The primary purpose of great content marketing is to elicit lead generation and build visibility for your company brand. However there are many unanswered questions about what content marketing actually is or how to maximize it to benefit your business.

Content marketing has been around since the Stone Age when ancient historians wrote on cave walls as a way to illustrate stories. Really the only difference with today is how and where the content is delivered. The advent of SEO has just made it a prerequisite for marketers to play within the rules of the system and apply specific keywords to increase the content’s ranking among the many media choices available (webinars, email, newsletters, blogs, etc.).

Here are 3 tips to make your content marketing strategy more valuable to your audience and your business.

1. Fulfill the user’s needs – The best content marketers start by working backwards and planning with the end user or reader in mind. By starting with your website’s resources and your company’s offerings then moving in reverse, it will narrow down the topics that receive the most click-throughs and call-to-action downloads. It is critical – and most efficient – to provide content on topics your audience finds value with.
2. Have consistency in production – Most businesses will have weeks of high traffic through well written e-books or blogs that are relevant to a particular audience. However, it’s easy to fall into the trap of inconsistency in producing quality content across the board. If you are working with a third-party marketing agency, it’s important to keep giving relevant ideas or new products that can be written about. Having an editorial calendar will keep your internal and external teams disciplined and producing relevant content consistently.
3. Keep measuring – Progress only comes from measuring past successes and building upon those metrics to reach higher numbers. Use your web page’s backend analytics to see which blog topics pick up the most traffic and where your audience goes for more information. You can also set Google Alerts about industry news to see what people care about most. Timing is important in building a strategy, and you want to be sure to leverage it to your advantage.

Most companies, both startups and Fortune 100 corporations, will come upon roadblocks to their marketing plans at some point, but having processes in place removes the guesswork from generating great content marketing, helping you overcome any challenges that may arise. As long as your content fulfills an audience need, is consistent, and you keep measuring your progress, you’re sure to find success.

To help you get started, we’ve put together an introduction to internet marketing e-book in step-by-step form. Let us know how we can help you develop quality content that will generate more traffic and leads from your website. With 20 years of industry expertise, we’ll help you exceed your marketing goals while you continue to create great products.