Marketing is so much more than just making a product sell better. It is a field of industry that requires intelligence, savvy, and creativity.

And content marketing is no different. These attributes and so many more are necessary for a campaign to yield positive results. While relatively new, content marketing is proving to be an essential component of any business’s success. However, it must be executed correctly in order to gain its benefits.

For this to be possible, a business’s content marketing campaign has to have a comprehensive strategy and approach. It should improve the company’s online presence by generating interest and attaching meaning to all its endeavors.

In a sense, effective content marketing is only attainable when it is aligned with the people who comprise a business’s audience. As people rely on the internet for everything from their needs to their aspirations, it is critical to not only keep abreast of the rapidly evolving trends in technology but also how society interacts with it.

To help you not lose sight of this, here are some principles to live by for your next content marketing campaign:

1. Audit your content

Before you make the great leap forward with a new content marketing campaign, it is important to assess how and why your previous strategies did not work. Consult with a third party about the problem areas in your content, from your email marketing to your social media and your blog.

Does your content paint a unified and holistic picture of the branding of your business? Are your posts on social media indicative of how you want your business to be represented and remembered? Is any of it relevant and/or meaningful to your customers and stakeholders?

By answering these questions, you gain a deeper understanding of what may have gone wrong with your previous strategies and find ways to improve in the future.

2. Make the customer’s experience with your product and business more convenient

For many online businesses, this specifically means redesigning and improving their website and other digital channels. As with anything online, even just the slightest inconvenience, such as a loading time longer than two seconds, can result in lost sales and conversions.

Having an online presence is more important than ever, with the meteoric rise in the amount of business and transactions being conducted online (and on smartphones). The landscape is fierce and competitive, and as such, the edges you take to make your business the most convenient choice add up to a lot.

Your content marketing campaign will not work if your website is difficult to access, understand, or navigate. In fact, one of the markers of credibility and legitimacy that a customer considers when conducting business online is the quality of the website.

Investing in better and more efficient systems, both online and offline, can make it much easier for a customer to hand you their money.

3. Understand your target market

It cannot be stressed enough that you must understand the needs and nature of your target market. While it is understandable to try and craft a strategy that attracts as many portions of the demographic as possible, attempting to do so is inefficient and often yields thin and unsatisfactory results in addition to wasting a bulk of your marketing budget.

A targeted and more focused approach can yield far better results than casting a wide net. Work on growing the interactions and conversions between your business and its target market first, and then you can feel free to expand your audience.

4. Set well-defined and attainable objectives for the short term

The goals of your business depend on many circumstances—everything from the marketing budget to the nature of the product or service you provide. While lofty aspirations can be good long-term goals for a business, it is better to err on the side of caution. Be conservative with your estimates and adjust your goals accordingly.

Do not hope for long-term success in only a short amount of time. Large and miraculous explosions of profit, follower gains, or website conversions are usually the exception and not the rule.

5. Observe for trends in consumer purchases

Trends in marketing change over time, and certain approaches lose steam as others rise to success. It is important to maintain even just a basic knowledge of these trends as they come and go so that you can either ride the wave to the profits or prepare for pitfalls.

All this means is that it matters to understand the needs and expectations of your customers and how they change over time.

6. Gather and use the data

Most websites and domain providers have metrics in place for the gathering and analysis of data. Data is one of the most important tools you will need to understand the successes and failures of your business.

Use the data to figure out which endeavors and products your customers reward and which ones they punish. From there, you could compare the strategies you took between them, and apply more successful ones accordingly.

That’s not where data stops, either. It can go further towards understanding your target market and perhaps discovering new markets you never knew existed. The data should be used to inform your strategy and approach as well as influence your operations.

Product A, for example, can experience 1000 purchases per month. Product B only experiences 200. As such, it should be logical to adjust stocking levels to meet the needs of supply and demand.

7. Integrate search engine optimization (SEO) practices with your content strategy

Google is the standard, and for any business to be considered successful, it must be one of the top results that appear when one of the services or products it provides is searched for. The search engine automatically decides the relevance of a website based on keywords most commonly used across the internet.

With a diverse set of content and distribution channels and the right use of such keywords, a good content marketing campaign can raise your standing in Google SERPs. This not only increases the number of people who can find your business with a search but increases your reach as an enterprise.
Good SEO practices can increase organic traffic by a large amount if done correctly, and this traffic can result in conversions and purchases.

8. Diversify your online presence

It is important to have representations of your media on all relevant social channels. It does not stop at a website. Many businesses often have accounts for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even Pinterest.
Maintaining a diverse online presence can make your customers feel more connected to your business, especially if you regularly make content relevant to your market.

Conclusion

However you decide to go about your content marketing campaign, take these principles into account for better results and better profits. Remember to be patient and attentive to the needs of your market. Respond and adjust accordingly, and you just might take your business to the next level.

For more information on your next comprehensive content marketing campaign, send us at MarketPlan a message.

Our all inclusive Marketing tool will help you map out your content marketing strategy, write down all your blog posts and email sequences within the same tool and collaborate with all your team members easily.