Building Your Strategy from Scratch

Successful content marketing campaigns require a strong foundation built from research, preparation and execution. Failing to lay the groundwork will lead to low return on investments for your efforts, disinterested readers and a waste of resources.

If you are at the beginning of the journey or looking for a fresh new content marketing campaign, the process building from scratch shouldn’t be too convoluted. Getting a good understanding of the aims of content marketing, developing your brand identity and establishing a process for content creation will guarantee effective results for your team.

While content marketing is frequently called out as the next step in the evolution of digital marketing, it still needs to be strategized and its merits analysed before any campaign is deployed.

Theory

Content marketing is exactly what it sounds like: marketing through content. On the surface, content marketing is about developing blog posts, videos, slideshows, infographics, webinars and other media pieces that grab your audience’s attention and build a positive digital presence for your brand.

On a deeper level, content marketing is the process of developing engaging relationships with customers and prospects. Traditional advertising is designed to attract viewers using positive benefits attained through a solution. Content marketing, on the other hand, engages the reader into a discussion regarding their needs by providing valuable information or resources.

Content marketing builds one or many customer facing communication channels that help better fulfill their needs. The blogs, webinars and YouTube videos are the digital representation of your company. What you communicate through them will also establish your reputation and authority in the domain.

Execution

This is the theoretical background for successful content marketing. The execution is just as important as the theory and is the process of seeking, establishing and managing those customer relationships through a variety of channels. Studies have shown that buyers go through over half of the purchasing journey before ever talking to sales representatives, meaning that content should be created to address their needs and questions during that time.

Blogs generally perform well and are a great resource for your content marketing. Most of marketers who manage a blog have reported positive return on investment for their marketing efforts. Blogging, as the most popular type of content marketing, involves the creation and monitoring of articles that deliver value to your customers.

In the end, your marketing campaigns will depend on your specific industry, goals and available resources. What matters is that you start with a solid foundation of strategy, knowledge and quality.