Creating a winning strategy can be difficult. First, you must go cold turkey on all the habits that are holding you back. Then you have to set strategic habits in place. To succeed in content marketing, each habit, like pieces on a chess board, needs to get you one step closer to your goals.
In today’s marketplace, one of the key ingredients to the success of your business is content marketing. It’s as essential as a large latte and a great book on a leisurely weekend morning. Employing strategic habits brings these ingredients a winning combination.
Here are 3 strategic habits every business needs to succeed in content marketing.
#1. Be able to explain content marketing to senior leadership
Even though content marketing has been on nearly every business radar for the last several years, finding advocates in the C-suite can be difficult. The challenge lies in the ability to prove a business case for content marketing. This is particularly true with the perception around social media.
Most business leaders are concerned with growth and sustainability of their business but may be hampered by familiar habits. “Senior executives often have simplistic views of what marketers ‘should’ be doing,” according to Jeff Allen, Chief Marketing Officer for Butler Street.
Aligning with the overall marketing goals and demonstrate how content marketing can effectively meet business objectives is the first step in winning over leadership. Proving a greater ROI while building meaningful customer relationships can be the icing on the cake.
#2. Create an integrated content marketing team and workflow plan
Content marketing takes a diverse team of both strategic staff and creatives working together towards a common goal. Traditional office silos must be broken down and a single-focused team who can work across disciplines must be put in place.
The team should be led by a chief editor who consistently has the bigger picture in mind. Therefore, support should come from a variety of talents including editorial writers and multimedia producers.
The chief editor maintains strategic direction as set by leadership. Managing the workflow process is also half the battle to keep projects on schedule. Content calendars, assignment grids and a central hub for content assets are also key ingredients for the success of this role and the team.
An ideal writer for this work is someone with strong storytelling skills, typically someone with a background in journalism. “There are plenty of budding and seasoned journalists willing to produce bylines for brands. The ideal writer will have experience in reporting and data-driven storytelling, and be able to complete high-quality projects under tight deadlines,” according to Contently.
In today’s fast-paced marketplace, visuals when paired with great copy have a superior chance of winning over your potential customer’s attention. This is where a multimedia producer can really add value. Newer to the professional scene, a multimedia producer has diverse experience in creating visual content. This work would range from creating videos, to photography and photo editing, to graphic design.
#3. Establish effective monitoring and measurement tools
The success of a content marketing campaign can sometimes be subjective depending on what the set goals of the company are. However, a content campaign should never be about you. It should be about them. And in this case, it’s about your audience.
How do you determine what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are right for your company? Should impressions drive the conversation? Or are conversions the more significant marker? At the end of the day, content marketing is about making connections. Listening to your audience and giving them what they want is the first step in making that connection.
Monitoring your posts, key words and relevant conversations can give you great insight as to what your audience is looking for. Think of each social media post as your own focus group. Make tweaks, A/B test, change up the copy or the image. Do what you can to maximize the KPIs that your company has set.
Finally, regularly reporting out your content metrics and measuring them against your set KPIs provides critical validation for your work. Remember back to point number one: leadership is usually concerned with growth and sustainability. Having strategic habits in place, while tiering your measurement reporting to reflect those goals may just one day secure you a seat in the C-Suite too.
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