Content Marketing Strategies That Actually Work: Lessons from the Trenches

Content Marketing Strategies, I have spent most of the last ten years seeing businesses invest in content marketing with most varying outcomes. There are those companies that are creating loyal audiences that sell on their behalf and those that are creating ghost towns of digital articles that no one reads. The difference? Strategy.

I want to tell you what I have learned about content marketing which generates the needle, not theory, but tactics that I have observed to work in real campaigns in all industries.

The Foundation: The Reason Why Most Content Fails.

Unfortunately, this is one of the painful lessons that I had to learn: being a publisher is not equal to being content marketing. At the beginning of my career I worked with a B2B software company and assisted it in generating 200 blog posts within a year. Traffic barely budged. Rankings stayed flat. Leads remained elusive.

Successful content marketing begins with the realisation of three interrelating factors: the real issues of your audience, your personal point of view or skills, and the place of content within your overall marketing landscape. Strike one of these and you are virtually putting content into the abyss.

Creating an Audience-First Content Strategy.

The most effective content marketers that I have known do more research on their audience than writing. They know that producing something that will appeal to all people appeals to none.

Use the strategy of a specialty coffee roaster that I had worked with last year. They have surveyed their already existing customers, and it was an eye-opener as they were not coffee snobs like the ones who wanted to make their coffee in the perfect pour-over. They were professionals and did not want to spend lots of time on coffee.

This changed their whole content approach. Instead of fighting against the thousands of detailed brewing books, they developed fast video trainings, five-minute email classes and unboxing subscriptions. Within four months, the engagement increased three times.

Empirical Audience Research Steps.

Begin with speaking to the real customers. I do not refer to surveys but actual chats. Ask what frustrates them. Determine their online locations. Know their terminology of explaining their issues.

Forums of discussion, Reddit communities, and social media platforms where your audience will convene. The conversations taking place there will tend to point out the loopholes in the current material that you can bridge.

Result-Driving Types of Content.

The purpose of all contents is not similar and this is where critical thinking comes in.

However, basic content builds your credentials and brings in organic search traffic. These are the ultimate guides, how-to articles, and educational materials that provide answers to the frequently asked questions in your business. They spend time on ranking yet offer steady traffic over a number of years.

Trust-building content consists of case studies, behind-the-scene, and thought leadership content. This material will not bring volume of traffic but it transforms the sceptical visitors into the believers.

The content of engagement creates discussions and community. This falls under the category of polls, opinion pieces, interactive tools and user-generated content campaigns.

The companies that have the best returns strike a balance between all three. Focusing excessively on one or another category brings in the gaps in the customer journey.

Distribution: The content marketing half that no one talks about.

One of the companies that I used to be a consultant provides truly outstanding content. Their industry guides were comprehensive, well researched and well designed. Almost nobody saw them. Still production of content is perhaps 40 percent of the work. Distribution is the rest.

Each article that you release requires a distribution strategy. Take into consideration the points to which your viewers already pay attention. Newsletters in email are usually more successful than social media when it comes to B2B. Video ads are more effective in the case of visual products. The communities and forums in the industry have the potential of pushing high quality traffic that converts at an amazing rate.

Repurposing will reach your content further without the need to have absolutely new ideas. An individual detailed blog post can be transformed into a podcast episode, an LinkedIn carousel, an email series, a YouTube video and a number of social media posts. This is not indolent–it is shrewd spending of resources.

Measuring What Matters

Measures of vanity such as page views are gratifying but usually deceptive. I have witnessed viral articles and content pieces with low traffic making considerable revenues, and zero purchase intent made by the audiences.

Pay attention to the metrics that relate to business:

Quality of engagement: Page views, scroll counts, and comments on the post all show that the topic is of interest.
Conversion activities: Newsletter subscriptions, downloads and contact forms.
Revenue attribution: Is it possible to attribute closed deals to particular pieces of content?
Impact on customer journey: Are increasing content consumption and shorter sales cycles related?
Establish appropriate monitoring prior to commencement of campaigns. It is almost impossible to retrofit analytics.

Stasis is Better than Excellence.

There is one thing that the brands that develop real audiences have in common: they do not disappear but can be seen over a long time. They are aware that content marketing is not a one-shot process.

One of the financial planning firms, which I like, published weekly educational materials three years before achieving any material results. By the fourth year, they had more than twelve times the paid advertising value in terms of organic traffic. Patience paid off.

Create a publishing schedule that is achievable. Six-month weekly posts outperform six-week daily posts, which are then abandoned.

Looking Forward

The content marketing is constantly developing, yet the basic principles are not going to change. Viewers will punish a fake professionalism and useful knowledge. Trust takes time to build. What counts more than creation is distribution.

The companies that are winning in content marketing are not necessarily those which possess the largest budgets. It is they who are going up to content in a strategic and measured way and making a long-term commitment.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will content marketing bear fruits?
The organic search traffic can take a normal of six to twelve months, but the email and social distribution may exhibit a quicker reaction rate.

What is the most optimal length of a blog post?
A search intent should be commensurate to length. Detailed documents can have up to 2,000+ words whereas brief responses have been done at 500-800 words.

What is the frequency of the new content?
Regularity is important, but not frequency. Most businesses publish every week, but quality should never be compromised with the quantity.

Do we need video content to be successful?
Not necessarily but it gives a wide reach. Begin with the most effective format and introduce the video when it can be done.

Is it of best should we gate our best?
Content at the gate when capturing leads is the objective though ungated content creates wider awareness and enhances SEO performance.

What do we do against larger brands in our industry?
Target areas that they have neglected, share real-life experiences that they cannot imitate and establish real communities.