What Is A Content Marketing Strategy?
A content marketing strategy refers to the various types of content created and promoted in order to build brand awareness, boost website traffic, and generate new leads. From blogs, newsletters, videos, and case studies to infographics, webinars, and podcasts, your content should always align with your niche and customers' preferences. When your content is relevant and highly educational, you build trusting and loyal relationships since people perceive you as a thought leader in the field. Nonetheless, building successful content marketing campaigns isn't an easy feat; it requires a lot of research and trial and error. Looking at content marketing strategy examples and templates utilized by other organizations can help you understand how to masterfully plan your own strategy.
It can be challenging to handle the process yourself, particularly if you are new to your field and have a limited workforce. In that case, you can collaborate with a B2B content marketing agency that will offer you their expert knowledge. Below we unveil all the steps you must take to craft content marketing success in the highly congested digital landscape.
The 5 Ps Of A Content Marketing Strategy
1. Plan
Producing content and publishing it without having a plan in mind won't get you very far. You need a B2B content marketing strategy template to plan your material. You don't have to limit yourself to just one type of content. Start by writing high-quality blog posts on evergreen and trending topics. Then, infographics are ideal for social sharing as they foster engagement, while eBooks can be used as gated content to attract leads and help you increase your email list. Additionally, videos, including webinars, help you introduce yourself to your audience and get closer to them since they can see you and ask you questions.
2. Produce
Next in your strategic marketing plan is producing the content you decide you want. Do you have the personnel needed to create various types of content, though? Is there at least one employee who can write top-quality articles? Small businesses may not have the resources to hire an entire content team. This is where you should think about outsourcing your needs, as great content marketing takes time and requires a lot of effort. Many agencies and companies use content marketing to help you promote your services. eLearning Industry, for instance, offers a 360 marketing plan that includes SEO analysis, content creation and promotion, and continuous lead generation. Link building is also pivotal for your content to climb Google's ranking stairs.
3. Publish
Most successful content marketing strategy examples come from companies that publish their material on different platforms, including websites and social media channels. When you publish your eBooks, make sure you create separate landing pages for each one so you can request your prospects' contact details before they can download the file. For infographics, you can post them on your social media as well as your website, but if possible, it's a good idea to create a separate website just for infographics. Content marketing for B2B also relies heavily on utilizing LinkedIn, Facebook, and other channels your clients use. This is where your audience can learn about newly published content and interact with your brand.
4. Promote
You've published your content, but traffic is quite low. How can you fix it? B2B marketers follow various strategies and tactics to boost website visits. First, use free methods like your social media. Someone on your team should craft engaging posts and share insightful tips with your audience. If, however, the organic pathway is limited, you should think about collaborating with a content marketing agency offering solutions in your field. For example, they can include your brand or product in newsletter featured placements and promote your content on their social media. Not only that, but they can also create popup banners to immediately grab people's attention.
5. Prove
Now it's time to measure your content marketing performance and prove to yourself and any stakeholders that your marketing content works. Use Google Analytics to track your website traffic, engagement rates, click-through rates, conversions, page views, time spent, SERPs, and leads generated. Also, analyze how many email signups you've generated from each activity. For example, gated content and other lead magnet ideas may be more effective than webinar registrations. Finally, don't forget to measure the number of sales each tactic produces to know where you should invest your resources.
The 6 Steps To Create Your Own Content Marketing Strategy Template
1. Set Your Goals
Before you start filling out your content marketing strategy template, you must identify your overall goals. A few of the most common marketing goals are brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, sales, and customer engagement. However, simply stating your main goal isn't enough. A content marketing mistake you should avoid is not making your goals SMART. This means every goal should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Let's say you want to boost your sales. To make this goal SMART, aim to boost sales by 15% within the next year by ensuring your weekly content is SEO-optimized. Remember that successful content marketing examples are not only this specific but also measure their performance frequently. Don't wait until the end of the year to analyze your marketing results, but instead do it monthly and adjust according to your needs.
2. Craft Buyer Personas
After setting goals, most content marketing strategy examples indicate you should craft your ideal buyer personas. These are fictional profiles of different categories of people with high purchase intent. To create effective personas, first you must research your audience to understand their demographics, locations, job roles, interests, industries, incomes, family size, and online behaviors. Only then will you be able to curate content specifically for their preferences. On top of that, content marketing success relies heavily on the enforcement of the right social media channels. Seasoned eLearning marketers don't publish their content just anywhere. LinkedIn is usually the best place for B2B and SaaS audiences, while TikTok and Instagram typically attract B2C clients. Once you know exactly who you're targeting, you can add keywords your target buyers use in their search queries.
