We all love to grab hold of sanity, whenever and wherever possible. So we keep lists, tack Post-Its to the wall, hang white boards, and download apps – all to keep us driving forward to accomplish tasks at hand. For your content management, you need a calendar too.
When it comes to a successful content marketing strategy, the objective is not to just throw anything out there. It should be a concerted effort that is a reflection of your overall goals as a company. Be targeted. Be bold. Be consistent.
1. Where Are They Coming From?
How do your customers become your customers? Pay-per-click ads, referrals, responses to specials posted on Facebook, etc. Do people come to your site seeking more information or free downloads? Are they subscribing to your newsletter? Take those results and split them into target groups like: Leads, Interested Prospects, Former Clients; however it makes sense for you to categorize them. And don’t forget your current clients who may not do business with you every day, but need to be touched nonetheless.
2. What Do They Want To Know?
At this stage you brainstorm the specifics of what the people in each group are most concerned about. What interests them, what do they need. Take your current clients – perhaps you have always offered a service, but a new technology enables you to deliver it faster and cheaper. That would be a topic you would add to their list. Be specific. Know your audience.
3. Give it To Them
So now that you’ve identified your groups and their interests – give ‘em what they want! And remember that today’s content knows many forms. You need not crank out (25) 1000-word blog posts – your content can be shared via Infographics, Case Studies, Google+ posts, videos, eBooks, Instagram photos, etc. So write it, shoot it, develop it, design it. (Ideally, if you have insight into frequency and time of day to best reach contacts across these platforms that is essential to optimizing “open rates”.)
4. Make it Rain
Color-code a calendar, create a content alert system – however you want to track the distribution, it needs to be formalized. Logging it somewhere makes you (or whatever individual or team you delegate) accountable. All that’s left is to monitor the results to get the ROI and adjust accordingly if you find the response to one platform or time of day for example is better than another.
Like your business, your content marketing is a work in progress. It should be rigid, but flexible enough to be effective. Get out there and engage those prospects!
