Each year, the Content Marketing Institute conducts a survey to find out how various companies are using technology to market their content. On a positive note, there has been an increase in the attention companies pay to content marketing strategies.

This year, 76% of companies reported to be taking content marketing more seriously compared to last year’s. In fact, 59% of businesses have a documented strategy for their content compared to last year’s 43%. Such an increase should also motivate you to come up with a content marketing strategy of your own seeing as how many others have benefited from it.

On the other hand, this means that there is a lot more competition among businesses within the same space. As more companies begin to employ effective content marketing strategies, it is paramount to rise above the rest. To do so, you will need a superb strategy unlike any other.

Make no mistake, this will be a bit daunting at first, but once you get in the groove, you will appreciate the returns from your business but also. To make it simple, we have trimmed down everything you need into five complementary strategies that can be used by any business.

Establish a goal for your marketing strategy

It would be pointless to launch your strategy before first establishing what you want to achieve. Everything else that comes afterward will be merely to achieve the goal, without which you can’t really direct your strategy. Can you imagine, say, a football team walking onto the field without a goal?

Even the best tactics would be useless without it. The same is true with marketing your business, where you must determine what you want to gain in the end. Not only will this help you to improve your business, but also to keep track of the progress made. Otherwise, it would be like sailing without a compass.

Obviously, the goals for different businesses will vary, but ultimately it’s all about growing your business by increasing your customer base. The actual, specific goal may vary a bit, but ultimately that is what it’s all about.

For example, you may be looking to increase your online sales to complement your running physical business or expanding into new territory. However, your goals must be very clearly defined because then you have a specific target. SEO Joel House Adelaide helps you establish a goal that is achievable and beneficial to your business.

Get to know your audience

This is one of the few situations where you are actually encouraged to be biased — you have to be. After all, you wouldn’t give the same speech you would at a dinner party as you would a kid’s birthday party, would you? Knowing your audience will help your strategy to be more effective and also less costly.

Politicians are the perfect illustration of good marketers, and it’s easy to see how well they know their audience, which is why they don’t even visit areas they don’t expect much support. This is the same thing you should be doing with your business instead of wasting valuable energy and resources.

The most straightforward way of doing this is by visualizing your ideal customer. For instance, it wouldn’t make sense to market a high-end restaurant to university students. Sure, some of them may visit on occasion, but for the most part, the effort would be a waste.

Consider what kind of business you run and who would be most likely to visit. Then find out how you can reach them in particular. It the case of a high-end restaurant, consider a location such as a business district. It also won’t hurt to know your competition. Remember that you won’t be the only one competing for business, so it is also important to know what the competition has to offer and seek to beat them.

Reach as many of them as you can

You now know what kind of person would be most likely to need your business, but how do you reach them? Once again, you need to be very specific about this to save your resources for other purposes.

Continuing with our example of the high-end restaurant with gourmet meals situated in a business district, how do you reach your target audience? Strategies like online marketing may not work very well as the targets are, let’s face it, not too technologically adept.

These would be the kinds of people to read the paper rather than log into their Instagram.

The hardest thing to do in business is getting a new client. Moreover, you only get a few moments to keep that customer. In order to reach out to people and have them visit your business or even your online page, entice them with offers, discounts, etc. Since people tend to spread the word by mouth, you may find even more customers this way.

Analyze the performance of your strategy

Just like you can’t become complacent on the business side, neither should you be in your marketing. Periodically check to see the progress of your marketing strategy and be ready to make modifications whenever necessary.

If you had perhaps expanded into a new area, look at the progress you have made that far and compare it with your goal. If the goal has not been achieved, then it may be time to revise the strategy.

Keep it consistent

Do you know why companies like IBM, Blackberry and Nokia went down the gutter compared to, say, Apple? They could not keep the quality of their products consistent.

You too have to be consistent, which does not mean resting on your laurels, but keeping up with the demands of your customers. This means constantly modifying your goals and adapting to change as it happens.

This article is contributed by Joel House, CEO and Founder of SEO Joel House Adelaide.

Have an interesting article or blog to share with our readers? Let’s get it published