How to Build a Content Marketing Program
March 25, 2011
This is a part of a series that was created to help you define build the practice of influencer marketing into your company. This series will walk through the process, necessary roles, in addition to guides for each role to get started with influencer marketing quickly. Over the next several posts, I will break apart the key steps the sponsor is responsible for when launching an Influencer Marketing program.
Content marketing experts Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett define content marketing as the art of understanding exactly what your customers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way. Over the last several decades, B2B marketers have faced many challenges: engage, do more with less, connect, extend reach, social frenzy, 1.0, etc. In response to the challenges, many marketers have shifted to a new direction. The new method focuses on engaging target audiences, listening to their pain points, and communicating solutions that solve their problems.
Keep in mind the following tips and questions while building a content strategy:
- Set your goals first. As with any strategy, you’ll need a map to get to where you want to be.
- Think of your audience as readers. What do they need to know to be successful? What are their pain points?
- Provide relevant content that presents solutions to some of the main problems your target audience is facing. How do you solve industry pain points?
- Do some research on your influencers. Try to understand the content they’re looking for by reviewing their existing work, beat sheet, editorial calendar, etc. Remember that you may have to reach out to them to get this information.
- Segment your influencers into influencer personas. Just as you have different buyer and user personas, you will have different influencer personas. Make sure you understand what each persona looks like, what their needs and goals are, what information they are looking for, and how they prefer to receive their information.
- Determine the appropriate content types for reaching your target influencers and target audience. Different audiences react differently to different types of content. What works with one prospect or influencer may not work for everyone.
- Determine if you need external sources to help with your content creation initiatives. Prioritize your content creation based on your resource allocation.
- Track and measure the success of your content against your influencer marketing goals. Think qualitative and quantitative. Is the content helping you build better relationships with your influencers? Are you able to participate in more conversations? Are your conversations meaningful? Has traffic to your site increased? Do you see a boost in participation on social media?
One of the most critical components of an influencer marketing program is content. After all, how can your influencer relations specialist get influencers excited about your company, products, or services if he or she doesn’t have any stories to share?
Additional resources for content marketing:
Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs, Junta42
Get Customers, Get Content, Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
Additional resources for creating a content strategy:
Top 10 Takeaways on Content Marketing Strategy, Newt Barrett
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy, Rohit Bhargava
How to Build your Business with Content, Copyblogger
10 Tips to Optimize your Content Marketing Strategy, Lee Odden
Content Marketing Playbook from Junta 42
Next week, I’ll post how to create a system to track your progress.