Content marketing is a bit of a buzz phrase at the moment, and every firm worth its salt is trying to get in on the act. That doesn’t however, mean that they are doing it well. Lots of people are producing content out there, but fortunately for your business, your competitors are not making the most of it! There’s a lack of good quality, there’s a failure to focus in the right places and right ways, and there’s a lack of targeting in the ways in which content is placed and shared. Here are a few things to consider which will help you to make sure your content marketing plan is actually a good one.
Begin With Research
Marketing without research is like strawberries without the cream! You have to understand your audience, find out where they are and understand how you can reach them. You should be almost stalking your audience, finding out their a/s/l (remember that?) along with their income, and their occupation. Beyond this you have to understand what groups they fall into, and then you have to understand what motivates them on the net. The breaking down into different groups is vital.
Once you understand your demographics, it’s time to focus on how to reach them online. Think about which social sites are best for which group, whether they are likely to respond best to written content, videos or infographics.
Invent Your Typical Customers/Followers
Effectively, you should take all of your data, and create typical personas for each of your demographic groups. This will help you to understand the people you are targeting better. You need to think carefully about their requirements and their desires. These might be:
- Where are they?
- How do you find them?
- What are they looking for?
- What do they look for in a company?
- What will trigger action from your persona?
It’s also important to understand the overlaps of different personas, because sometimes all of your personas might be open to the same questions/requests/suggestions, which will reduce your need to create different content for different target groups.
Get Feedback and Take it On Board!
Make sure you have a plan in place to gather analytical data which is going to give you an idea of your success when it comes to delivering campaigns. This will apply no matter what sort of campaign it is. Along with this, you need genuine feedback from the people you are targeting, so you need to go out and actively find this. Sometimes simply leaving response spots for people at the end of blogs will achieve this, but it’s important to be active on your social media fronts – if you don’t get the information you need, ask someone for it!
Be Ready To Put Your Hand in Your Pocket
Online marketing is not always free. Yes, there’s lots you can do from the comfort of your office or even living room, and it costs nothing to sign up to Facebook, but if you want to set a great marketing plan in place, it’s going to cost you lots of time and money. Don’t worry though, the effort and expense incurred at this stage is always worth it when the payback starts rolling in at a later date!
If you really want to eclipse the competition out there, then it’s vital to follow the strategies outlined above. And, if you’re really serious about being the best out there, speak to the Ink Elves about our different marketing offerings – all designed to help you get the most out of your online business platform.
