Content that is adapted to the preferred channels, digital signals, triggers, stages in the life cycle and emotional needs of people is becoming increasingly important.
The focus on relevant content, that also makes your business “found” in an online world is so strong that there is even a new word for it: content marketing.
It’s not a real novelty, but it’s more elaborated and integrated than ever before. This also means we’d better not look at it as yet another silo when we want to have a cross-channel, data-driven and customer-centric holistic marketing strategy.
Having goals, a plan and processes in place matters in content marketing as well
What is often missing in what we call content marketing is a strategy, let alone a plan. As content marketing is… marketing (and for me even more than that but that’s for another post), it is obvious that one must first determine the different objectives with a view to compiling its role in the overall marketing – and customer engagement – approach. That’s something marketers often seem to forget when “new” phenomena hit the street. “Social”, anyone?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that organizations need to know what their customers and prospects want and which channels (the content “carriers”) they prefer. It’s also obvious there is such a thing as business goals and ROI. So, determining input and output and drafting a plan that maps the relevant content and carriers in each contact moment through the life cycle is a must.
Furthermore, a content marketing plan is closely linked to other operations and plans, including SEO, social, lead management, sales, R&D, product marketing, events, marcom, well, basically everything. In most companies the key partners of the content marketing plan are the lead nurturing scenarios and conversion marketing paths. Obviously, everything has to be tracked and lead to more contact moments: directly, or indirectly (for instance, via brand impact or word-of-mouth)
In defining a content marketing strategy here are a few elements that play a role:
1) Segmentation
The various target groups are divided into segments. The content must be relevant to your prospective clients and customers, taking their demographic, behavioral, transactional and other data into account. Obviously, segments are artificial constructions with overlapping elements and depend on your business goals.
2) The buying cycle
People now have much more control over the flow of information and communication channels. They have a variety of online resources to inform then during each step of the buying cycle, which is shifting towards online and peer-to-peer resources. It is the task of marketers to find the right content to offer in terms of the customer and his “digital footprints”.
3) Different types of content
The content must be valuable, but it must also be available in various forms and carriers so that the prospect or customer can receive or find it in the format he prefers: a blog post, a white paper, an online video, a presentation, an auto responder email series, a printed document, etc. Or in other words, the presentation of the content is tailored to the preferences of the individual prospect or the specific segment. That’s an often overlooked aspect of content marketing.
4) Interaction with the content
Content marketing is not broadcasting. The intention is to encourage the “reader” or “viewer” to act and interact. This is done with the content itself, but of course it must also be done in other, contextual, ways. Content may lead to a personal interaction (for example, if someone responds to a blog post and you subsequently established a connection with that person), sometimes the interaction is less personal. In any case, the content must ultimately lead to interaction.
Interaction leads to dialogue, data and thus better ways to fine tune your communication and lead generation and nurturing. If you are there where you need to be, interaction leads to relationships that provide social or tangible capital to your business when the content-related interaction is perceived as mutually valuable.
Stories, word-of-mouth and social interaction are important. But getting the right people to your landing pages and through your conversion funnels is a priority as well!
About J-P De Clerck
