The Importance of Content Strategy

By strategizing a bespoke content strategy, you are pinpointing exactly whom you are targeting, at what stage in the buyer journey you’re targeting them, and the method you’re utilising to successfully reach them.

Below are some key steps you must incorporate when strategizing your content plan in order to make sure that your marketing output is working.

First up, define your goals. These may be the following:

Marketing goals

You may be looking to increase your website traffic, or the number of leads coming in, or you may be seeking less tangible goals such as building your brand awareness or establishing yourself as a thought leader within your market.

Business goals

You may have clear cut business goals, where you’re looking to grow your revenue or client retention levels.

Other goals

It may be something else entirely, like strengthening your output by increasing the quality and volume of your content marketing.

Secondly, identify your personas (the semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer). Do this by researching the following:

Who they are

This will be their demographics, including their gender, age, location and ambitions.

What they want

These will be their goals – what they want to achieve – and their challenges – the obstacles in their way.

Why they want the product

This will be their objectives – how they make buying decisions and their requirements – and their conflicts, what their frustrations with providers are.

How best to appeal to them

You’ll be working out the marketing message they respond to and the best way to pitch to them buy thinking about where they go for information, what type of content they read and what platforms they engage with.

At this stage, you should be ready to start mapping out your content. Using your knowledge of where your personas digest their content, utilize paid for, owned and earned for online and offline channels to push out your content.

At Zest Media, we brainstorm highly targeted content ideas that incorporate personas and life cycle stages, so the content is reaching your ideal audience on the channels they use, at the times they use them.

Remember, if you don’t strategize, you aren’t sending the right content to the correct customer, meaning your content is failing.

To find out more about honing your strategy skills or to say hello, get in touch.

Delivering The Right Content During The Buyer Journey

The Buyer Journey is the process a potential customer goes through from the initial realisation stage, to the decision stage where they make the purchase. It’s imperative for content marketers to understand the Buyer Journey as only then will they truly be able to understand their customer’s approach, needs and values. To help you appeal to your ideal customer, we take you through the step-by-step process a buyer will go through on their journey.

AWARENESS STAGE

At the awareness stage, the potential buyer will be coming to the realisation that they are in need of a certain product by experiencing and expressing symptoms of a problem or opportunity.

The customer will be undertaking educational research to more clearly understand, frame and put a name to what they need, whether they view it as a problem or opportunity.

The content types that work best during the awareness stage include educational content, such as white papers.

CONSIDERATION STAGE

At the consideration stage, the potential buyer has defined and named their problem or opportunity. They are starting to research and understand the various available approaches and methods to help solve their problem or opportunity.

The content type that works best at the consideration stage includes expert guides and videos.

DECISION STAGE

At the decision stage, the potential buyer has decided what their strategy will be and has compiled a list of all available vendors and products. They’ll be continuing to research each of these vendors and products before ultimately making the final purchase decision.

The content types that appeal at the decision stage include case studies and product literature.

To find out more about Zest’s content services, get in touch with our dedicated team.

How To: Content Marketing

At Zest we understand the importance of properly planning your content output. From the initial consideration stage, through to implementation and reporting, all are imperative to achieving your marketing goals. To help guide you through the process, we take you through the Six Pillars of Content.

Strategy

First you need to define your goals. These can range from marketing goals (i.e. establishing yourself as a thought leader), business goals (growing revenue), or others, such as simply improving the quality of your content.

Next, identify your personas. Personas are fictionalised representations of your ideal customer, and they are determined by looking at different demographics, their goals, objectives and their response to different marketing types.

After you have collected your goals and personas, it is time to brainstorm your targeted content. Map out your content using your personas and their life cycle stages, so the content is reaching your ideal audience on the right channels at the best time.

Audit

Second, take an objective look at the content you are currently creating. Thoroughly research your offline content (sales scripts), online platforms (blogs), and marketing materials (brochures) to identify patterns and trends in your output.

Then do the same with your competitors’ content; find out what they’re posting, where they’re posting and how they’re doing it. This will enable you to establish your place in the market, and help you on your way to becoming a thought leader.

Create

Next, it’s time to get cracking on the content. Whether you’re writing, designing or filming, remember to structure it so it appeals to your targeted audience.

At Zest Media, our award winning, well informed digital and print editors have experience working for national publications such as Grazia, The Times and The Guardian, and are well versed in working to a commercial brief. When we create content, we optimise its readability, boost its SEO, and speak your personas’ language.

Amplify

Push out your content on the right channels after you’ve researched the best platforms for your personas. These can be through your owned channels, i.e. a blog page or social handles, paid for media channels, i.e. social ads and PPC, or Zest’s owned media channels.

Analyse

Using detailed analysis and reporting, from sources such as Google Analytics, work out what worked well and start plotting trends. This will help you to refine and optimise your strategy to ensure you’re grabbing the attention of your ideal customer. Detailed reporting will also help you map out the next stage of content and brainstorm new features.

Repeat

Taking what you’ve learnt, refine and optimise your strategy. Its time to start the cycle again!