Table of Contents
Content is becoming the dominant force of marketing. It is an excellent way to establish yourself as an expert of your industry, engage your audience, and generate leads long after the material is published. In the coming series of articles, we are going to look at what a Content Management Strategy is, how to create one and why it is so important for your company to have an effective process in place.
What is it?
So, what exactly is a Content Management Strategy? Put simply, it is a plan that you have to create, publish, and analyze content for your business. Content can be things like downloadable guides/ebooks, short videos and blog posts. When you take those assets and put them into a strategic plan of publishing, tracking, and analyzing, you create a system that continuously engages potential leads and establishes your position as a thought leader.
Why is it important?
A good content management strategy can generate far more traffic and leads than cold calling or email blasts and is one of the most cost/time-effective pieces of a marketing plan. Strategically deploying your content will allow it to generate leads for months or even years after publishing, without you ever really needing to touch it again. This allows you the freedom to explore, track and analyze to find out what really works and what does not.
Some things to think about:
We will be going much more in-depth in this series but there are a couple things think about right from the get-go:
- Who is your audience?
This is the most critical, because if you create for the wrong audience, it will be much harder to accomplish your goals. Think about who will be viewing your content and imagine how you would best digest it if you were in their shoes
- Why are you the right person/company to offer solutions?
You already know that you are the best person/company to help your target audiences, but you need to find a way to demonstrate that through your content. This can be done several ways, whether through blog posts, case studies or short videos, but the key is to demonstrate your expert status in the field.
- What kind of content will you create?
Once you know your audience, you need to identify what kind of content they will be most likely to interact with and convert from. If you are a clothing company, you would be better off using things like Instagram marketing to showcase your products whereas a company who offers an accounting software would likely find things like case studies more effective.
- How will you deploy that content?
Once you know the who, what and why, it is time to figure out the where. Deciding which platform(s) you are going to use is critical to make sure you reach the right audience with your content. Think about where your prospects are most likely to be, when they are in the mindset to research and purchase.
As I’ve said, we will go much more in-depth in the coming articles but these are some general things to think about as your examine your business and start to think about what your own Content Management Strategy will look like.
Phil Palmieri is the founder, CEO and President of IPS. He has over 20 years experience in the printing and promotional products industry, as well as an MS in Data Analytics. Phil is SharpSpring Advanced User Certified.