7 Tips For Starting Your First Content Marketing Campaign

Getting Started With Your First Content Marketing Campaign

Have you been feeling as if your present marketing efforts seem stuck in a past decade, and you’re looking for a new way to connect with your target audience? Your business has a website, but, you honestly don’t have any clue whether or not you’re gaining new customers from it. Maybe you feel that simply delving into the world of online content marketing could enhance your efforts, but you don’t know where to begin. If this sounds familiar, then remember that knowledge is power. A little planning, research, and preparation can give you the knowledge you need to create content marketing solutions that are powerful and effective.

Here are seven tips that can help you get started:

1. Get Buy-In From Company Leadership

You understand the importance of content marketing. It’s probably your job. You’ve seen the importance of it, and the evidence supporting why a well-executed content marketing strategy works. But, there’s a chance your boss, company president, or CEO isn’t fully convinced that the effort is worth the investment. Your first step is to get them on-board and supportive of the upcoming marketing plans. A successful content marketing strategy begins when everybody in on the same page and working together to grow the business.

2. Clearly Define Your Marketing Goals

What is it exactly that you’d like to see accomplished from your content marketing efforts? Be specific. Setting measurable goals, such as increased website traffic, “x” number of new sales leads, increased customer loyalty, or increased social media followers is a simple way to determine whether your content marketing efforts are effectively connecting with your target audience or not. You’ll need to revisit these goals frequently throughout your many marketing efforts.

3. Measure Your Content Marketing Effectiveness

It’s really important that you regularly measure the ins-and-outs of your marketing efforts. Your teams of web marketing professionals should have analytics software that will measure your traffic content, referrers, conversion rates, bounce rates, social shares, or even time spent on your site. Obtaining this information regularly, and communicating it with the necessary people within your company, can help you evaluate and what’s working and what needs tweaked along the way. Talk with your web marketing team to determine how these factors will be measured, what these analytics means, and how the results will impact your future marketing practices.

4. Regularly Perform Content Audits

Be prepared to take a look back on any previous marketing efforts for ideas. Although this is your first attempt with online content marketing, you may be able to re-purpose previous content from presentations, news articles, or marketing materials for future efforts. Conducting content audits can be a lengthy process so be patient and remain committed to doing these whenever necessary. Set up your guidelines and expectations for how and when you will conduct these content audits right from the start so you can establish consistent marketing practices early on.

5. Develop a Mix of Content Strategies

Content marketing involves a wide variety of outlets and methods for connecting with a target audience. Will you incorporate blogging into your overall strategy? Email marketing? Digital resources? No matter what methods you choose, it’s important to include a variety of efforts that your audience can easily access and connect with. Having numerous content marketing outlets included in your strategy allows you more opportunities to reach a wider audience with your great news.

6. Create Content Ideas

This is an ongoing process. You’ll spend time brainstorming, polling your audience, researching similar online content marketing strategies within your industry, and looking for inspiration in the world around you. The key is to think about your target audience. What will they respond to and what might they pass over? It’s important that you present consumers with relevant, helpful, interesting content subjects that will keep them coming back for more; be sure to take this step seriously.

7. Start Writing

It’s time to get started. Remember that taking that leap into your first content marketing strategy may seem risky and uncertain. Be prepared to make adjustments if something doesn’t go quite as planned. That’s okay. A little bit of trial and error will help you become more in tune with your target audience, and which content marketing efforts are most effective in growing your business.

To get started with your first content marketing campaign, contact our experts at Neon Goldfish today. We understand how crucial every single aspect of a content marketing is, and our assembled team will carefully work to gather all of the information needed to create a highly effective content marketing strategy that can kick-start your other future marketing efforts. Enter the digital world of online marketing today by calling 419-842-4462.

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By Ken Franzen

President / Co-Founder of Neon Goldfish