Social media today overflows with both amazing and less good content. The consequence is saturated users without either time or commitment. This makes it increasingly difficult for communicators to reach the noise. 

It is no longer the amount of content that matters, but how interesting, instructive and fascinating it is for the recipient. We therefore need to learn to value and dare to opt out of activities and channels if we want to be perceived as relevant. But how does it really matter? By working with content marketing. And to succeed, you need a strategy.

Content Marketing 101: Listen!

The first step in the work of a content marketing strategy is to look inside and out. In short, it’s about listening: on your audience, on your competitors and actually on yourself and see what you already do.

• What are you doing today? Make a nuance analysis of your own marketing. What social media do you use today and what type of content do you produce? Is content available and channel-adapted? How good are you driving traffic from social media to the website? Do you measure your results in any other way?
• Who are you turning to? Study your audience and its behaviour in social media. Please check the statistics on usage, for example from the annual report os Australians and the Internet . For example, you can read that 66% of all Facebook users between 36-45 years write their own posts, while only 20% of users between 16-25 years do. It is valuable information that teaches you to know your target audience and its behaviour patterns.
• What are your competitors doing? Even though a content marketing strategy is about your business, it’s worth watching an eye on your competitors. Who are they and what are they doing well? Also take the opportunity to track companies that you are inspired by outside your industry and think about what it is that appeals to you in their marketing. It’s okay to be reminded.

What do you want to achieve? – Set a realistic goal and measure these

Content marketing is just a communication tool in the toolbox. This does not mean that the results and effects are not to be measured. To judge your work, you need a goal to strive towards. It should be realistic based on your resources in terms of time and money. Most importantly, it should also reflect your business goals and be measurable, either quantitatively or qualitatively.

You who want to take a leading position in the market should work brand building and invite knowledge. If the goal is instead to sell more, it may be interesting to collaborate with influencers and create both content and build confidence in that way.

Since content marketing is a long-term strategy, which rarely leads to buying dots here and now, it is other measure than just the number of completed businesses that you should use. Opening rates, visitor statistics and involvement in social media are more accurate. Worth noting for social media is that the number of impressions is no longer relevant, but the total time the user added to your post. This is especially true of moving material like movies and animations.

Where are your target groups? – Prioritize activities, channels and formats

The analysis and objectives are the foundation of the actual work. With your new information, you can list the various types of activities that you want to implement and communicate during the year.

It may be seasonal things (at the beginning of the year, for example, the healthcare provider is more than happy to inform you about winter crash sickness and give tips on how to prevent it), event-based , educational depths (learn more about …) or something completely different.

What type of content produced depends on your business type and publishing frequency. Make a gross list of topics and rank them according to how relevant they are to your audience.

Then it’s time to choose channels. Again it is a virtue to dare to choose away. There is no reason to be on Instagram unless your target group does. It does not have to be daring to skip a channel – it’s smart. Also, call a couple of formats that you want to use for your content. Should it be moving material, downloadable e-books and checklists or maybe become a podcast?

Who will do what? – Plan the ongoing work

Everything becomes easier if you have thought of before. To calm your content marketing effort into port you need an editorial calendar. With that it becomes clear who will upload what content, at what time and in what channels.

The editorial calendar gives you an overview of the next six months or the year. You ensure that the right content is produced and published at the right moment. Between the lines, it also means that there should be a division of responsibilities with deadlines in the calendar – not least to avoid conflicts. And time to evaluate the efforts on a regular basis.

Therefore, put in time for measurement and review of the work on the calendar, so it will not be forgotten.

Next Step – Follow the customer on the trip

Content marketing is basically about building long-term relationships. Therefore, it is important to follow both prospects, leads and existing customers on the trip and help them forward.

The digital channels make it possible to see who shows additional interest in the content. To transform suspects into prospects and leads to customers, there are several smart approaches.

Remarketing is effective to remind the customer about you. Even smarter is marketing automation, which is based on offering the customer more of the content that they have previously been interested in. And to keep track of where your visitors are in the customer trip, there are useful tools like Apsis. Working with and deriving from the digital customer journey helps you build long relationships, increase sales and strengthen your brand.

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