Hasta La Gadget!

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There are lot of people who are simply frustrated with the way in which their content marketing strategy is working. In fact, there are people whose entire content marketing strategy seems to be a complete failure. Why does this happen? When content marketing is such an extremely important marketing strategy, which is used by more than 90% businesses, why are there so many business firms who feel their strategy to be ineffective and useless?

Well, there are certain common trends in the “failed” strategies. In most cases, it has been seen that the strategies didn’t at all fail; rather they were not clear enough to help businesses walk towards reaching its goals. So what does the content marketing strategy need? Is it a hard reset or new programming?

Why will you be concerned about the strategy?

If you see anywhere you will see that content marketing is something that everyone is doing but not all are confident about what they’re doing. As per a survey by CMI, only 10% of the B2B marketers are of the opinion that the way in which their company uses content marketing is too effective. Hence, it is needless to mention that the majority of the industry is in a precarious situation doubting their skills. All companies have goals and the strategy that they use should mean “GOALS”. Strategy sounds smart but in what way is it different from goals?

Leveraging SMART goals for content marketing

Instead of going on with the trial and error method and wasting time, you should opt for a tried-and-true technique which is called the SMART goal.

S: Specific

• Define your goal clearly without using any jargons
• Who are the people involved? What do you wish to achieve? Where will that be done? Why you’re taking this attempt? What kind of restraints and requireme
  nts do you have?

M: Measurable

• Can you easily track the progress and measure its outcome?
• How many, how much, how will I know whether or not the goal is accomplished?

A: Achievable/Attainable

• Is the goal that you’ve set achievable or reasonable enough?
• Ensure the goal isn’t out of reach or sub-standard

R: Relevant

• Is your goal worthwhile enough and is it going to meet your needs?
• Are the goals consistent with the other goals and are they going to fit into your long term plans?

T: Timely

• Make sure your objective includes certain time limit and work towards meeting your deadline
• It should give you a sense of emergency and ask you to go for better time management

Content marketing is a constant flux – Some predictions

In the content marketing industry, the entire market might disrupt overnight giving birth to new strategies and techniques. Already there have been some noteworthy changes in this year. Check out some predictions for this industry.

1. Personal authority will get utmost importance: Everyone out there is producing and reproducing content. Whom will you trust? Consumers are always worried about the kinds of content they should believe in. Therefore, there is the necessity of personal authority. Faceless content doesn’t induce trust among consumers; instead it is built on content which is written by people who have built their own platform and identity.
2. Paid content will gain momentum: You shouldn’t think that something as plenty as content will cost you money because the same is already happening. Customers are seen to have more trust on something that they pay for than on something that is free and easily available. Hence, smart content marketers will monetize content to engage users and boost its value.
3. Content marketing will be a must: It has been 3 years already that content marketing has reached its tipping point and now majority of the companies are involved in it. 2016 have witnessed a saturation point and thereafter all companies are embracing contents as an inseparable component of their internet marketing strategy.
4. Businesses will spend more than individuals: Content marketing is all set to becoming a fixture and businesses will determine to spend a huge amount on content creation and also on distribution. In order to give enough space for content marketing, there are many businesses which will let go of some old-school practices.
5. Content marketing will be included in the C-suite: Due to the influential growth and budget, there are many businesses which will add more bureaucracy through their content marketing initiative. For all those companies who can easily afford, they will now hire chief content officer apart from the conventional role of Chief Marketing Officer.

Potential reasons to include content marketing strategies

Content marketing has been the critical shift in online marketing and it uses high quality content to lure potential customers. Let’s take a quick look at the reasons to focus on content marketing.

1. It works with the social media: There’s no doubt that social media will always remain the most popular way of connecting with people. You can reap benefit of this mobile mindset and create content which people would want to share. Content marketing can fuel the social media.
2. People are buying things on demand: Our society loves to consume media on-demand and this is why things like online television and video are gaining momentum. This year, you can use content marketing to take benefit of this on-demand mindset.
3. Improves SEO: Content marketing is a necessary step for enhancing the search engine optimization of your site. As more and more sites come up on the first page, high quality content will be of utmost importance. Customers will only give value to high quality content and this way you will just see your business grow.

Therefore, you can well understand the all-encompassing value of content marketing. Take into account the reasons and the predictions so that you can base your strategies and techniques on them. Follow the trends and be alert about what your competitors are doing as these are the two ways of moving forward.

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