketing, and to drive it to a more specific topic, then we talk about Content Marketing.
And if we even want to narrow it down, we can talk about a subtopic that could be Audio Content Creation.
And here we can talk about which type of piece of content was created.
If we were talking about Audio Content Creation, then an article about how to create a podcast could be an option.
Then a video of following the steps could complement it and finally and for sure to have a podcast relating how the podcast was created.
Here you will have to focus on the method to spread out the word.
Are you using social media, SEO, SEM, newsletters?
You define which way your content should try to reach your target audience.
No one should publish just for the sake of it, since the first thing to do is to know the objectives you want to achieve. These will outline the type of strategy we need. To define them you can use the SMART strategy (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound).
For example:
– Increase community followers by X amount.
– Produce X new pieces of written content in selected topic.
– Reduce unsuscribtion rate by x%.
Once your content creation strategy has been executed for a considerable amount of time you can always look at the statistics to see what worked and what did not.
After analysing what was accomplished, what didn’t worked and what could be improved, then the content could be recycled.
By repurposing the content is to renew it, and try to refresh it so that it could get better results or different ones.