How are you planning to align your 2015 content marketing strategy to your overall business objectives?
How can you make the most out of your hits and misses in 2014 when crafting your content marketing plan for 2015?
What are the key trends of content marketing in 2015 that you need to implement for optimal results?
Today, I will focus on providing answers to these 3 significant questions by:
- Introducing the 4Ps of content marketing: Planning, Production, Publishing and Performance analysis
- Showcasing important stats about B2B 2015 content marketing trends and B2C 2015 content marketing trends based on comprehensive researches conducted by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs
- Dividing each phase into smaller subtasks to make it easier for you to track and follow through
The 4 Ps of 2015 Content Marketing: Planning
- "Start with the end in mind!" What are your top 3 content marketing goals in 2015? Sales, Branding, Customer Loyalty, Lead Generation...
- Nail your target market definition in order to produce content tailored to their unique needs
- 63% of surveyed marketers have allocated budget and staff for content marketing. Consider dedicating resources to content marketing in 2015
- To catch up on the hot trends, ensure that your 2015 content marketing plan implements video marketing, mobile marketing and/or micro-targeting
- Determine your most important 2015 content marketing metrics. Will you focus on measuring sales, traffic, SEO ranking...etc. ?
- You cannot track your content's performance unless you make it "trackable". During the planning phase, determine the exact tools and solutions you will be using to measure your preset KPIs (key performance indicators).
- Experts highly recommend documenting your 2015 content marketing strategy for optimal results. Only 48% of surveyed B2B marketers and 27% of B2C marketers do!
The 4 Ps of 2015 Content Marketing: Production
- Carefully examine your previous content engagement (likes, shares, comments) in order to repurpose and build upon your most popular content
- Focus on following Steve Jobs marketing legacy by creating impeccable website/videos/ebooks designs that make your prospects feel "at home."
- Legitimately spy on the content of your successful competitor for a healthy dose of inspiration - WITHOUT compromising your unique edge!
- Quality content curation must be a regular aspect of your content marketing plan. Even better, use content curation to inspire content creation!
- Invite trust by including your phone, email, mailing address in prominent places within your content
- Do your search engine optimization homework by providing keywords rich content
- Become the ultimate "Aha!" expert and industry leader who consistently offers scarce tips and insights
- Address your target market pain points in your content and offer holistic solutions to them.
- NEVER compromise quality for quantity. Writing a weekly article that readers love is far more rewarding than throwing 5 mediocre ones at them!
- Blog about your offline interactions with clients to build trust
- Promise and over-deliver! Be generous with your tips and information. Get audience hooked on your outstanding content.
- Show your personal side every now and then by blogging about your favorite charity organization, your family, you name it.
- Diversify your content between text, audio, video, infographic, e-book, presentations, e-Newsletter to satisfy all tastes
The 4 Ps of 2015 Content Marketing: Publishing
- Think of your website/blog as your evergreen digital asset. Use social networks primarily to drive traffic to your blog.
- Systemize your content for audience' convenience. Mon. can be industry trends day; while fans Q&A answers can be on Wed. and so forth.
- Encourage user-generated content by creating regular Q&A blog posts and video series
- Boost user engagement level by prominently displaying social media sharing options. Make it super-easy for your devoted fans to spread the word about your content
- Value your fans' comments and by replying to them promptly and informatively. To keep the conversation going, end your response with a question
- Leverage social media scheduling tools (such as Hootsuite). Preschedule your content posts at peak hours for maximum visibility
- Fish where the fish are. Carefully examine your target market digital habits and be there with your killer content!
The 4 Ps of 2015 Content Marketing: Performance Analysis
- Hubspot's 2014 Inbound Research revealed that tracking content marketing ROI improved companies' future performance.
- Use content marketing ROI tools that can precisely track conversions and sales revenue back to specific content pages
- Use content management tools to measure the content marketing metrics that you predefined during the planning phase
- Use landing page tools to track leads back to a specific content download.
- Finally, invite and encourage audience feedback on your content and tweak future content accordingly
Make 2015 Your Year!
You may save this article as a check-list for content marketing best practices that you need to apply slowly but surely.
Having too many choices is focus worst enemy! If you're eager to boost your content marketing profitability next year, think quality not quantity and focus on what works for your business.
What's your take on the 4Ps of content marketing? Which of them resonated with you the most?
Please share your thoughts in the comments. Your valuable contribution is much appreciated. To your success!
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net