Ok, I may have guilted you into this a bit with my headline but if you’re interested in growing your business, what I have to say is something you need to hear. There is a disturbing trend with online marketing and it’s time to stop the madness.
FACT: 38% of B2C businesses say their content marketing is effective.
This means that nearly 2/3 of businesses say their content marketing sucks. (ie: didn’t meet their objectives).
I couldn’t let this fact go by without trying to stem the tide of neglect. Your business simply cannot afford bad, ineffective content.
Getting ROI from content marketing should be a priority in your business plan. It’s right up there with cash flow and inventory management. Content is a company asset and the sooner you start treating it like one, the better chance you have of it being effective.
Getting ROI from content marketing is simple, but not easy. Perhaps that’s why there’s so much neglect. Hey listen, I get it. You’re busy operating your business. Who has time to produce and publish content? The only problem is, without useful, interesting, or entertaining content to create awareness around your brand and attract customers, you’re kind of dead in the water.
The components of getting ROI from content marketing
- Set goals and objectives. What do you want to have happen to grow your business?
- Create a solid content strategy to help you achieve your goals.
- Plan out the tactics you’ll take, along with the manpower and budget to execute them.
- Measure and analyze your results.
- Tie results back to your goals to get ROI.
- Do more of what works and do less of what doesn’t.
The key to your success is a winning content strategy. It’s the foundation from which you’ll build your brand. If you don’t start with a solid foundation, everything after that is subject to unforeseen consequences…and, of course, failure to meet your business growth goals.
There are two simple ways to begin creating content that attracts buyers.
1. They ask, you answer.
Listen closely for what your customers are asking. Their most frequently asked questions should be answered on your site and in social media.
Poll your salespeople for their input. Ask them to provide their customers’ top 3-5 most frequently asked questions.
Entire content marketing campaigns can be created around “They ask, you answer.”
- “How To” videos
- Blog post series
- Engaging social media content
- Facebook Live video Q&A
2. They don’t know to ask, you educate and inform.
There is hardly a better way to establish credibility and trust with a customer than when you’ve answered a question they didn’t know to ask.
For example, when you’re thinking of buying a car, it’s best to know your credit score before you shop. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t know their score, which puts them at a big disadvantage when they go to get financing.
If you’re a car dealer looking to grow your business, you could produce an eBook entitled, “10 Tips to Protect Yourself When Buying Your Next Car” (one of the tips would be to know your credit score). Your helpful eBook could certainly help those buyers who don’t know the must-haves of car buying or those who are afraid of the experience.
You’ve made your customer a hero and you’ve supplied them with valuable information that can often times save them money or save them from making the wrong decision.
Your helpfulness establishes value. Delivering value establishes credibility and trust.
What does effective content marketing mean to you?
If your content marketing is failing, you have to figure out why.
- Did you set goals and objectives for business growth?
- Do you have a solid content strategy to take your brand to the next level?
- How are you measuring results?
- Have you developed your organizational structure to accommodate content marketing?
- Are you underestimating the amount of time and budget it takes to achieve your goals?
- Have you just given up?
It’s perfectly fine to fail as long as you “fail forward.” Failure gives you the opportunity to learn what when wrong, what went right and to pick yourself up to do more of what went right.
There are many that take defeat as though it’s a given. They expect a negative outcome because they aren’t truly committed to a plan.
Let’s face it, learning from your mistakes is tough but the reward is great.
Failure without learning is 100% your fault.