Content is still king and it will be in 2021.
And content marketing strategies bring their businesses 6x higher conversion rates on average, comparing to those businesses which don’t use content marketing.
Still, if you want an even higher conversion rate, you will need a well-organized content marketing strategy.
Every well-made content marketing strategy has four basic elements - brand positioning, owned media value proposition, business case, and strategic plan - so it can attract and engage the defined target audience.
Brand positioning will define how your products will be portraited through all your content marketing channels, so you have a consistently defined brand.
To find out what is your position on the market, you will need to ask yourself a few questions, like:
When thinking about owned media value proposition, you will ask yourself “What unique value do you offer to your target audience through your content?” The answer will show you why your target audience will want to choose you over someone else.
To know in which ways your brand is unique, you’ll need to research your audience to find out what they are interested in and where they find the information they need. Then, research those competitors and their content strategies to find your content niche.
Having a business case will help you implement your content marketing strategy to achieve or get closer to your business goals. The business case of a content marketing strategy includes analyzing the benefits, costs, and risks of implementing such a strategy.
A strategic plan is a plan to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. The plan will answer a few questions, like:
Even though these four elements are the basis of every effective content marketing strategy, there are content marketing trends that can impact your strategy in terms of what channels and ways you will deliver content, etc.
Regardless of trends, you won’t be able to cash in on your content marketing strategy and generate leads that you can convert unless you follow a few already proven ways to successfully implement your strategy.
Digital marketing strategies can take a long time to test and show results. But, unlike with advertising, the results are much greater and long-lasting.
We have gathered the 5 most successful strategies to have shown awesome results in 2021 that can be implemented into any business. Take a look, implement them one by one, and see how these content marketing strategies will transform your business.
First of all, when you share your content on social media, to understand what works and what doesn’t, you’ll need to track and measure how your audience responds to it.
Likes, clicks, and favorites are important but engagement - comments, shares, discussion, and actions - is what social platform’s algorithms push to the front.
All social media platforms offer some kind of insight into how your posts are doing. Use them for growth marketing and to learn what your audience is reacting to and, ultimately, what drives higher conversion rates.
To be certain of what kind of content works better, you should implement A/B testing into your campaigns, track and analyze the content, and implement the results into your next campaigns.
A content marketing strategy should include all channels you use to reach your audience and find new leads. That includes your website, social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok,...), ad campaign, newsletters, and customer emails.
Even when we’re only listing these it seems a lot. So, it’s quite easy to get lost in the various channels you need to nourish so you can reach your audience and even forget some from time to time.
That’s why it is important to make a content publishing plan for each channel you use and make a calendar to know when you have to create content so you can publish it somewhere.
Even though this “tip” may seem simple and very common sense, a lot of marketers don’t take the time to make a content marketing plan.
To have a successful content marketing strategy, you will need a comprehensive plan and you’ll need to stick to it.
When thinking about the forms your content will be made, never forget that a certain type of content is pushed by social media algorithms.
Videos, Reels, and Live Streaming are the most popular forms of content and various video stats prove that.
The pandemic affected the amount of video content people consume. Around 65% of users said that they watched more videos than before, according to Wyzowl. Video is also two times more likely to be shared among friends, compared to social media messages, blog posts, and product pages.
Youtube has more than 2 billion users now (that’s almost one-third of all people who have access to the internet), and they watch one billion hours of video every day. Around 82% of consumer internet traffic is watching videos, according to ADG Creative.
The top types of video are promotional and brand storytelling, according to HubSpot’s most recent Not Another State of Marketing Report.
So, you get the picture (or video!).
If you’ve never created a video before, don’t be scared. You don’t need fancy and expensive video equipment to get started.
Your smartphone camera, a simple mic, and a good idea are enough to start your video content production.
When you have something really important to show, try to release it as a live stream. Facebook has been measuring how long have people been watching videos and their analysis showed that users watch live videos 3x longer!
Even though you have your target audience, the people who are in that pool are not all the same. Not only that, they might need and want your product because of different features, values, or personal reasons.
Some people who come across your content are there to buy your product because they are already familiar with your brand, some are researching the topic for ideas or knowledge, some simply stumbled upon it and are just getting familiar with who you are.
So, what you need to do is to segment your audience and offer every group valuable content.
Usually, the buying process includes three stages:
You need to create content suited for every stage of the buying process and organize your content so the leads go from one stage to the other easily.
For product/brand awareness group you could make content which explains what you have to offer and what kind of solutions your products provide. Those can be tutorials, how-to videos, or something similar.
When leads are weighing whether your product fits their needs, they are looking for the pros and cons of buying your products or services. Content ideas for this group are blog posts comparing the features of similar products, sharing successful customer reviews and experiences, etc.
When it’s time for the buying decision, the leads are almost already converted and you need to offer them a glimpse of your product to convince them. That can be a free trial, product demo, free meeting/consultation, or something that corresponds with your products.
Still, there aren’t only three groups of your audience. People are very different and with a lot of data coming from various and many data points about people who show interest in your products and brand, you can easily personalize content to specifically them.
Youtube is now offering the Director Mix tool so brands can personalize videos for every audience group they can imagine. And the personalization is done automatically based on the data you provide.
We are all aware of email, image, or even infographic personalization, but the concept is spreading to video, too.
As online marketing agency, Flow20, suggests in this blog post, "Produce content that focuses on micro-moments because relevant content offers a higher engagement rate when compared to irrelevant content."
When you personalize the content for different micro-moments, users are more likely to spend more time on the content leading to more conversions.
When making your content marketing strategy, you need to be aware of some future trends that are expected to rise, so you can be prepared for what’s coming next or even set the bar for your competitors.
One of the trends that have shown growth and are only expected to grow more is the Internet of Things (IoT) broadening the content delivery channels.
Our homes have become smart homes, mirrors and tables now offer a variety of information, and it seems that it’s only a matter of time when our home appliances will show us the news, funny videos, or whatever we are interested in at the moment.
That content will be ultra-personalized and even very localized, with less text, and more video. The content will probably need to be audio sensitive, too.
Whatever trends take on, the content will be grounded in personalization.
Wrapping Up
Years have passed since content marketing started to overtake the other marketing forms and we’ve learned a lot about it, what works, what doesn’t, but one thing remained the same - quality. Always try to find the best content writers there are, so your content constantly has great quality.
You can decide to focus on only one of these 5 or try to implement more than one content marketing strategy. If you are very ambitious and have enough manpower, we suggest taking into consideration all of these strategies and create your own strategy mix by implementing the segments that fit you the most.
