Epic Content Marketing

1. Content marketing is about providing valuable information, not selling

Your customers don't care about you, your products, or your services. They care about themselves, their wants, and their needs.

Shift your mindset. Content marketing requires thinking differently about how to communicate with customers and prospects. Instead of interrupting them with promotional messages, focus on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content that helps solve their problems or answers their questions. This builds trust and positions your brand as a helpful resource. The goal is to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, ultimately driving profitable customer action.

Provide utility, not promotion. Effective content marketing educates, entertains, or inspires - it does not overtly sell. Some key principles:

• Fill a need - address customer pain points and informational needs
• Be consistent in quality and frequency
• Have a distinct point of view
• Avoid "sales speak" - focus on being helpful
• Strive to be the best, most comprehensive resource on your topic

2. Develop a content marketing mission statement to guide your strategy

Content marketing is not about "what you sell," it's about "what you stand for."

Define your purpose. A content marketing mission statement articulates why you are creating content and what value it will provide to your audience. It serves as a guiding light for all content creation. An effective mission statement includes:

• Your core audience
• What type of content you will deliver
• The benefit to the audience

Use it as a filter. Once developed, your mission statement becomes a powerful tool to:

• Evaluate content ideas - does it align with the mission?
• Guide content creators and keep messaging consistent
• Explain your content strategy to stakeholders
• Stay focused on audience needs vs. promotional goals

3. Create a sustainable content platform that you own and control

Don't build on rented land.

Own your home base. While leveraging social media and other external platforms is important, your primary content hub should be a digital property you fully control, typically a website or blog. This allows you to:

• Build a direct relationship with your audience
• Retain full control over the user experience
• Capture valuable data and analytics
• Protect yourself from algorithm changes or platform shutdowns

Hub-and-spoke model. Think of your owned platform as the hub, with social and other channels as spokes:

• Hub (e.g. blog): houses your main content
• Spokes (e.g. social media): amplify and drive traffic back to hub
• Repurpose hub content for various spoke channels
• Use consistent branding and messaging across all properties

4. Leverage social media and influencers to amplify your content

Social media is the fuel to set your content on fire.

Expand your reach. While creating great content is crucial, distribution is equally important. Social media and influencer partnerships can significantly amplify your content's reach:

Social media strategies:

• Share content across relevant platforms (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook)
• Use platform-specific features (e.g. hashtags, rich media)
• Engage with followers and participate in relevant conversations
• Consider paid promotion for key pieces of content

Influencer collaboration:

• Identify relevant influencers in your industry
• Engage with their content and build relationships
• Collaborate on content creation or cross-promotion
• Leverage their audience to expand your reach

5. Repurpose and atomize content across multiple formats and channels

Can you reimagine your stories in 10 different ways?

Maximize content value. Creating high-quality content requires significant resources. Repurposing allows you to get more mileage out of your efforts:

Content atomization strategies:

• Break long-form content into shorter pieces (e.g. blog post series from whitepaper)
• Adapt content for different formats (e.g. infographic from research report)
• Create micro-content for social media (e.g. quote graphics, short video clips)
• Combine related pieces into larger assets (e.g. e-book from blog posts)

Benefits of repurposing:

• Reaches audience members who prefer different formats
• Reinforces key messages through repetition
• Improves SEO by creating more entry points
• Increases ROI on content creation efforts

6. Measure content marketing impact on business objectives, not vanity metrics

Measure behavior that matters to your business.

Focus on meaningful KPIs. While metrics like pageviews and social shares provide some insight, they don't necessarily translate to business impact. Instead, focus on metrics that directly tie to your objectives:

Key areas to measure:

• Lead generation: form completions, email sign-ups
• Sales: online and offline purchases attributed to content
• Customer retention: repeat purchases, churn rate
• Brand awareness: search volume for brand terms, earned media mentions

Use a measurement framework. Organize metrics into a pyramid:

• Primary indicators: directly tied to business objectives (e.g. revenue)
• Secondary indicators: contribute to primary goals (e.g. qualified leads)
• User indicators: day-to-day metrics to optimize content (e.g. time on page)

7. Build an internal content creation process and consider outsourcing

Content marketing is a new muscle for most organizations.

Establish roles and workflows. Effective content marketing requires a structured approach:

Key roles to consider:

• Chief Content Officer: oversees strategy and execution
• Managing Editor: manages editorial calendar and content production
• Content Creators: produce content (writers, designers, videographers)
• Content Producers: package and distribute content

Evaluate outsourcing options. Many organizations benefit from a hybrid approach:

• In-house: strategy, subject matter expertise, final approval
• Outsourced: content creation, design, specialized skills
• Consider freelancers, agencies, or content marketplaces

8. Focus on solving customer pain points and answering their questions

If you constantly create Internet content without thinking through search engine optimization (SEO) and keywords, you will rank for something (content does resonate with search engine algorithms). Yet, you will consistently run the risk of shortchanging your SEO strategy—and your company's ability to grab its fair share of relevant search engine traffic—for branding, conversions, and more.

Understand your audience. Develop detailed buyer personas to guide content creation:

• Demographics and psychographics
• Goals and challenges
• Preferred content formats and channels
• Common questions and objections

Create content that addresses needs. Map content to different stages of the buyer's journey:

• Awareness: Educational content about industry trends and challenges
• Consideration: Comparative information about potential solutions
• Decision: Detailed product information, case studies, testimonials

9. Make your content easily discoverable through SEO best practices

Every piece of content on a website or in a blog post isn't necessarily going to take a company to number one on Google [or any search engine] for a keyword phrase that people use 15,000 times a month. But you can get more out of search engine optimization—with just a bit more effort.

Optimize for search engines and users. While creating content for humans is paramount, implementing SEO best practices ensures your content gets found:

Key SEO tactics:

• Keyword research: Identify relevant terms your audience is searching for
• On-page optimization: Use keywords naturally in titles, headers, and body copy
• Meta descriptions: Write compelling summaries to improve click-through rates
• Internal linking: Connect related content pieces on your site
• Mobile optimization: Ensure content is easily accessible on all devices

Track and improve performance. Regularly analyze search traffic and rankings to identify opportunities for improvement.

10. Continuously evolve your content strategy based on data and feedback

There is no perfection and, as Seth Godin says, shipping the product is the most important.

Embrace iteration. Content marketing is an ongoing process, not a one-time campaign. Continuously refine your approach based on:

• Analytics data: What content is performing well? Where are users dropping off?
• Audience feedback: Gather insights through surveys, comments, and social listening
• Industry trends: Stay informed about changes in your market and content landscape
• Competitive analysis: Monitor what's working for others in your space

Experiment and learn. Don't be afraid to try new formats, topics, or distribution channels. Use A/B testing to optimize performance over time. Remember that building a successful content marketing program takes time and persistence.

Last updated: July 23, 2024