How Effective Is Your Content Marketing Strategy?

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Did you know that 73% of major organizations hire a content person to manage their content marketing strategy? It might be interesting to know that content marketing costs 60% less than outbound campaigns and generates 3X more leads. From grabbing attention to being an authority on the subject matter, content can make or break your #Brand_Goals.

The rise of social media and the on-going digital revolution have brought brands ever closer to their customers; and as such, the need for effective communication is at an all-time high. Communication today has overtaken the ‘simply-advertise’ approach to a personalized 1:1 interaction with the customer.

Customers want to feel that brands also care to understand their users than merely selling their product or services. As such simply advertising your product does not guarantee growth or customer retention. Personalization is at the heart of communication in the digital economy because there is more than enough of non-personalized content out there.

The trouble is that it is not easy to calculate the ROI on content. Most companies, therefore, shy away from heavy investment into quality content creation for this reason. But such investment almost always adds value and enhance customer retention efforts.

Why Content Marketing is Important

In the age of the engagement economy, it is vital to give insights, tell engaging stories and have conversations with all stakeholders. Below, are some of the better-known benefits of having good content.

1- Brand Authority

2- Improves SEO

3- Builds customer relations

What Makes Content Marketing Unique?

In this post, however, we will be looking at some of the lesser known benefits of having a good content strategy. The trend in the engagement economy is a shift away from ‘hard sell’ tactics to ‘building engaging and lasting customer relations.’ And since content influences almost all your online strategy – it’s only fair it gets the due share of attention. Here then are five reasons why you should have a well thought out content strategy.

1- Influence Conversations

Assuming that the piece of content is excellent and appealingly written, a strategically embedded call to action can encourage direct conversions, more page views and perhaps even a prospective conversation. Played right, this could translate into more revenue/ engagement per visitor on your site.

2- Promoting Trust and Faith in your Brand

Your website caters to visitors who land for any number of reasons. It is true that not all may convert to your benefit. Regardless, a well-crafted content and layout can secure your visitor’s trust in your brand and increase the visibility of your brand.

3- A permanent estate

Content that you’ve published online, well, it is forever! That is where the compounding effect of content comes into play. Every piece of content that you publish is a way to drive traffic back to you. As you keep publishing content, more people come in contact with your brand, and the avenues for driving traffic back to your brand is multiplied.

4- You Get to Know Your Customers

Content that is delivered through social media and blogs provide the prospect for readers to interact with the brand through comments, remarks, likes, and shares. It also provides an encyclopedic insight into customer sentiments. Hail social media!

5- You can’t Out-date Content

Automation and Digitization are perpetually changing the way businesses function and operate. But rest assure content teams, because no amount of automation can replace the human touch, and for that matter conveying a rational thought. Customer-brand interaction in the Engagement-Economy is all about telling a personalized story. Having a top-notch content team and strategy can make all the difference between being a name and a brand.

6- Good Content is Rare

There is a lot of content out there today. Then again, much of it is noise; which is a good thing- it makes good content stick out. It’s a sure-shot opportunity at grabbing attention. Wondering how to create good content? Be unique, be different, don’t follow the crowd, the most important thing is that people love an authentic story, not one that is an adaptation of a story that has been retold countless times.

How to Evaluate Content

Since your content is going to be telling your brand story, it is vital that you can evaluate your content. Once you have an informed content evaluation strategy in place, it will be all the easier for you to measure the impact your content creates. The prime focus points for you here will be-

• Audience
• Authority
• Accuracy
• Objectivity
• Timeline

Consider these the foundation to writing a good article. Once you have answered these points, you will have an outline of what the final content will contain and an outline of the same. This is an exercise that should be done at the time of content creation.

Evaluating the Final Product

Once your content is ready, you need to run it past a benchmark to assess if your content is going to create the desired impact. If you do not already have a benchmark in place, then, Content Strategy Inc. has come up with a scorecard for evaluating content effectiveness.

Depending on the grade you give each of the eight metrics, you can ascertain the benchmark index of your article. This scorecard also helps you understand what is working and what is deficient, thereby helping you improve the overall quality and engagement of your article over a continued period.

To know how you can leverage MoEngage to deliver your content and optimize your marketing strategies, we suggest that you read our comprehensive report on Push Notifications.

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Photo Credit: image from HTSABO