So when we start talking about content marketing strategy, well, according to best practices, you should never sleep on producing fresh content. But how the heck are you supposed to squeeze in even more work to your already packed task load?
If you’ve ever wished for some golden nuggets on how to get ahead with your content marketing, then this article is for you. We’re sharing some of our top tips to help marketers like you get in the best position to manage that lofty to-do list.
1. Start with a content marketing plan, and start early
Wanna know a little observation? If people ever need something complicated pulled off, such as a fancy dinner, kid’s party or other organized event, asking your seasoned marketing professional is the best way to ensure successful execution. Why? Experienced marketers know how to plan.
In terms of your content marketing strategy, your plan will help you envision the end result, remind you of the steps you need to take and give you the roadmap to make your campaign come to life.
When you sit down to draft your content marketing plan, we suggest:
- Look holistically across all your campaigns, marketing and sales initiatives, and other factors happening at your organization (aka events that might be on the horizon). Chances are, you’re not just going to run one campaign; you’re going to be toggling between multiple projects and opportunities. Zooming out can help you see where things overlap so you can be extra intentional with factors like timing, messaging and more.
- Start with the end in mind. Jot down your goals, what you hope to achieve and how your content will all need to work together to make your campaign successful.
- Get realistic about timing and effort. Just like a house project, if we’ve learned anything in our many years of content marketing, it’s always going to take longer than you think — even if your planning is perfect. We highly recommend building extra time into your plan for research, reviewing and final production. If you suspect your campaign will require more time than you have available, outsourcing is one way to accomplish more with less time.
- Understand how your campaign fits into your greater budget. As marketers, we often forget that our time has its own value attached to it (and you’re not cheap!). Sometimes, it’s well worth it to hire an outside agency partner to alleviate some of the workload so you can focus your time elsewhere while getting all the great content you need. And pro tip, an agency partner is often considerably cheaper than adding an internal marketer to your team.
These are just a few of the items to consider when sitting down to plan out your next content marketing campaign.
2. Outsource to accelerate your content production
Once you’ve made a plan, you should have a good idea of how much effort it is going to take to execute your content marketing campaign plan. So now’s the moment of truth: Can you reasonably do this on your own or with your current resources or is it time to phone in an (expert) friend?
Some folks are scared to enlist agency help with the fear that it will make it seem like they aren’t good at their job but the truth is it’s exactly the opposite! (Take it from our client, Brightly).
A good content marketing agency has one goal, (ok, maybe two). 1. Make you and your efforts look amazing, and 2. Deliver high-quality content. In this marketer-to-marketer relationship, you should look for a partner who takes the time to gain fluency in your market and wants to see you succeed.
You’re more likely to have a positive experience if the marketing agency:
- Understands your industry and business model. Hate to break it to ya, but if you’re trying to market the next hot SaaS product that can optimize everything about how a business operates, someone with a background in lifestyle or only B2C products might not understand your buyer’s journey. Look to see what experience the marketing agency has working with clients similar to you.
- Offers flexible and transparent services. When you invest in content marketing assistance, you deserve to know up front what you are going to get. And working in marketing, you know things can change on a dime. You need an agency partner that offers flexibility, so if priorities at your organization shift your marketing efforts can match it in stride.
- Loves what they do and is fun to work with. A nice indicator that an agency will be a good fit is if the people working there enjoy their jobs. Now, we might be biased but what is cooler than working with other talented individuals and learning about our great world through innovative products and solutions?
If you need more criteria to evaluate your potential content marketing agency partner, please check out this helpful checklist.
3. Get consistent with your content marketing
You planned the perfect campaign, you executed it, and maybe even enlisted help from an awesome agency partner…now it’s time to do it all again. And then again.
For your content marketing to be successful, you’re going to have to do it consistently. From regularly scheduled programming like blogs and social media to bigger lead magnet campaigns with eBooks, reports, or whitepapers, consistency is the new king — or queen — you pick who gets to be leader.
The simplest way to get consistent (especially if you are a team operating at maximum capacity) is to phone in your friends. You can use them in several capacities, including:
- Buy your content in bulk. Imagine how easy it would be if you had an entire year’s worth of blog posts ready to go.
- Opt-in to a complete package. Your marketing materials can be used in so many ways! Consider working with an agency like Content MAtterz, of course, to get everything you need so your content is bundled in a neat little ready-to-launch package!
- Say “yes” to a subscription. What if we told you you could sleep so much easier knowing each month you’d have a dedicated team ready to help you achieve all your content marketing dreams? A monthly subscription with a content agency means you’re guaranteed to have exactly what you need in exactly your budget.
Getting consistent with your content marketing can be so much easier with an agency partner in your pocket.
Hi, we hear you need content marketing help!
Allow us to reintroduce ourselves … Hello! We’re Content Matterz, your friendly content marketing agency. We help marketers like you knock your most ambitious campaigns out of the park. Our team of strategists, writers, designers and content enthusiasts love working with B2B marketing teams to help them achieve their content marketing goals month after month. With four levels of subscription available (and custom, if you ask real nice) we can deliver what you need, for whatever budget you’re working with. Reach out today!
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