7 content marketing answers you need to know

Despite its popularity many marketing and sales professionals have questions about content marketing. Below are seven content marketing questions that I am asked most frequently.

1) What is content marketing? Content marketing primarily focuses on the top or middle of the funnel and provides information that educates, informs or entertains. This leads to increase traffic and awareness that results in leads, sales and advocacy. Content can range from video, images, blog post, infographics and social media.

2) What are the top mistakes companies make with their content strategy? Many companies focus on the bottom of the funnel or strictly sales content with little to no content produced for the top and middle of the funnel.

3) Why is it so hard for companies to produce great content? The primary reason is lack of planning and having a clear strategy on what they are trying to accomplish. Followed closely by not having the proper resources to execute the content they need. When I say proper resources I mean copywriters, designers, marketing team members and simply the ability to be creative. Even companies with internal creative teams may need some kind of outside creative help.

4) Can content marketing drive revenue? Content has always driven revenue at some point during the sales process. Content has been provided to close the sale regardless if you are B2B or B2C. The biggest difference is today content strategies focus primarily on the top and middle of the funnel where in the past the focus was the bottom of the funnel. If you want to be found on the web via Google or any other search engine you have to have content good content.

5) Why has content marketing become so important to marketing strategy? If you want to be found on the web, desktop, mobile, etc., you have to have a good content strategy that will help you rank well with Google and other search engines. It’s also critical for social media, P.R., tradeshows and most other marketing areas. B2C and B2B buyers often search for information, reviews, demos, etc. before they make their purchase and it’s critical that you be apart of that search.

6) How do companies get their audience to see their content? They need to amplify and seed the content they create. This is the most overlooked part of most content strategies; little planning is done to get their content in front of their target audience. Amplifying content can be done in many different ways such as through owned channels, your website, social media channels or your blog. You can also use native advertising and paid social to amplify content. Seeding of content is done through having your content placed or picked up by 3rd party sites or media outlets, such as CNET or Mashable. This also creates backlinks that will help SEO.

7) What are the steps to creating a content strategy?

1.   What are your goals and objectives?. These should align with the marketing and business plan.

2.   Who is your target audience? If possible use personas to make sure you create content that will really speak to your audience.

3.   Establish content ideas.

4.   Develop an editorial and promotional calendar.

5.   Establish how you are going to promote and amplify your content.

6.   Decide how you will measure success.