Content marketing has rapidly become one of the most important aspects of a successful digital marketing strategy in 2021. Content marketing should play an important role in your 2021 overall marketing strategy because of its importance to Search Engine Optimization as well as its ability to generate leads and convert prospects to clients. With 78% of consumers preferring to learn about a company via article rather than ads, producing high-quality organic content has never been more important.
Couple that with the fact that nearly half of consumers view 3 – 5 pieces of content prior to engaging a salesperson, and it’s no wonder why so many businesses are choosing to invest in a proper content marketing strategy.
Every business is different, so it makes sense that every content marketing strategy is as unique and varied as the companies they serve. With thorough research, commitment, and a little creativity, you, too, can create an impactful content marketing strategy that helps you win in 2021.
How to Win at Content Marketing in 2021
Creating an effective content marketing plan means having a complete understanding of your target audience.
Once you’ve nailed down your ideal buyer’s persona, you can begin to create content that resonates with them and encourages them to engage with your brand in meaningful ways.
The following seven tips can help you craft the content marketing strategy your brand needs to succeed in the digital sphere.
Create Mixed User Content
Most businesses have multiple buyer personas they’re attempting to target at any given moment. That’s okay! It just means that you have to be more intentional about creating content that applies to each unique user.
One image, video, or article isn’t enough, either. Each audience segment should have multiple pieces of content they can use to begin the consumer journey with your brand. Your content pieces need to be highly targeted and satisfy the needs of the user you are engaging with.
The more content you produce for specific audiences, the more opportunities you have to make a great first impression and convert.
Keep User & Audience First
Gone are the days when businesses could focus solely on what they bring to the table. While your company history and accolades might be important to you, this isn’t the type of content that’s proven to drive meaningful results.
Instead, craft content that focuses on helping and benefiting your user rather than solely showcasing products and services. Identify the ways your offering benefits the user and create content about that.
Find ways to tug at the audience’s emotions and make them feel the benefit of choosing your company over your competition. Always think to yourself, “How does this content benefit our users?”
When you make the user the hero of your offering instead of yourself, you give them the ability to relate to what you can do for them.
Lift the Curtain
This is difficult for a lot of businesses… Who wants to give up their trade secrets and proprietary information?
However, letting users behind-the-scenes allows them to gain trust with your business. Instead of producing generic, impersonal content, you can give your audience a glimpse of how you help them and show them the process.
This will allow your target audience to feel more connected and develop a better, more engaged, community.
Remember, you always get to decide what becomes public knowledge and what doesn’t, so all your proprietary data stays private.
Publish Well
Publishing content is a great first step, but knowing exactly where and when to publish is the key to improving brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.
This goes back to understanding your audience. You need to know what platforms they’re using, what publications they’re reading, and which search engines they prefer in order to craft the content that reaches them at the right place at the right time.
Is your user base on Facebook or LinkedIn? Do they read Vogue or AdWeek? Are they online at 2 a.m. or 4:30 in the afternoon? All of these insights are key to developing a publishing strategy that effectively reaches your audience exactly when and where they exist.
Speak to the Individual
No, you don’t have to create content that’s directed to an individual customer. But it is a good idea to craft content that feels personal and resonates with the typical audience member.
It’s also a good idea to leverage marketing automation tools that offer personalization so you can speak to the person directly and cut through the digital noise. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and think about what you would want to see from a company prior to making a purchase.
Use Media
Content doesn’t just refer to the written word. Pictures, videos, podcasts, and even emails are all forms of content that can be leveraged to better serve your brand.
Even more important than taking a mixed media content marketing approach is having branded content.
Find ways to make your content uniquely yours so the audience is able to immediately recognize the brand behind the photo, video, article, or podcast. Be creative, and don’t be afraid to take risks!
Tell a Story
As you develop your brand identity through a mixed media content marketing strategy, think about how you can tie individual pieces of content to one another and form a story.
Brand storytelling is an essential part of building authority, awareness, and trust with the audience. Not only is it important from a user experience perspective, but tying content together also allows you to seize opportunities to enhance search engine optimization on your site.
By linking related content pieces together on your site, you’ll increase your domain authority and site quality, which translates to increased site traffic and conversions.
Long Live The King: Content
It’s long been said that content is king, and that sentiment is going nowhere fast. Content marketing is probably the biggest undertaking for brands in the new year and is an extremely involved process.
Starting your content marketing strategy now is a great way to ensure success in 2021. To help you get started, we have created an 8 step guide to starting a content marketing campaign. If you need a team to assist with your content marketing strategy and execution, don’t hesitate to reach out to our digital marketing agency for the help you need.
