Nine out of ten businesses use content marketing in one way or another. Unfortunately, only 40 percent believe that their content marketing is effective. How many businesses have content marketing strategies? The answer is, less than 30 percent. Content marketing is an idea that is about to create valuable, compelling and relevant content on an ongoing basis, to attract and retain customers, and generate a kind of a behaviour change.

However, content marketing, as an approach, has been for almost hundreds of years, it is still very new to most organizations, whether they are small, medium or large scale businesses.

Audience Identity

Who is your audience or the group that you are trying to target? In many cases, companies first shoot and later target. Before the next tweet or blog post, take a step back and find out what you are trying to do by telling a story that is different. Ask yourself, “Are we connecting something that is separate from our customers’ lives or situation in some way?” Unless marketers reach to the point where they try to create unique and different content, they will continue to struggle with content marketing.

There is a lot of stuff about a company’s products and services, but in fact, not many valuable information is being made around the products and services specifically about them. Instead of solving the problems and needs of the customer with the product, do it with the content. For example, John Deer distributes a monthly magazine to customers from around the world who help farmers become a successful business owner. John Deer tractor is not doing this, but people are still associated with the brand name John Deer.

Today, consumers are in full control of the content they see and they can ignore any content they wish. When consumers are not forced to listen, how do you attract their attention? You have to create content that will be helpful to them so they want to come back for more.

If you are joining Content Marketing now, the best place to start is with your current customer base. Create better customers from those customers who have already chosen to do business with you and are more likely to share your content. Plus, you can get good content ideas by asking questions from current customers about who they struggle with.

While finding your company’s audience personality, it is very important to know who is the buyer. 7-9 people in the average B2B purchase are involved in the buying process. Any of them can be a goal for your content, but you have to decide which ones you really are targeting. For example, with a university content oriented approach, there are many different target audiences such as alumnus, donor, teacher, student, parent, etc. An important mistake is that marketers are often trying to target many people together. If you target many different audiences, then the company will not be successful. While trying to determine who a company should target, they should see where the problems are and concentrate on issues that can be cured.

Most companies have pre-installed audience. However, they make programs for 3-5 personas at the same time. It is impossible to be relevant to 5 different people at once. For example, in publication we target mechanical engineers. This does not mean that we target mechanical engineers, plant managers and CFOs because this does not make any sense.

What is changing and where content marketing can improve?

Right now, most companies are working in content marketing with a blog, YouTube channel, email newsletter, etc. They are doing everything incompatible as it is not a priority. It has become so cheap to distribute the content that people are doing it without thought. It is harming marketers because they are looking at content marketing incorrectly.

The biggest and most successful media companies focus on a content type for a particular audience and deliver it continuously. They set belief for content by promising customers they will regularly get new content from them. For example, they put a new blog post on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday or upload a weekly YouTube video.

It is possible for your company to make content in every possible channel for its customers however maybe; it is not the best idea. Instead, it would be more prudent to focus on something that is constantly influencing the time for a particular audience. This is a great way to build a subscription base.

Companies that are suppressed in everything, they probably are not doing anything beneficial for their business. If this is not doing anything for your business, then you probably should not do this. It is better to be committed to something that has an effect. It can be hard to do when you think you should have a Facebook page. In fact, 90% of those businesses with the Facebook page will be better off without it, instead focus on the thing that will really affect the lives of the customers.

The whole point of a strategy is making an option. Marketers will have to learn to say “no” because they cannot do everything.

The Future of Content Marketing: Is there an over-subscription of Content?

There is no such thing as an over-subscription from the consumer’s standpoint, because there is always too much material to engage in. Because of this, consumers really do not see any material overload as it is a daily part of their lives. Marketers believe that there is an over-subscription of the content because they are the ones making it and it makes them mad.

Every agency on the planet says that they have a unique kind of content marketing plan or process. Today, big agencies are buying small agencies and others are integrating. There is also a crowd of many technology companies with content tools. My prediction is that there will be very few content marketing technology companies in 2019 as compared to 2018. This is a good thing for the industry as we are reaching the level of maturity, where we have to begin to understand where the technology really makes sense. Most marketers do not currently take about 90% of the facilities provided by the marketing automation program. Marketers need to start using more of this automation technology.

Doing it yourself vs. Hiring an external source

Almost every company has both internal and external creatives. There is no such model which says that the material should be mostly outsourced or nurtured because both have proven effective. The main thing to remember is always to keep the strategy internal. Create a strategy that is understandable and then go down the list of what you have you internally, that is the most understandable from the point of view of content building and what you lack. For example, if the strategy determines that a blog is the best thing for the company, but the company does not have a blog writer, then they will need to outsource the authors. If I need a built-in website, do I have a developer?

The strategy should be internal because your business does not know anyone better than you.