Content marketing is good for your brand, and not too complicated to execute. Everyone says it. Everyone does. It must be true, right?
This opinion, which simplifies the discipline, sometimes makes us forget crucial steps upstream. Results? Your content campaigns, even creative and thoughtful, do not always achieve the objectives initially set.
Discover 7 symptoms diagnosed through multiple customer collaborations where a content strategy has helped to address many marketing issues.
1- YOU ARE NOT SURE HOW TO MEASURE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR CONTENT.
Before embarking on the adventure of committing budgets and resources to content production, establish marketing objectives that correspond to your business priorities . Clear and easy-to-monitor performance indicators (KPIs) will allow you to assess the performance of your efforts over time.
The content strategy aims to establish this framework of performance from the first moments and will guide all of your efforts. On this subject, a reading of the post of my colleague Catherine Content creation: aim you right is essential to determine the KPIs appropriate to your strategy.
2 - YOU HAVE 3 EMPLOYEES IN YOUR MARKETING DEPARTMENT AND YOU ARE SERIOUSLY WONDERING HOW TO PRODUCE CONTENT WHEN EVERYONE IS ALREADY TOO BUSY.
True. Embracing content marketing is a step-by-step approach that takes consistent effort and tenacity. However, some ways of doing things require more effort than others. One day of shooting a week won't have the same impact on your business as sharing your favorite industry content using content curation tools .
A content strategy always starts with an audit that allows you to understand your context, your limits and the evaluation of the content you already have in place. The agency is thus equipped to design a strategic plan adapted to you.
3 - YOU FIND THAT THE CONTENT YOU PRODUCE IS EXPENSIVE AND THAT IN THE END FEW PEOPLE END UP WATCHING IT. YET THEY ARE GOOD, YOU BELIEVE.
Content, whether textual, visual, or video, is like a cat: it has at least 9 lives. It is therefore necessary to plan its production and its variations so that it can be used on all the communication channels adopted by your target segments.
Many organizations create high-quality content, post it once on their Facebook page, and move on to the next folder. Mistake!
This type of “disposable” content approach imposes several drawbacks:
- a frantic pace of production
- high cost per view
- scope limited to organic single-platform efforts
Concretely, you end up with a sadly short flash in the pan. We can clearly see it in the graph below: in a few hours, the organic reach of a publication tends to reach zero value, which means that your content disappears from your fans' newsfeed.
Average organic reach within a Brand Page's fans.
How do you extend the reach and engagement of your content over time for weeks, and even months after publication?
When designing, think about creating timeless content (which will remain relevant over the months) and adapted to all your communication channels in order to maximize its distribution. For example, showcase your best content to your newsletter subscribers or invest in social promotion to reach audiences similar to those who engaged with the original post and engage new users in your marketing journey.
4 - YOU WOULD LIKE TO INCREASE YOUR WEB TRAFFIC FROM SEARCH ENGINES, BUT YOUR COMPETITORS HAVE A LARGER SEM BUDGET THAN YOURS.
A large part of content marketing at Adviso aims to implement sustainable efforts, independent of media investments but in synergy with them. Content Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is the foundation of your traffic, which you can then boost with paid tactics. Consult my colleague Maxime's article to find out more.
How to combine your social and SEM efforts with your SEO approach? Everything goes through the questions and needs of users. Do you know concretely what questions your customers are asking before buying your products? And those who decide not to buy in the end? You have everything to gain from understanding your users. Stop pretending you know!
In short, create useful content that responds to your users' queries on search engines. The design of a content strategy values all the channels (owned, earned, paid) of your content ecosystem in order to maximize its full potential.
5 - YOUR WEBSITE HAS SEEN BETTER DAYS. YOU PLAN TO ALLOCATE A REDESIGN BUDGET FOR THE COMING YEAR.
Wait, we need to talk! What place does your website take in the customer journey? Is it a simple business card or the tool at the center of e-commerce business model? What proportion of your sales is attributable to your website?
Before starting another redesign project, the architecture and organization of your content may need to be reviewed to better respond to search trends and help you position yourself on search engines. The technical optimization of the site can be integrated into the strategic recommendations related to the distribution of content.
A nice new site, that's good. A new effective site that fuels your conversion journey, that's yum !
6 - OVER THE YEARS, YOUR ORGANIZATION HAS PRODUCED SO MUCH CONTENT THAT YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO TAKE STOCK TODAY, STUCK BETWEEN OBSOLESCENCE AND THE DESIRE TO PRODUCE FRESH CONTENT.
This is a reality for many businesses that adopted a blog soon after content marketing took off in 2012. See for yourself in the Google Trends chart below.
Search trends for “content marketing”
Today, a cleaning is needed for these brands struggling with an impressive number of URLs that they drag like a ball in front of Google, which does not see all these obsolete pages without traffic with a good eye.
What to keep? What to delete? What to optimize? What new content to create? What is the approach of your competitors? When a situation like this presents itself, the content strategy helps to answer these questions in order to draw up a detailed roadmap.
7 - YOU WORK WITH SEVERAL AGENCIES AND INTERNAL TEAMS THAT PRODUCE ADVERTISING, SOCIAL, EMAIL, PR CONTENT, WHICH CAN GO IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS.
Rather, large work teams are the norm in our industry. In addition, “content marketing” is a somewhat catch-all term, open to interpretations. It is better to define a framework that guides the work of the teams on the following points in order to maintain clear rules of engagement for all stakeholders:
- The brand approach and strategic orientations
- The Content Mission
- The content production process
- Distribution channels and audiences
- Common performance measures
- The organization of resources
It is promised, you will thus save yourself from a host of unpleasant situations.
Want something concrete? Instead, discover what we have achieved with our clients, such as increasing organic traffic by 78% with Arctic Gardens or designing a content approach dedicated to 25-34 year olds for the National Bank.
Do you recognize yourself through these symptoms? No need to call Urgence Santé!
