
Content Audit
My new mantra is “No more random acts of content”. It is easy to get caught up in a flurry of activity to create infographics, videos, case studies, white papers, resource guides, presentations for slideshare, … the list goes on and on. A content audit is an important first step. Ideally, you want to ensure you have marketing content to support the entire purchase process of your target customers. You may find it is a good time to interview current customers to get better insight into the purchase process. Figure out what content you have, what step in the purchase process it supports, and where you have gaps. I like to rate the quality of the content and recommend a refresh date as a part of the audit.
Content Marketing Strategy
I am frankly tired of the whole “Content is King” mantra. The “Customer is King” and they need the content available so they can access it whenever, wherever, and however they want it. Not all customers are the same so the onus is on you to repackage and serve the content in multiple different ways. One of the most common ways to go about planning is to leverage a Content Pillar approach. I build a plan by week for 3-6 months that covers my major content assets and how I can repurpose each of them across multiple different channels including blogs, resource guides, white papers, videos, infographics, emails, enewsletters, and social. Each content piece should link your customer to more engaging content where they can learn at his or her own pace. If your marketing automation tool has a calendar (Hubspot has a great one), you can actually set up the calendar right in Hubspot.
In closing, don’t let the mechanics of setting up your new marketing automation tool distract you from building the content to fuel your success. My favorite part about building these plans is to see how excited my clients get when they see how much they can accomplish with a little advance planning.