Did you know 88% of B2B marketers report using content marketing? Yet only 30% say their efforts are effective and only 32% have a documented content marketing strategy. Coincidence? I think not… Content marketing can be confusing, challenging, and frustrating. There are constantly new ways to engage customers, improve visibility and increase findability. It’s not a shock that in order to succeed in marketing, you need a content strategy. But how do you get started? What’s needed?

1. BuildingYour 2016Content Marketing Strategy

2. Why isContent
Marketing
Important?
Did you know 88% of B2B marketers report using content marketing?
Yet only 30% say their efforts are effective and only 32% have a
documented content marketing strategy.
… Coincidence? I think not….
Content marketing can be confusing,
challenging, and frustrating. There
are constantly new ways to engage
customers, improve visibility and
increase findability.
It’s not a shock that in order to succeed
in marketing, you need a content strategy.
But how do you get started? What’s needed?

3. Document
Your
Strategy
 Create on a core outline and actionable steps
 Build your case for using content marketing:
 What user pains/problems are you solving
(why are you needed)?
 What channels will you be using?
 What content do you want
to produce?
 What are the goals? Your
measurement of success?
 What are your top priorities?
 Re-assess your strategy regularly
and adjust as needed
The Content Marketing Institute found that those who document their content marketing strategies
were more likely to consider themselves effective, felt less challenged, and were able to justify
spending more of their budget on it

4. Identify
Your
Audience
 Identify exactly who your audience is across your
platforms (YouTube, LinkedIn,Twitter, etc.)
 Use your first hand knowledge
and research to further develop
exactly who your target
market is and how to market to them
 Highlight what your audience’s pain points are
and how they interact with different types of content
 Personalize/customize your content, copy, etc. based
upon the audience
of consumers say they
feel better about a company
that delivers custom
content, and are more likely
to buy from that company
Source: Custom Content Council
61%

5. Fill the
Funnel
Regardless of the buyer’s journey - you still need to ensure to fill
their journey with relevant, engaging, and educational content. On
average, users download 9+ assets during the purchase process.
 Focus your content creation and re-purposing
efforts on the user’s pain / problems and
hot topics/news stories
 Create content in multiple formats to increase
your findability and shareability
 Keep video in mind
 Facebook andTwitter introduced auto-playing videos in user
newsfeeds, and Google is now following suit by introducing video
ads in its search results.The video trend isn't going away soon so
take advantage of it.
 The video don't have to be professionally produced--they just have
to be engaging.
65-80% of the buyer
journey is done
before a prospect
speaks to sales
Source: IDG Enterprise

6. Test and
Optimize
 Track shares, downloads, and likes across platforms AND
device
 How are users finding your content and what they’re actually
doing with it? Are they sharing it? Liking it? Uploading it to
Pinterest?
 Analyze what content, topics, etc. are doing best on what
channels. What are your most clicked-on headlines and
buzzwords. What content types earns the most
engagement?
 Just because a blog post does well on LinkedIn doesn’t mean it
will resonate with yourTwitter audience
 Optimize based upon your success metrics and goals
 Increase your change of success by posting/distributing
similar content
Don’t forget to
optimize your
content for mobile –
it’s a necessity!

7. Improve
theUser
Experience
 Ensure that users can easily engage with your content, regardless
of device:
 Can users quickly filled out and submitted with the push of a button?
 How fast do your pages and content load?
 Is your messaging and content above the fold?
 Do users know what to do once they get to your site?
 Are you gating/ungating the right
content?
 Do users have to unnecessarily click to
get to your content (example: driven to
a download button vs. being sent to the
asset once submitting a registration form)?
 Implement responsive, adaptive design to
your site and content
Source: FATbit

8. Post and
Distribute
 Optimize for SEO
 “Along with engaging visuals that boost the
chances users will dwell on your pages longer,
supplementing with optimized meta descriptions,
alt tags, and targeted keywording is imperative to
round out an effective SEO strategy” – Impress
 Find relevant influencers on across platforms/
channels and share your content with them
 Embrace social media (paid and organic)
 Social media as just one part of your holistic content marketing
campaign. How will you integrate from one platform to the next? All
channels must work together seamlessly and offer the same quality,
optimization, and personalization to the user
 Create cross-promotional opportunities by identifying what type
of content works offline and how it
intersects with your online efforts
 Take advantage of new trends for content
distribution (Example: Twitter’s Moments)
of buyers say they are
more likely to buy from a
company whose CEO uses
social media
71%
Content optimized for
SEO lead to a 2,000%
increase in site traffic and
a 40% increase in revenue
Source: Search Engine
Journal

9. SoWhere Do
You Fit In?
Source: Content
Marketing Institute

10. For more information on partnerships and how
you can get started, contactAmanda:

11.  Resources:
 http://impress1.com/connect/blog/entry/top-3-digital-marketing-trends-for-2016-which-you-should-
be-starting-in-2015.html
 http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2016_B2B_Report_Final.pdf
 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/
 http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
 http://www.powercontent.com.au/mythbusting-social-media-marketing/
 http://kapost.com/content-marketing-facts/
 http://www.stateofinbound.com/
 http://www.idgenterprise.com/report/customer-engagement-2014