There's a saying in the marketing world: "Content is king." Maybe you've heard it before. It's a popular saying because there's a lot of truth to it. Businesses that deliver valuable, engaging content to their consumers typically perform better than their competitors that don't. It's no wonder that more and more companies are investing in a content marketing strategy— a total of 82% in 2021, according to one survey (up from 70% in 2020). 

Of course, if you want your content marketing to be effective, you need to have a strategy in place. While the thought of developing a content marketing strategy may seem overwhelming to you, there are some steps that will start you out on the path to reaching your business goals. Let's discuss 3 big ones to keep in mind. 

1. Know Your Ideal Customer, Know Yourself 

Every business has an "ideal customer." In other words, that delightful customer who loves your product, loves your company, and who will loyally buy from you until the end of time. But here's the million-dollar question: Do you know who your ideal customer actually is? If you don't, you may be targeting the wrong people with your ads and messaging. What can you do? 

First of all, you need to think about the specific problems that your product solves, and the needs that it fills. Ask yourself questions like: 

• How does my product or service create value for the customer?

• What differentiates my brand from the competition? 

• With all the options available, what would motivate someone to buy from me? 

Perform some market research. Use first-party data like surveys and focus interviews to figure out why your customers buy from you. When you can answer these and related questions, it's only a short step to creating your company's Unique Value Proposition (UVP) — in other words, a clear definition of the amount and type of value you can provide to the customer. 

Who Is Your Customer? 

Next, you need to immerse yourself in the customer's perspective. Analyze what makes your ideal customer tick. In this regard, a lot of companies use buyer personas to help them discover who their ideal customer really is. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional profile of your ideal customer; think of it as a way to put a face on the data you've

uncovered. When you personalize your ideal customer by giving them a name, a backstory, and real interests and concerns, then you're not going to generate content to meet a quota or hit some keywords on Google. You'll be creating helpful content aimed at that person, specifically. 

Bottom line? When you have a crystal-clear understanding of who your ideal customer is, and what you can offer him or her, you're in a prime position to make the most of your content marketing strategy efforts. 

2. Go Fishing Where the Fish Are 

Let's say you've created some amazing pieces of content — content that will really move the needle in terms of leads and customer engagement. That's great! Just remember: content creation is only half the battle. You also need to distribute your content in a way that will reach the most ideal customers possible. Basically, you need to go fishing where the fish are. 

Hopefully, your buyer persona has a section on which "fishing spots" your target audience likes to swim around in. For example, are you a B2B company targeting corporate decision-makers? You may want to focus your content marketing efforts on LinkedIn, which generates up to 80% of all B2B social media leads. Is your primary audience made up of younger Millennials and Gen Z-ers? In that case, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram may be the right channels for your content. 

The point is, you want to be smart about where you post your content since the best content in the world won't be worth much if it doesn't get in front of the right people. 

3. Match Your Metrics to Your Goals 

When you're measuring your content's performance, you want to make sure that you're using the right KPIs (key performance indicators). Of course, before you can do that you need to have clearly defined goals in place — and SMART goals are always best. When setting up your metrics, think about the answers to questions like these: 

● What goal will this piece of content help my business to reach? ● Will I be able to measure the impact of this content in concrete terms? ● Who is the target audience for this piece of content, and why would they care about it? 

● How am I expecting this content to perform, and is my expectation in line with industry benchmarks?

As one ancient philosopher once said: "When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind." Translation: you need to have specific goals in place to measure your content's performance with any degree of accuracy. 

In terms of KPIs that match up with your goals, here are a few suggestions to consider: 

● If your main goal is to increase audience engagement, then you may want to look at metrics like time on page, shares, likes, and comments. 

● If your content is designed to raise brand awareness, look at metrics like the number of unique page visitors, clicks, and social media mentions. ● And if you want to generate more leads for your business, compare the number of leads you captured before publishing your content to the number of leads obtained afterward. 

Final Thoughts 

As you can tell from the overview above, there are a lot of moving parts in any successful content marketing strategy. The good news is, you can start laying the foundations of your strategy and build momentum from there. When you know your customer, know yourself, know how to distribute your content, and know which goals you're aiming for, you're well on your way to using content marketing as a tool for growth. 

Of course, you may welcome a little expert assistance as you develop your content marketing strategy. If you need any help, reach out for a free chat. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.