The DNA of Strong Content Marketing

Content is an all-encompassing term. Because everything is content. An advertisement. An infographic. A photo. A speech. A presentation. A newsletter. A blog post. A video. A social post... Even an email. But if all these things are content, is all marketing content marketing then? Want to know more? Keep reading!

What Is Content Marketing?

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is a smart marketing strategy in which valuable, relevant, and consistent content is created and distributed to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Not just any content. The goal of all content marketing initiatives is to measurably contribute to business results and profit. So, content marketing is about how, with a solid content strategy and a strong content plan, you efficiently and sustainably highlight the added value of your products and services to your target audience. With - if done well - a measurable impact on your business results as a result. Despite this delineation, for many companies and organizations, content marketing is limited to creating interesting, fun, and cool content to share it as much as possible via all possible channels. However, creating strong content is just one part of content marketing. Content marketing is also about understanding the needs of your target audiences. Avout mapping out the entire journey a potential customer goes through until they become a customer and even after. About choosing the right formats and channels in the marketing mix. About perfect timing. And about analyzing your results so that you can continuously adjust your content marketing approach based on available data. In short, content marketing is about

• in-depth research,

• very careful content creation that is perfectly tailored to a strategic distribution plan,

• goal-oriented optimization.
  

"For many companies and organizations, content marketing is still limited to sharing strong content in as many places as possible. But if you really want to do it right? Then there's just a little more to it."

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The Three Pillars of Content Marketing

1. Research and Analysis

Many content marketers are very creative and would rather skip this phase and get started with content creation right away. If you want to convince your management of the direct added value of content marketing for the business and have a greater impact than just a large reach and applause from your colleagues for your beautiful creations, do not skip this step. This first step provides the strategic focus in your messages and a well-founded choice of format and channel. In short: homework! Who are your customers? What important stages do they go through in their minds before becoming a customer (awareness, consideration, decision)? And what are their needs in those different stages? What kind of information do they need? Through which media do they prefer to receive it? Which formats are most attractive to them? Do they like reading blogs, listening to podcasts, or do they only want to watch videos on social media? It is very important to clearly understand which people you want to reach. And that you know very well what they want and need. Do they want to be informed? Or is entertainment and a certain feeling about your brand an important reason to make a purchase? One way to map all this out is by working with personas. If you have neatly mapped out the different types of potential customers, you can also further investigate what they exactly need to go from awareness to consideration and to purchase. Once you've completed that homework, you can then start creating tailored content for all those types of target audiences in all those different stages. Next, do the same for your existing customers. They've bought from you before and know you. That makes them very valuable, as your company and products are already on their radar. You don't have to invest extra money in messages to get your company on their radar. But you do need to make sure you stay in touch with them. So that the next time they have a need, they think of you again. Or... so that you get the chance to create needs and convince them that you have a lot more to offer. This can be done in many different ways, but it requires insight into the following: What do existing customers need from you to stay a customer and to reconsider your company for future purchases? The information you gather in this research phase is very valuable for all specializations within marketing, of course. So maybe you should approach it as part of a larger strategic marketing exercise. But whatever you do, being able to respond to the needs of your target audiences with the right messages, formats, and channels is crucial for content marketers. The closer you can get to the world of your target audience, the greater the impact of what you create will be. And to be able to do that, this information is indispensable.

"Whatever you do, being able to respond to the needs of your target audiences with the right messages, formats, and channels is crucial for content marketers."

2. Content Creation

Have you neatly mapped out all parts of the research? Then you're ready for the next step: puzzling. In the content creation phase, you put together four types of puzzle pieces into a beautiful whole.

• the message

• the format

• the channel

• SEO

It's important to start with the message. Not with the format or the channel, but the message. Many people make the mistake of working from the channel or the format. And that's how you might end up with cool videos on TikTok. But the chances are that you'll only stay in the awareness phase at the top of the marketing funnel, and then you're actually more focused on branding than on content marketing. Ask yourself which type of person from your target audience (persona) you want to approach, what kind of information or stimulus that person needs in the different stages of their journey, and how that message should take shape to guide people towards conversion. Then think about the whole picture by also specifying the format type and the channel. And finally, but certainly not less important: make sure you have an SEO content strategy that ensures that all the content you create picks up the full potential of organic search traffic. If you don't take this into account, you are likely to ignore an important channel for relevant search traffic to your website.

3. Optimization

Even if you have gone through the first two phases neatly and you have done your research well and the complex puzzle for content creation looks good, you can finally start executing your content plan. But even then, the work of a content marketer is not done yet. In digital content marketing, you can analyze your results and adjust them purposefully based on that. Is your content plan delivering the desired results? Great. Now you can optimize the content and discover how it can be even better. Is your content plan not delivering the desired results? Also fine. After a while, you have a lot of valuable information that can lead you in the right direction. Information from A/B tests, information about basic metrics like CTR, time on page, and the visitor's path on your website, for example, provide very valuable insights into what you can do to achieve better results. But be careful with content optimization. Make sure you don't keep changing everything all the time, because then you won't have a good basis to compare with. For example, if you adjust your call to actions in your blog posts, don't simultaneously change your copy and accompanying photos. Because if the results then improve, you won't know which of the three interventions to attribute it to.

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Characteristics of Content Marketing

Content marketing distinguishes itself from other marketing specializations based on these four characteristics:

• outside in

• authentic

• no one shots, but content journeys

• action-focused

Where advertising used to prove how perfect a product was and how clever a company was from an inside-out perspective with sometimes less credible campaigns for the general public, content marketing takes a much more targeted approach. Strong content marketing manages to perfectly detect the specific need a consumer has at a certain moment. It then hooks onto that need with strong and staged content journeys via the right channel. So, it's outside in.

Someone with a concrete need is very smoothly - the less effort the person in question has to make, the better - authentically guided towards a solution. Someone has a certain need and is looking for expertise? You provide that expertise. Then you use content to make sure they have your product on their radar as a possible solution to their need. After that, you bring them in as a customer. In short, as a successful content marketer, you set your target audiences in motion towards a purchase with a smart approach.

Food for thought: 10 Inspiring Questions About Content Marketing

• Do you have a well-defined content marketing approach? Do you see it as a specialization within marketing with its own content marketing strategy?

• Do you focus only on text? Or do you also work on other formats such as video, infographics, and podcasts? And is storytelling part of your toolkit as a content marketeer?

• Have you clearly and documented how your target audiences look exactly? What mental journey they go through before becoming a customer with you? What their needs are at each step within that journey? Which media they consume and which formats they prefer?

• Do you have a plan for retaining your existing customers? Or do you only focus on acquiring new customers?

• Does your content marketing strategy involve more than creating strong content that you then share across all your channels?

• Can you demonstrate to your management how you directly contribute to business results?

• Do you use the available data and metrics to improve your content marketing strategy?

• Do you also have an SEO content strategy to divert your share of online search traffic to your website?

• Do you succeed with your content marketing approach in getting your target audience to move towards a purchase?

• Do you find authenticity important in your content creations?

Feeling motivated to get started? Great. Just develop your own content marketing strategy and lead your audiences through the funnel towards conversion. Good luck!

Need some assistance? Feel free to reach out.

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