7 Key Elements to an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Wondering about a clever and impactful content marketing strategy for your business? We will define the main actors of this role.

According to the Content Marketing Institute in the United States,90% of all top-performing B2B content marketers put their audience’s informational needs ahead of their company’s promotional message. Furthermore, 96% of the most successful content marketers claim that their audience views their organization as a credible and trusted resource. The outstanding numbers indicate that content marketing is tremendously valuable for creating brand awareness,maintaining relationships and building trust with the target audience. So, what are the7 key elements that go into an effective content strategy? Find them in the list below! 

#1 – Clear Goals

In the beginning, it can seem like the sky's the limit. Of course, it can be. However, before taking a leap you have to know where you want to land. For that reason, setting up crystal clear goals is crucial for your content strategy. To do that, you will need to critically reflect on your company's brand and how you want it to be perceived with the help of social media and other mediums. 

You can obtain valuable information either by doing branding workshops or creating review forms for your customers to fill out. The goal is tocrystallize your brand identity. Therefore, these exercises will serve as the basis for your content marketing strategy. From there on, you can start pinning down your purpose of action. Consequently, it will result in a clear picture of what needs to be achieved.

#2 – Understanding your audience

At any stage of content marketing, it is always crucial tolook from your target audience perspective before making any move. Whether it is writing a blog post or posting a witty picture on Instagram, you have to recognize how this action will be understood perceived.

If your target audience is fashion enthusiasts in France, you probably want to research which social media platforms are widely-used amongst fashion bloggers and vloggers.Most importantly, how people engage with one another on this platform.Remember, thatthere could be cultural differences that are important to pick up.

In consequence, you will have a better perspective onwhat kind of content you should post. Further, you can make decisions about the content you produce to align it to your content marketing goals.

#3 – Three words: Search Engine Optimization

A qualitative, thoroughly researched and entertaining blog post can bring great traffic to your website. Most importantly, generate more conversions.

However, to make sure your content is easy to find, it is truly essential to implement an advantageousSEO strategy. Using relevant keywords with considerablyhigh search ratings and low competition will result in a high ranking on Google. 

To do so, you can try several tools that offer keyword generation for your niche. Here, it is important to lean towards more specific keywords orlong-tail keywords rather than generic ones. Even though generic keywords have great search ratings, they also have high competition. So, your blog post will be stuck on page 379 on Google Search. 

#4 – Wise choice of armament

According to the Digital Marketing Institute in the United Kingdom, by using social media only 6 hours a week,66% of marketers improved lead generation strategy.

Also, it is recommended to recognize which channels would be most valuable for your business, t.i. it would reach your target audience more effectively. For you, it is crucial to acknowledge your audience, understand where to market your brand. If blogging and sharing posts on LinkedIn crucially enhances the growth of your lead base, you should prioritize it. If not, there are other channels, you would benefit more from.  

#5 – Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y

Whatever your content may be about, it has to be qualitative. You need to think about content in means oftext and visual components.

If your Instagram post will have a great and catchy description, but the photo quality is poor, it will not get as many likes and shares. Therefore, you must invest in quality. 

A well-articulated and entertaining text accompanied by a high-resolution photo, infographic or video will guarantee a greater engagement.

The same goes for articles and blog posts – do not forget about visual components!

To keep the reader's attention you need to implement relevant and entertaining visuals.

#6 – Consistency and Strategy 

It is no secret that social media is a powerful tool that can support and popularize your content and expand your audience. Nevertheless, there is one catch –consistency.

By promoting your content on the right channels in a consistent manner, you will build beneficial relationships with your target audience. Here, you have to have asystematic approach to confidently promote your content. 

However, not too fast – also be careful with promoting. Being confident and systematic on social mediadoes not mean you should post every single hour of every single day, or even to post every day. It may be tempting to promote your brand as often as possible, but that can backfire really fast.

No one truly likes oversharing and constant promotion. It can only drive potential customers away.

To be consistent, confident and systematic is to be strategic with every post and action on social media and to create a genuine image to the public.

Consequently, it is not only about the promotion of certain products or services, but also about branding and public relations – keep that in mind! 

#7 – Ever-improving 

Now, what makes your content marketing strategy competitive isconstant improvement. UseGoogle Analytics tohelp you understand how the market is responding to your content – the number of visits on blog posts, the source of traffic, bounce rate, devices used to access content, repeat and new traffic, on-site behaviour and etc. 

Also, even though thecontent is king, the website is the kingdom. You may get a lot of traffic and truly valuable leads because of your content strategy, but if your website design is sloppy or checkout process is really challenging, you may not actually reach your goals you set out in the first place. Here, marketing analytics tools can help you analyze where all the traffic is coming from and going to. Consequently, you will always be able to improve and reach new goals. 

#7.1 – No results yet?

Remember and don't take it for granted –the time is everything! A truly great and effective content marketing strategywill bring success over time. A gradual process of improvement will be visible in your marketing analytics. So, if you don't see a skyrocketing increase in traffic or engagement in the first month or two – do not panic. Great things take time. Solid progress will be visible after the first three months; however, even that can vary depending on your business and niche. You need to keep up with marketing analytics and consistent content creation. If you do not see any solid improvement, go over each aspect of your content strategy and see what could be the reasons why. 

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What now?

Now that you have read through the 7 key elements for an effective content strategy, think over each of the aspects mentioned. Which element do you find to be the most crucial for your business? Have you already successfully implemented these aspects in your content strategy? Which aspect you haven't put that much thought into yet? Reflect and analyze. After, try to implement each aspect in your content marketing strategy and see how that changes lead generation, brand awareness, click-through-rate, etc.

In this fast-paced digital environment,it is easy to click, click and click away. There's so much information that can actually drive your business straight to success. Though, that will not happen just by consuming information. You have to follow up with action!So, write down, save it, think through and use it! That's what it is here for.

How to make sure your content marketing strategy is well-organised and managed amongst all the actors involved? View our case study.