Making a mark online with your brand and presence cannot be done without content marketing that leaves a big, pretty footprint. With content marketing, you foster consumer trust within the marketplace and also generate consumer interaction and interest on all of your digital media platforms. Without content marketing, your online presence is like a red skittle in a sea of strawberry licorice or a nerd at the junior high dance — unseen and unnoticed.
A study from Content Marketing Institute says that while 86% of B2C marketers believe content marketing is a vital part of their marketing strategy, only 5% rate their own success as extremely successful (23% very successful, 50% moderately successful, and 3% not at all successful). These low success rates mean a large group’s the content marketing efforts aren’t leading to conversions.
With solid information, however, you can create a data-driven content strategy to ensure your message reaches the right people, at the right time, with the right content.
5 Ways Data Drives Content Strategy
1. Target the Right Audience
To understand what your target audience wants from you, know them better than the back of your hand. It’s a little frightening how much Google knows about us. In fact, your cookies might know more about you than you know about yourself. The good part of this is that you can analyze your audience with Google Analytics to get acquainted with your customer demographics, learning information like:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Job Title and Income
- Spending Habits
- Pain Points
- Types of Information Preferred
- Emotional Triggers
You can then use this information to develop accurate customer personas and generate a content strategy for those specific customer types, customized to the sort of information most likely to please and be shared, buying cycles and habits, and preferred channels of communication.
2. Analyze Your Website, Content, Keywords, and Competitors
- Website – First, evaluate your website’s SEO with an SEO analysis tool. Then look through your website to figure out which types of content and topics your audience prefers. For example, your might find most prefer infographics, blog posts, or podcasts.
- Content – Consider why your most popular content works so well, and do your best to create more content that resonates with your audience. Keep your website fresh by staying on top of the conversation with a tool like BuzzSumo that can help you find popular topics.
- Keywords – BuzzSumo will also help you target the most popular keywords within your content to make your website search-friendly.
- Competitors – You never want to copy your competition, but you should pay close attention to what they’re doing. There are lessons to be learned from the best and the worst marketers in your industry.
3. Waste No Time on the Wrong Content
Consider everything you’ve learned from the data and research gathered so far. Now, adjust your content to satisfy your audience’s needs. If they love videos, make more videos and recycle your old content into new videos. You should also have a better idea of the type of information your audience craves. Be sure to give them content that answers their questions and shows them how you can soothe their pain points. Grab your audience’s attention with an eye-catching title, cover topics in detail, maintain your brand and tone throughout your content, and always give your audience something of value.
4. Deliver Content on Time
Perhaps there’s no wrong time to post content, but there are times when it’s better to post than others. The best time to deliver content is when most of your target audience is online. This will vary between age groups, job types, and digital platforms. Over time, you will be able to determine your audience’s habits. Consider these recommendations as a starting point for social media.
5. Verify Your Outstanding Performance
Set specific goals for your new, data-driven content strategy and measure them. Keep a close eye on user behavior (bounce rate and time spent with content) and engagement (shares, likes, comments, and mentions). Calculate the ROI on your strategy and then decide whether it should be adjusted.
Outsource Content Generation to Spend More Time on Your Data-Driven Strategy
While you’re busy masterminding a calculated, data-driven content strategy, you can have an entire army of creative experts stockpiling content. With WriterAccess’s StyleMetrics Matcher, you can use data to gather the perfect team of writers for your brand. Team up data-driven content with a data-driven content strategy and watch your content marketing conversions soar.
Jennifer G is a full-time freelance writer and editor with a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana. She enjoys researching and writing creative content to engage readers and developing professional voices for clients across all industries. She specializes in medical, health, veterinary, and financial writing. Having worked nearly thirteen years in finance, Jennifer applies her experience in the banking industry (marketing, social media management, consumer and commercial lending, customer service, accounts, and bookkeeping) to her writing work within the industry.
