Four Steps to a Successful Content Marketing Campaign

Content marketing isn’t a technique invented by the marketing gurus sitting up high on great Mt. Marketing. This type of marketing has been used for decades but just recently it has been given a fancy name. Simply put, content marketing is the marketing method of creating and sharing information of value and relevancy that does not explicitly promote a brand but stimulates interest in products or services. This information can be in the form of a video, blog article, podcast, infographic, or a book such a comic, guide, or ebook. I’m sure there are other forms but these are the most common. Below are four simple steps in creating a successful content marketing campaign.

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1. Plan - first thing you need to do is map out your campaign. Identify the target audience, research and understand what that audience feels is valuable and relevant to them. Obviously it should correlate with a product or service you provide, for example maybe you’re a manufacturer of drum sticks, those long wooden rods used to hit drums and cymbals to make musical sound. You’re probably going to target musicians, more importantly drummers. What would they find valuable and relevant? Maybe information about the types of sticks and how they affect playability. What is your end goal? Perhaps there is a new type of drum stick that you want to inform them about. Maybe you would like to create a guide that explains all of the different types of sticks and how they are used. Along with this guide you feel that a shorter blog would be beneficial with a link to the guide.
2. Create - people will pay attention to information that is meaningful to them. When writing the content be sure to write in a way that makes you the expert but doesn’t come off as being stale like a boring text book. You want to capture the reader’s attention without making it obvious that you’re selling the product. It is also important to take website optimization (SEO) into consideration, especially when writing the blog portion, be sure to concentrate your efforts on specific keywords and phrases that will attract readers. If you find that the blog article is too long, try breaking it up into two or three parts in separate blog posts. 
3. Promote - now that you have the content it’s time to push it out to your target audience. There are many ways to do this such as email, social media, online advertising, direct mailings and so on. To promote the Guide to Drum Sticks perhaps you might send an email blast to your existing customers, post on your social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), start an online campaign with Google Adwords, and send out post cards to a customer list you purchased.
4. Measure - after pushing out the content it’s time to measure the impact. A good and free tool to use is Google Analytics to measure the incoming traffic. Was there an increase in activity? How many views did the blog receive? How many times was the guide downloaded? Also, check other sources such as the sales reports. Did sales of the new type of drum stick increase? Did drum stick sales in total increase?

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Remember it’s called a campaign due to the combination of content types and promotion vessels. In the example I used it was a guide and a blog distributed by email, social media, Adwords, and a post card mailing. Once the campaign has run its schedule then it’s time to evaluate what worked and what did not. Use that knowledge for the next content marketing campaign.

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