A Guide to Developing an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Why Content?

Regular Content Productionenables you to…

-Effectively communicate what the business does

-Demonstrate capability to the right audience and sector

-Build relationships by educating the target audience

-Raise awareness of the brand to the unaware

-Supports your digital marketing strategy

Why content?

What type of content?• Deliver leads• Improve search• Provide technical

information• High-value downloads• Demonstrate thought

leadership• Support specification• Brand awareness• Drive traffic• Build mailing list• Client engagement• Support social

• Short technical blog posts• How-to guides• CAD files • News items• Blog posts• Case studies• Slideshare• Whitepapers• eBooks• Technical articles• Comment pieces• Landing pages• Infographics• Video content

Reaching your audience- Content drives business goals by generating

effective outreach

- This involves targeting people, including key influencers, who will share your work and build links from their website or social platform to your own company website

- The more valuable content that gets shared, the higher your search rankings and the more people will recommend your business to other potential prospects

Traffic and conversions

- Good quality content along with effective distribution will lead to an overall increase in traffic to your website, in the form of organic, referral, social and direct.

- The more informative and valuable your content, the better quality traffic gained from each platform, which in turn leads to better quality lead enquiries and conversions

Creating a Content Strategy

Content strategyAn effective content marketing strategy will support a range of elements within your marketing activity, from website and SEO to white papers and PR.

First things first, consider these five main questions:

1. What do you want to achieve?

2. What type of content is best to meet your objectives?

3. What resource do you have for content production?

4. How do you make the most of your content?

5. How do you measure success?

Content Objective Type of Content Expected Outcome

Improve keyword search Short blog posts focused on keywords Higher Google ranking and improved click-through’s to site

Long-tail search for products in different applications/sectors

Landing pages and case studies with title ‘product type for application types’

Visitors entering site via key product pages or applications

Long-tail search for specific topics

250-450 word posts on identified search topics/questions

Improved Google search results for specific topics

Drive website traffic Visual content, whitepapers, eBooks, opinion posts, how-to’s, case studies, specification clauses, CAD drawings

Improved chance of converting high quality leads

Deliver leads Whitepapers and eBooks, specification clauses, CAD drawings

Increased number of high value downloads for further lead nurturing

Demonstrate technical competence

550-800 word technical pieces on topical or legislative issues such as building regs or changing legislation

Build trust/ show expertise

Content for product directories Case studies 500-800 words with good images and video content where possible

Increase of referral traffic from paid directories

Content for PR (credibility/proven performance)

Case studies with good images and links back to additional content and video online

Increased media coverage, building awareness and driving referral traffic

Content for PR (thought leadership)

550-800 word technical pieces on topical or legislative issues such as building regs or changing legislation

Increased media coverage, building awareness and driving referral traffic

Newsletter content An informative blend of the above Newsletter ‘Sign-ups’

What type of Content?

Making the most of content

Content production is time-intensive. This can be made easier by spreading the workload throughout product, technical and marketing.

The hardest part is the initial content creation, once this is done then the content benefits can be maximised:

• Re-purpose into video, slideshare, infographic etc.• Publish online• Push via Social• Email to database• Send to the media (PR)

PR Activity

Using content to lead PR

"PR is just one part of the content mix. For us, a good content strategy will lead PR activity rather than the PR strategy

defining the content”.

…so what is PR exactly?

‘Public Relations’ is the activity relating to all elements of communicating and managing information to the public.

‘Media Relations’ is the process of working with the media to communicate predefined objectives and identify media opportunities.

Working with the media

- Objective-focused open media relationships

- Blend of PR, advertising and media solutions to meet client objectives

- Annual media planning - with quarterly measurement and review

- Annual content planning - with monthly measurement and review

Working in a structured and objective-focused way with the media saves both time and money.

Ideally, content and media activity should be planned annually 2-3 months before the start of each financial year.

Types of media coverage

Goal completion

- Download brochure- Enquiry form- Newsletter sign-up- Blog sign-up- CPD booking

Production charge coverage

Product/PR panels

Independent editorial

ERA Advertorial

Coverage on media outlet websites

Portals and product directories

E-newsletters

Digital and Print Media Digital Coverage

•Trackable•Link backs (massive SEO benefits)•Long shelf life•Shareable

Print Coverage

•Difficult to measure•Traditional audiences still like printed copies•Short shelf life•People like to see their name in magazines

Digital and Print Media Considerations for combining print and digital PR:

- Think about how the content will be found online- What is the content for?- Titles that are interesting and engaging in print may not transfer

well online for example - ‘The devil is in the detail’- Consider headers and introductory copy along with keywords

throughout the piece- What does the piece need to link to? Product, Spec tool, previous

content etc

UTM tags are used to track online PR coverage; these are added to the end of the URL, enabling us to analyse the success of different PR campaigns within Google Analytics

They’re set out in the following way…

utm_campaign=[name campaign]&utm_source=[where has link come from?]&utm_medium=[online PR]

Measuring media coverage

And appear in Google Analytics via tagged sources…

Similarly, shortcodes can be assigned for print coverage; this is a unique code placed at the end of your website URL, such as /request-cpd if you were promoting your CPD page.

Measuring digital and print coverage

If someone types this into Google after reading a magazine article, analytics will register the shortcode….

Measuring digital and print coverageAnd it’ll show up like this…

Using ERA

ERA or ‘editorial related advertising’ is another great tool to push content out using the media, providing

high traffic that is fully trackable.

Managing the Content and PR process

Managing content creation- An activity planner is created to structure content

over a 6 month/yearly period, depending on how the strategy is structured.

- Typically, a content plan will include a range of blog posts, case studies and newsletter content

- An activity planner can be structured based on upcoming product launches and campaigns, search rankings and industry events

- Month on month this should be reviewed and tweaked depending on web report analysis/keyword changes

Activity Planner

Content creation process

1. Create a master press list using media data supplied 2. Provide media research questions to the sales team3. Identify key communication messages4. Create a PR submission form5. Create a standard PR/case study template6. Define the PR process including sign off & production charges7. Create a master activity document8. Create a master editorial plan for population 9. Set cuttings service up with keywords10. Research, write and send first PR for approval11.Send out first PR story and liaise with media

PR Planning and implementation

Download our Content Marketing eBook