3. Identify Your Resources
To create a successful content marketing campaign, you need three things: a workforce, tools, and a budget. When you create your content marketing plan, you should highlight all the resources you need. Start with your team members. What are their skills? Who is going to do what, and how much time is required for them to finish a project? Then, you need to identify the tools necessary for your campaign. For example, Canva, Grammarly, and Descript are essential tools for checking and proofreading your articles, adding design elements, and editing your videos. Once you underline the cost of each tool, you can create a viable budget that covers all your needs. Content advertising can be pricey, but you can make things easier with PPC directory listing ads. Those allow you to reach niche audiences who are ready to make a purchase.
4. Perform Competitive Analysis
If you take a peek at some content strategy examples, you'll notice that most brands perform SEO competitor analysis before creating any material. First, you analyze who your key competitors are, and then you dig deeper to highlight the topics and content types that work well for them. You should also identify content subjects that have poor performance. While it's not 100% certain that the same topics will work for you too, it's a starting point. Your analysis helps you identify the topics similar target audiences like to consume. But content marketing success isn't guaranteed just by writing about those topics. You should leverage your SEO skills to incorporate relevant and competitive keywords and phrases to help your content rank highly in SERPs. And remember that it's not only about what your competitors do but also about what they don't do. Your analysis helps you find content gaps you can capitalize on to create unique material.
5. Analyze Your Content
When you look at successful content marketing strategy examples, you can't know the level of work that was put into creating content marketing ads. Most of the time, a content audit is necessary to analyze your existing material and check its strengths and weaknesses. Check which content is your rockstar, performing at your website's "main stage." Then, compile a list of articles that have potential but whose performance isn't what you expected. Maybe you need a better Search Engine Optimization plan to boost its clicks. Lastly, remove content that brings absolutely no value, is not evergreen, and doesn't comply with the latest Google guidelines.
6. Set Guidelines
Most marketing blog examples prove that article creation should be uniform. Set your unique tone of voice that aligns with your niche and target audience. Also, establish a content calendar to stay in line with the topics you want to publish. A style guide for your designers is needed as well so each content piece is presented in a similar manner. Additionally, a marketing plan template that details your content preferences should mention a number of specifics: your content's format, topics you cover, publishing frequency, distribution channels, and a few notes about the importance of each piece of content.
6 Brilliant Content Marketing Examples
1. Video Marketing
Statistics indicate that 89% of consumers want to see more videos in content marketing campaigns. Not everyone is interested in reading long articles or downloading eBooks and other lengthy resources. Some buyers want to see demos, tutorials, step-by-step guides, or simply funny clips highlighting a brand's offers and unique solutions. This is where content marketing experts can help you create and promote your videos if you find it hard to do it on your own.
Examples
Have you heard of Mint Mobile? The previously partly owned by Ryan Reynolds cellphone company used the famous actor's comedy chops to create funny and engaging video campaign ads. Four years after he purchased part of the company, T-Mobile stepped in and acquired Mint Mobile for $1.35 billion, proving how successful content marketing for tech companies can be.
Slack is another example of brilliant business content marketing. Each year, the company organizes a conference to educate its members. To generate demand for the event, it creates YouTube videos trying to appeal to decision-makers. Speakers talk about current issues that plague their target audience, including employee engagement and growth hacks. This way, they showcase their ability to understand their viewers and offer them actionable tips and solutions.
2. Evergreen Blog Posts
To get more customers, you need to include evergreen articles in your content marketing strategy template. Articles are not only created for SEO purposes—they also add value to your target audience's lives and establish thought leadership. While writing about new technologies and other trending topics is fun, you should invest more time and resources into curating evergreen content that stays relevant over time. General tips, how-to guides, product reviews, and listicles typically intrigue people regardless of their publishing date. A well-crafted piece of content can generate interest and revenue even years after its release.
Examples
Hotjar, a behavior analytics tool, decided to create an article comparing a human writer with ChatGPT. Their "Woman vs. Machine" blog post compared the two pieces based on the outline, time, cost, tone, and many more. Their team also measured the performance of both articles for six months. They didn't declare a winner but simply laid out their comparative findings. This post gained great momentum on their website and skyrocketed on LinkedIn with more than 700 likes.
Buffer has another great content marketing example. The company's growth hacking strategy involved guest blogging and publishing articles a few times daily. With this simple technique, they gained 100,000 users. Releasing content about topics relevant to their audience's preferences propelled them to new heights. Now they have four more blogs sharing business tips.
3. Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Social media marketing should be in any business's content marketing strategy template, as billions of people use social media daily. In fact, some of the most successful B2B marketing campaign examples have been launched on social media. However, to come up with a solid campaign, you need to analyze your audience and the top-performing content on your platforms. What brings you the most engagement and interaction? Is it static posts, reels, or quizzes?
Examples
Have you heard of Spotify Wrapped? We're sure you haven't only heard of it, but many of you have shared it on your social media. It is a genius content marketing strategy, conceived in 2017. Based on listening data, they created a series of interesting facts about each user, including the most listened-to songs and artists. This made millions of users share screenshots of their stats and even increased signups by 21%.
Another impressive digital marketing content example is Duolingo and its TikTok promotional campaigns. Once the company realized that a large portion of its audience was on TikTok, it dialed up content production. Embracing memes and replying to UGC videos helped it appeal to audiences and present itself as the brand next door.
4. Email Marketing Campaigns
Are you looking for content marketing strategy examples that utilize email marketing to accelerate business growth? If so, you are at the right place. Email marketing is the perfect way to nurture your clients, provide them with valuable content, and foster loyalty. You don't want one-time buyers who abandon you once they purchase something. You want long-term clients who trust you and your thought leadership. Such a feat can be achieved with emails.
Examples
Netflix is up there when we think about content marketing strategy examples. The streaming service doesn't just send generic emails to everyone regarding new releases and additions. They personalize their emails depending on each profile's preferences. So, they inform them of their favorite picks' new seasons or shows that match their likes. This content marketing tactic makes audience members feel unique.
Now, let's talk about a lesser-known brand: Dohful. The artisanal cookie company sends its weekly newsletter, The Sunday Letter. In it, the owner shares personal and professional news, including past mistakes and information about future releases. The tone of voice is conversational and friendly, making people feel like they're talking with a friend.
5. Case Studies
Case studies are among the most effective yet underappreciated content marketing ideas you can turn into campaigns. In fact, 36% of marketers consider them the best-performing content type. Whether you create videos or case study articles, use them to offer practical proof of your product's or service's usefulness and results.
Examples
Shopify's case study with sock company Bombas has been particularly successful. To promote its hosting capabilities, Shopify leaned on the value it offers to clients. They created a video case study mentioning Bombas saving $108,000 per year in platform costs thanks to Shopify's unique platform. A case study can be beneficial for both companies involved, as Bombas also generated buyer interest thanks to Shopify's video ad.
How can you make a case study about a cable company interesting? It's not easy, but Superior Essex found a brilliant way. They created an interactive case study about its work with Delos, a wellness real estate firm. They started by explaining their client's challenges and needs and which solutions they enforced to tackle pain points. Apart from featuring a testimonial quote, they also presented the entire case in a visually pleasing and engaging way.
6. Infographics
Whether you're preparing your small business content marketing plan or your social media strategy, infographics are a wonderful content example. They are easily digestible as they simplify complicated data and present them in a simple format, so your audience doesn't have to be super knowledgeable of the subject. Not to mention, they are visually appealing and grab people's attention while scrolling online or browsing through emails.
Examples
Course Hero is a brand offering online learning courses, and it includes infographics in its content marketing strategy template. Their infographics often break down works of literature by detailing all useful information, including the characters, locations, and themes. This way, readers get a sense of the story in a visually engaging way and without having to read long texts.
Incapsula has another great content marketing strategy example: utilizing infographics to promote their web security and DDos services. They address common issues and threats people face online and how these affect businesses and their employees, helping audiences understand the importance of online security without lecturing them.
Key Takeaway
In today's highly competitive B2B landscape, businesses try to create the best and most captivating content that will stop people on their tracks. The methodology to create marketing campaigns and social media content is the same. You plan, produce, publish, promote, and prove that your content works. However, before you start creating content, like webinars and podcasts, you must dictate your goals and craft buyer personas. They will guide you in adopting engaging lead generation techniques and analyzing your current content. Is it good enough and relevant to your customers' needs and pain points? A competitive analysis also helps you identify successful topics and ideas your competitors publish. Then, you can set your budget and set editorial guidelines.
While general content marketing tips are extremely useful, you should look at content marketing's best examples for inspiration. Is video marketing what you need, or is email marketing more relevant to your audience's preferences? Social media, case studies, and infographics are always viable options. It all depends on what your audience likes to consume and which challenges you want to utilize to promote your content and services.
