B2B CONTENT MARKETING - CONTENT STRATEGY

Five golden rules for content marketing

While there are many dimensions and considerations to successful content marketing, here are the top five that should always be included in your content strategy.

1. Planning and strategy

Random content will get you nowhere. Successful content marketing relies on a sustained approach that is aligned to the business’s overall direction and marketing themes and goals. Create a plan that includes different types of content in different media for different audiences, and schedule its distribution.

2. Relevancy & targeting

Content should be based on what the audience wants to talk about, not the brand. What are their issues, pain points and opportunities? Various forms of targeting, including the creation of personas, will help you develop the right content.

3. Journey

B2B decision-making and buying takes time; customers are on a journey from the point that triggers the need to the point at which they are ready to buy. Content needs to be available, relevant, add value, and nurture them at each stage to funnel them in your direction.

4. Presentation

There is some great content out there that will fail to reach its target for the simple reason that it’s poorly presented and conveyed. Whilst the value of your content marketing is in the content itself, design and technology play a vital role in making it more accessible and enjoyable to consume.

5. Distribution

“If we create it then they will come” No they won’t! There is no inbound without outbound. Where do your audience hang out, where do they go for information, whose opinion do they value? Don’t rely on them finding you – create a plan in your selected channels and stick to it.

Look at it as a series of questions to answer:

• Who are they?
• What do they care about?
• What can we do about it?
• Where can we reach them?
• What’s the best way to convey the information we want to share?
• What are they going to think or want to do after consuming it?
• What can we do in response to this?
• How can we accelerate them through the sales funnel in our direction?