Content Marketing Guide

Valuable Resources Including: Content Marketing Guide, Plan with Methodology and Benchmarks

• Online Content Marketing Guide [Infographic],
• Content Marketing Plan Methodology [SlideShare],
• Content Marketing Benchmarks [SlideShare]

These resources are intended to provide marketers, both online and off, with clarity on the the current state of content marketing, why a businesses needs content marketing to compete and a content marketing process to get started.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this Content Marketing Guide starts with a high-level content marketing infographic from Demand Metric entitled, appropriately enough:

A Guide to Marketing Genius: Content Marketing

This content marketing infographic was published by Demand Metric at: http://www.demandmetric.com/content/infographic-content-marketing

The content marketing infographic contains a number of interesting statics which were compiled from a number of authoritative Sources:

1. http://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-plan-methodology
2. http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/46163.aspx#
3. http://www.inboundwriter.com/content-marketing/25-content-marketing-statistics-that-will-blow-your-mind/
4. http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/11/100-b2b-content-marketing-statistics-for-2013/

Content marketing, like any form of marketing, online or off, requires strategy and planning in order to hit goals. If you don’t currently have goals established for your content marketing plan or efforts, then maybe its time to take a step back before pulling the trigger to avoid the “ready, fire, aim” syndrome.

The Content Marketing Process Outline

The following outline is a summary of the process documented in the preceding infographic. These key steps are required to help ensure that your content marketing efforts reap the maximum ROI (Return On Investment).

1. Identify Objectives
   • Establish a benchmark
   • Review marketing objectives
   • Evaluate the competitive landscape
   • Outline your content marketing objectives
2. Understand buyers
   • Identify buyers personas (specifically what type of buyers you want to target)
   • Define buying process stages
3. Identify gaps
   • List your existing content marketing assets
   • Identify content by stage; What is most appropriate at each stage in the buying process?
   • Identify content by persona. What is most appropriate for your buyers?
   •  Identify gaps in your content assets; Where are the gaps in your assets?
4. Build content
   • Generate ideas for your content
   • Identify key messages
   • Outline standards for quality
   • Build a roster of contributors
   • Ensure consistency
   • Repurpose content wherever possible
5. Organize distribution
   • Select the right channels for marketing your content
   • Facilitate social sharing
6. Measure return on investment
   • Keep track of performance. Some marketers use web traffic, sales lead quality and social media engagement such as shares, likes, retweets as key performance indicators.
   • Monitor your program and engage with your audience
   • Measure your program and report on progress

Although content marketing isn’t a new phenomenon, the industry has seen a substantial spike in growth. Start your content marketing efforts by implementing a creative, yet methodical content marketing strategy supported by scalable processes to ensure alignment with key, measurable business objectives.

In order to drive this point home, the following section will provide some insights into create a content marketing plan by using a proven methodology.

Creating a Content Marketing Plan – Methodology Included

For those looking to take the next steps in terms of investing in developing a content marketing plan, here is an interesting content marketing plan methodology presentation by Demand Metric from the Content Marketing Infographic source #1:

Content Marketing Plan Methodology from Demand Metric

B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America

Still not convinced that content marketing is the marketing strategy of the future and for your business? If you are a B2B marketer, then you might want to invest a few moments to review the following information from the world renowned experts at the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) whose mission is to advance the practice of content marketing.

B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America

B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trendsâ??North America from Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing – A Penny for your Thoughts

We hope that you found value in the information presented here including the content marketing guide, content marketing plan methodology and the content marketing benchmarks. This information was sourced from some of the most trusted content marketing experts in the industry and is sure to provide some new information even for the more advanced readers.

Now the million dollar question. Is your B2B or B2C company currently investing  in content marketing? If not then why not given that 90% of your peers are? What is holding you back?

If you are among the 90% currently investing in content marketing, which content format have you found to be the most successful?

• Infographics,
• SlideShare,
• Case studies,
• Whitepapers,
• Blog posts,
• Social media,
• Podcasts,
• Videos,
• Webcasts,
• Research reports,
• Virtual conferences,
• Mobile content,
• and/or any other formats?

What are your goals for your content marketing programs and investments and how are you measuring your program success?  Perhaps even more importantly, how are you measuring and tracking your content marketing ROI?

Whether your are a B2B or B2C marketer, we would love to hear from you in the comments in terms of what kind of results your content marketing efforts have delivered? What are the biggest challenges that you have encountered?

Thanks in advance for sharing.