7 Best-In-Class Content Marketing Characteristics To Succeed

How To Improve Your Content Marketing In 2015

Keep on trackHaving best-in-class content marketing isn’t an accident.

It doesn’t happen just because you’re marketing team got lucky.

While it helps, it takes more than that.

7 Best-in-class content marketing tactics you need to succeed

Based on Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2015 B2B content marketing research, there are 7 characteristics that separate the best-in-class content marketers from the pack. They are:
best-in-class content marketing

For additional analysis of the Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs research, here are the 2015 content marketing trends and 13 related content tacticsKeep on track

1. Have a documented content marketing strategy.

  • 54% of the most effective content marketers have a documented strategy versus 11% of the least effective content marketers.

BUT an undocumented content marketing strategy is useless. There’s little difference between the best and worst content marketers when there’s no strategy to guide them.

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Take the time to develop and distribute your content marketing strategy. Just the act of putting your plans on paper makes them better understood by your staff. Further, it plants the seeds for succeed within your organization.

2. Let your content marketing strategy guide your content development and distribution efforts.

  • 62% of the most effective content marketers are guided by their strategy versus 16% of the least effective content marketers.

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Use your content marketing strategy to direct your content marketing initiatives. This will ensure that your content supports achieving your business goals by speaking directly to your target audience in a measurable way.

3. Create content consistently.

  • 54% of the most effective content marketers publish fresh content multiple times per week versus 23% of the least effective content marketers

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Publish on a regular basis. You need to distribute fresh content regularly to attract and retain your audience. This is consistent with earlier Hubspot research that showed marketers needed to post at least 2-3 times per week to get most of the lead generation impact.

4. Use a variety of content marketing tactics.

  • The most effective content marketers use 14 content marketing tactics versus 11 for the least effective content marketers.

Further, the most effective content marketers continually test new options, but at a significantly lower rate than the least effective content marketers, namely 6 new options versus 9. This happens because the best marketers continue to incorporate the most successful initiatives into their on-going content strategy.

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Diversify your content marketing offering. Offer your audience the 5 content marketing formats they crave. Also, use different content formats such as photos, video, podcast and presentations.

5. Devote staff specifically to content marketing initiatives.

  • 69% of the most effective content marketers have dedicated content marketing resources versus 20% of the least effective content marketers.

This intuitively makes sense. Content marketing has to be part of someone’s job for them to find the time to craft quality content. Otherwise, it winds up being another thing to get off of their to-do list.

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Hire staff to create and distribute content. If you don’t have the headcount or budget for this, then make sure that content creation is specifically part of certain employees’ jobs. To this end, make sure it’s included in their job descriptions.

6. Provide budget for your content marketing efforts.

  • The most effective content marketers dedicate 37% of their budget to content marketing compared with 16% dedicated by the least effective content marketers.

Content marketing doesn’t happen magically. You need money.

If your budget is limited, look for areas where you can leverage existing content creation. In this case you can extend content creation or re-envision content. Areas to consider are advertising where you can use outtakes or additional footage, product packaging and instructions, and/or investor relations.

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Assess where content is currently being created within your organization. Be creative. Consider sales, marketing, human resources, product, and other areas.

7. Track your content marketing ROI.

Hubspot Inbound Research found that the act of tracking results yielded better ROI performance.

  • 40% of the most effective content marketers are successful at measuring content marketing ROI versus 5% of the least effective content marketers.

But understand that content marketing metrics are difficult for everyone. In part this is attributable to the lack of calls-to-action, tailored landing pages, and streamlined internal systems to capture information.

  • 38% of the most effective content marketers are challenged to measure their content marketing performance versus 65% of the least effective content marketers

Best-in-class content marketing take-away:

  • Include a contextually relevant call-to-action. Encourage your prospect to take the next step in the purchase process. Don’t assume they know what to do without your help.
  • Streamline the lead generation and purchase process on your own website. Give your prospects the best possible experience you can.
  • Minimize selection options. Provide too many alternatives and your prospect can’t decide. This will delay or prevent a sale.

Based on this research, content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. It requires planning and resources to execute your strategy.

Further you have to get your entire company aligned to drive success against your goals and target audience.

What other best-in-class content marketing tactics would you add to this list and why?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen


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