Three questions to help you create state-of-the-art content

In a world where getting your target audience’s attention is becoming increasingly tougher, you need to produce outstanding content for the right audience at the right time in the right channels. That’s definitely not as easy as falling off a log!

This means there’s only one way forward in 2018: better and better content that builds trust and drives people to opt-in for regular communications.

Luckily, there are some guidelines that can help you assure your content and activity plan is fit for the task ahead.

1. Is your content aligned with your organization’s goals?

According to Barney and Griffin, organizational goals serve four main purposes.

a) they provide guidance and direction;
b) they facilitate planning;
c) they motivate and inspire employees;
d) they help organizations evaluate and control performance.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to know what your goals are, so you can research and plan your content accordingly. You shouldn’t just create content and organize activities for the sake of it. Creating outstanding content takes resources that cannot be wasted putting together something that doesn’t create value for your organization.

For example, if your core challenge is to raise awareness about your organization, this will require a very different solution, for example, than if your main challenge is to ensure the retention of core clients.

Discussing your goals with your internal stakeholders is one of the most important steps for a successful content and activity plan. Be sure to research its feasibility before agreeing on it. After all, you don’t want to end up with a goal that cannot be achieved.

2. Is your content multi-dimensional?

Once you know what you need to achieve, you can start planning how to reach your goals. One approach to a content and activities plan is to make it multi-dimensional:

• Time: plan a structure with macro campaigns (e.g. raising awareness) and sub campaigns / activities (e.g. webinar A; landing page + white-paper B; breakfast seminar C), and make a reasonable schedule. Using the months of a year is a simple approach and allows you to group your activities for month / quarter to maximize results.
• Stages of the buying journey: ensure your content and activity plan addresses the different stages of the buying journey, from raising awareness to driving advocacy. Each stage of the buying journey might require different types of content and channels. This is a solid way to ensure you have a multi-channel strategy with content in different formats.
• Level of risk: there are activities you know that work (your data should tell you which), but the world keeps evolving so you cannot just rely on what worked before. You need to keep a solid base of what has been working but you need to add two extra layers. One for evolving current activities and the other for disruptive activities. Without innovation you are setting yourself and your organization up to fail in the near future.

3. Does the content feel human?

People love interacting with people. When publishing content, articles signed by authors carry more weight than a corporate voice. Articles written by experts can be more provocative and create a higher level of authenticity. They are also more likely to reach a wider audience as authors tend to spread their content throughout their networks (and these networks are more likely to engage).

Furthermore, it makes it possible to create potential points of contact. When people share experiences, opinions or best practices, others in the industry might feel more comfortable to engage and pursue a conversation than if it had been a corporate voice.

Overall, is it very hard to be successful with lead generation without great content and an activity plan. There is no silver bullet for creating a perfect one. It is your data and experiences that will allow you to create something that works well for your organization. But the tips above surely help. And if you have any questions or would like to share ideas, get in touch with me!

Come to our seminar in Stockholm, 21st of February

On Wednesday the 21st of February, we’re hosting a seminar in Stockholm on the topic of content marketing and how to improve your brand and lead generation. You are very welcome to sign up for free here.