90% of businesses use content strategies to grow their sales ( Demand Metric ). A trend that should continue and even increase the results obtained by content marketing. Here we present proven techniques for developing an effective content marketing strategy.
Have Your Business Blog
Creating and maintaining a blog in the name of your business is the first and fastest way to start a content marketing strategy. However, several aspects should be taken into account for this blog to contribute to the objectives set:
Regularly Feed The Blog
When you engage in a content strategy based on a corporate blog, your readers have requirements in relation to it, particularly concerning the pace of publication. Publishing one article per month is entirely useless or counterproductive—Internet users visiting your blog must read several articles to discover your brand and its values.
Don’t forget that Internet users continue to read between two papers and therefore have time to be approached by another brand. A little statistic: every minute, 2.46 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook. Retaining Internet users requires regular and close production of content. We recommend at least 2 to 3 weekly articles on your blog, and not just for SEO purposes.
Define A Publication Schedule
To maintain a regular rhythm, one method consists of defining a writing schedule 2 to 3 months in advance. This schedule must include the subjects you wish to address and the authors in charge of writing if you can have several authors… We advise leaving room in your plan for “fresh” news on your market or your business. Finally, you can invite editors from outside your company to publish content directly on your blog and thus contribute to its notoriety.
Vary The Content Of The Blog
Each individual will react differently to the publications made on your blog, and you risk tiring your readership by only publishing similar articles. It is essential to vary your content, for example, infographics, guest articles, interviews, customer testimonials, studies, videos, and updating articles….
Relay Content
When starting your blog, only people who know your company will read your articles, and this is not necessarily your only goal… Start by adding sharing buttons on your pieces so that your readers become ambassadors for your content; you will quickly find that spending time writing articles is well worth it.
We sometimes use more advanced methods to speed up the notoriety process and reach specific targets, mainly thanks to the targeting capabilities of advertising platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Evaluate for each of your mini-campaigns the impact your content has had; you will thus learn what types of content and topics react to your targets.
What Feedback Can You Expect From A Business Blog?
A business blog will allow you, first of all, to show your expertise in a field and will set you apart from your competition. Content has the advantage of being less “aggressive” than traditional advertising. It is now apparent that you have to give to receive. Publishing regular content targeting specific topics will also contribute to the natural referencing of your site. Search engines are fond of sites that bring users new, relevant, and regular information. You will see that Google will reward you for your involvement.
Let’s go back to the evaluation of the return on investment of your blog; this will, of course, depend on your activity (products or services). To track performance indicators, use Google Analytics by setting it up so that it provides you with the direct impact of your articles on your activity. Among the other indicators that should be monitored: the rate of interaction of Internet users with your content (number of comments, shares, etc.)
Create Downloadable Content
Writing informative content read and shared by Internet users is only one aspect of a content-based digital strategy. Creating content that leads to more substantial involvement from your readers would be best. Thanks to writing white papers or guides, you can collect and use the contact details of Internet users who download them.
Tips For Using Downloadable Content
You’ve probably heard of marketing automation. This technique consists of automating some of the repetitive tasks of the sales process to save your team time. The goal is to “automatically” advance the prospect in his purchasing circuit. Many marketing automation tools, including Mailchimp and Sendinblue, are initially emailing platforms. Others are more advanced, like Hubspot or Marketo. The easiest way to explain how it works is an example.
Imagine you are a BtoB company; you have created a white paper that informs your targets on a subject related to your business. Internet users will leave their contact details in exchange for downloading your white paper. The mistake would be calling everyone who downloaded the whitepaper; it wastes time. For what? Quite simply because the person is merely looking for information. She knows little or nothing about your brand and its positioning; she is probably also at the start of her buying process.
Finally, the action of downloading does not indicate her desire that you contact her to offer her your services. Here is an example of an automated process to set up (please note that many of them depend on the content of your white paper, your market, your products or services, etc.)
- D0: The Internet user downloads your content > sending a first thank you email with the content download link
- D+1: sending an email with additional content to that of the white paper to reinforce your image as an expert
- D+3: if the Internet user has clicked and read the content: you offer him an appointment with one of your experts > if he answers that it is ok, you send the information to one of your experts.
- D+5: if the Internet user has not clicked and read the content: you send a second complementary content to the previous one.
- D+7: if the Internet user has clicked and read the content of the previous email: you offer him an appointment with one of your experts > if he replies that it is ok, you send the information to one of your experts.
Do not multiply messages and appointment suggestions if the Internet user does not respond to your requests.
Contribute To Other Sites With Their Content
Many sites or blogs seek contributors to provide an external perspective or deepen their expertise. You can directly address your target with the content you produce by identifying the places in your business that are looking for contributors. Of course, this content will not contribute directly to the SEO of your site (unless you integrate a backlink), but you will capture the attention of a qualified audience.
The content you offer must be impactful and thoughtful; there is no question here of providing content of an advertising nature vis-à-vis your company. Most sites define the rules for guest articles and inform you before publication. You will have understood that there are many levers to create an effective content strategy for your company. Embarking on a process will take time and energy, but the benefits you can derive from it for your brand will be there. The critical thing in this kind of initiative is to measure which type(s) of content brings you the best ROI.
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