What would your marketing team do if you crashed on a desert island? With no compass, map, or GPS, and no way to know how to find kindling, shelter, or water, you’d be lost. How would you know which way to go? How would you know what direction is the best to follow when you’re lost on a desert island? Is your content team on the right path? How do you know when your content team is off the mark?
It would come down to what your team has been cranking out in the past. Your content might look sharp and read well, and have racked up Linkedin likes and other social media attention. But, how do you know if your content is heading in the right direction?
Here are four steps to ensure your content strategy is headed in the right direction.
Form Your Direction Question
No B2B marketer would admit that they have no clue who is buying their products, or why. So, lead with the right question, one that challenges your most entrenched assumptions. A good leading question would be, “Who is already buying, and what marketing content do they want to enhance their buying experience?” Map out the journey of the last 10 clients you signed on with.
Track Your Content
In order to plan your future direction, you need to identify the content you are presently using and how it’s performing. For each B2B marketing campaign, create a spreadsheet that identifies every piece of marketing content in chronological order. Create categories for each stage of your buyer’s journey, such as consideration, awareness, or decision-making. Then add engagement data such as organic searches, views, downloads, and social sharing. After creating the spreadsheet, investigate whether your marketing content met your target audience needs.
Did it deliver what they are looking for? Check for:
- Branding. Does your writing style have the right tone, voice, and messaging? What about colors, fonts, and photography style? Do they reflect the brand message you’re trying to send?
- Clarity. Is your information being presented clearly and concisely with the writing and layout?
- Accuracy. Is your information up-to-date? Does is accurately reflect the current state of your company or industry?
- Utility. Does your content provide value to the reader?
Identify Your Personas
Create empathetic profiles for your prospective target audiences. The best way to do that is to ask the following questions:
- Who are your potential B2B clients?
- How do they find us?
- What information do they want?
- What are they not interested in?
- What are their concerns and pain points?
- Why would they want to buy from us?
Why Have a Persona Audit?
Finding out who your buyers are and what questions they have is essentially a map to help guide the buying experience. Knowing where each persona stands allows you to create content marketing and nurturing campaigns that can help no matter where they are on their journey.
Rescue Your Campaign
If you are feeling that your B2B content marketing campaign has gone astray, or are trying to just figure out where you’re t right now, a content audit can help you determine if you and your potential clients are even on the same path. If your content strategy feels lost, use a content audit to help guide you in the right direction. Once you start focusing on meeting your client’s and potential client’s needs, based on an empathetic persona, you’ll find you won’t have to be constantly asking whether your marketing content is heading in the right direction. You’ll have a master map to follow. Overhauling your present personas can even serve as a GPS of sorts – you might not know where you are now, but you know where you are headed to.
