Marketing executives are often accused of being tools, but they rarely have the tools to come up with a great campaign strategy that cuts through the noise. It’s wrong to assume that a failed content campaign proves the approach is overused or that your brand wouldn’t benefit from proper content optimization and distribution. A failed campaign is simply a warning that there’s something wrong with your content marketing strategy. Here at Don’t Panic, we’ve got the perfect mixture to lube up those tools and get them working smoothly! Here’s a look at the most common issues and how to fix them:
Is Your Strategy a Strategy?
“Our content marketing strategy calls for the promotion of our goods and services through regular creation of blog posts and a robust social media presence.”
This sort of mission statement is quite common in marketing departments—and there’s a huge problem with it: it’s not a strategy. Content marketing is important because it allows you to develop a lasting relationship with your target audience and build long‑term trust that enhances your brand image. Posting on a blog and on social media from time to time, particularly if it’s just to push product, isn’t a strategy. That’s just a checklist of tasks.
A content marketing strategy must be properly planned and executed:
- Consistency: Specify the frequency and format of each content type.
- Purpose: Every piece of content needs a clear “reason for being” that benefits the audience.
ACTION POINT: Ensure that you have a documented, cohesive, goal‑oriented content marketing plan that you and your team follow rigorously. Otherwise, you’re relying on luck, not strategy.
Are You Providing Value?
Here’s a question everyone can relate to: do you look forward to hearing from relatives or friends only when they need something? Of course not. Similarly, customers don’t like hearing from you only when you’re trying to sell them something.
What you can give your audience is unique, interesting, usable content—ideally something that solves a problem or answers a question for them. The best way to do this is to make sure your posts or videos are compelling and don’t simply repeat the same stuff people have seen many times before.
ACTION POINT: Evaluate all of your content to ensure that it’s interesting, unique, and valuable to your target market. Above all, don’t be boring!
How Wide Is Your Net?
Regular blogging, YouTube posts and tweeting are important—but that “strategy” ignores all the people who aren’t reading your blog or following you. If you’re not casting a wide net, you’re missing a huge percentage of your target audience.
One word explains the solution: repurposing. Take older content—especially anything that was popular—and convert it into different forms for other platforms. Videos (which don’t have to be expensive, highly produced masterpieces), podcasts or webinars can reach prospects who would otherwise never see your content.
ACTION POINT: Break out of your comfort zone and repurpose your content into multiple formats to appeal to both readers and viewers.
Are You Marketing and Promoting to the Right People?
Lots of marketers fall in love with numbers; it comes with the job. To fix this:
- Understand your target market through existing research or analytics tools.
- Match content and platforms to that audience:
- Gen X and millennials prefer video and audiobooks.
- Baby boomers still favor longer written content.
- Facebook resonates with 50+, LinkedIn with 25–49, Snapchat and Instagram are under 30.
- Pinterest is primarily used by women.
- Nearly half of the Hispanic audience uses WhatsApp.
ACTION POINT: Create content that appeals to your target audience, distribute it on their preferred platforms, and promote it widely for maximum visibility and effectiveness. At Don’t Panic, we don’t just talk the talk—we’re busy walking the walk too. To see our work, click here, or if you’re after an attention-grabbing campaign of your own, click here.