Two recent studies show that brand engagement is the No. 1 marketing objective supported by content marketing. 66.8% of UK and US agency and brand professionals put this at the top of their list. The biggest challenges to achieving this goal were maintaining a two0way dialog and measuring results. Almost half (48%) felt that their content was not creating any customer engagement.
Another study – the 2015 CMI Benchmark, Budgets and Trends report – found that just over half of the marketers they interviewed (52%) had no content strategy at all. Of the other half who did, only 38% had documented their strategy. Could there be a correlation here?
Tech Tools
The eMarketer article suggests that tech tools are the answer to this problem. And they certainly are a part of the puzzle. You do need tech tools to monitor and analyze conversations so that you understand your audience, create personas and find topics of interest for your content. A good social media dashboard is essential. But unless you know what to do with it you’re flying blind.
It’s the strategy that will lead you to success. It will be impossible to start and maintain a dialog with the right people in the right channels. And if you have no measurable goals set at the start, how can you measure success?
Social Media Strategy Template
These ten steps will help you create and document your content marketing strategy. The last two steps are about engagement and measurement. Success in content marketing is like an iceberg – the tip that you see is the engagement. But there are 8 steps that need to be done before that. Without a strategy it’s no wonder that half the marketers doing content have no idea if it is working.
Need help with your content strategy? Call us for a free 15-minute consultation. 626 793 4911
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