Digital content, also known as digital media, is generally referred to as pieces of information that are broadcast digitally, streamed online, or more frequently than usual, contained in computer files. Digital content covers popular media types (formerly known as MIME type, file formats, and contents transmitted online).
It has increased rapidly as the world has more access and need of the internet especially nowadays (due to pandemics where daily transactions and company operations switch abruptly to remote set up).
The overwhelming need to strategize for your content to rise up as the surge of digital media makes it impossible to stand out among the others is strikingly appealing and seriously needed for businesses to arise and recover.
Digital content strategy, sometimes called digital media strategy, is an orderly process where a plan for company optimization through data assets and technology-focused initiatives are utilized as a marketing strategy, means of outsourcing, and other ways deemed workable.
Study Your Product/Service
Being an expert on what your product and services can offer, and not only merely knowing it by information is an edge to attract more loyal and long-term customers.
It is vital to know what you are selling when it comes to crafting your digital content strategy. The more you know your product and the benefits it can offer to your prospective customers, the more content you will be able to produce.
Not only that, but you will also be able to respond to issues and concerns as a digital content creator if you have product expertise.
Define Your Target Audience
With the current situation, we are in it is very essential to know the specifics of your target audience. Small scale businesses can even compete with large companies targeting a niche in the market. With a well-defined target audience, it will be more convenient to establish where and how to market your products and services.
First, you should have a clear customer base. This is a group of clients who repeatedly buy the goods and get your services. These groups of customers are the main source of income and profit for a company. Normally behaviors of the customer base are well understood and anticipated by the company through market research and previous experience. This will help you to create a content calendar that accurately serves their needs and therefore forging a deep and firm foundation not only today but also for future engagements.
Second, be well aware of your competitors. Do not go for the same target market if possible. Find something that they are missing. Accomplishing an in-depth competitive content analysis will provide leverage for your content marketing strategy. Not only that it will create a subtle crack for you to utilize your competitor’s effort to your own advantage.
Third, be an expert on your own product or services. Emphasize the valuable features of your products or services. Flaunt the benefits that come with it.
Fourth, set specific target demographics. There are several major advantages of demographic market segmentation. Segmentation leads your marketing team to valuable information as quickly as possible. This technique will enable you to understand your market competitor which gives you an edge on how to wisely utilize marketing campaigns. When a company focuses on customers’ needs, desires and convenience it will surely guarantee loyalty and retention.
Focusing on your target market is cost-efficient since it yields speedy results, intensifies customer loyalty, and contributes massive growth to the company in terms of productivity and popularity.
Research About Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to a strategic marketing approach that concentrates on formulating and distributing beneficial, significant, and consistent content to captivate and maintain a certain well-defined audience and eventually inspire profitable customer response. Content marketing is effective in increasing sales, saving costs, bringing loyal customers, and enhancing profit.
Notably, it is important to bear in mind that it will be impossible to create an effective marketing strategy without great and substantial content. Quality content is indeed a vital part of all types of marketing, may it be social media marketing, search engine optimization(SEO), Public Relations or Press release (PR) strategies, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) technique, Inbound marketing, and of course content strategy. According to Statista (2019), search traffic produced 65% of the overall e-commerce sessions, 32% was acquired through paid search and 33% was brought by organic searches.
Annual research conducted by Content Marketing Institute reveals that content marketing is widely used by the majority of marketers in the world. At present 95% of the content marketers revised their strategies as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In researching content marketing the abrupt and unique changes in the market must be treated with utmost consideration to keep up with the competition.
Follow Content Marketing Pros
Top-performing content marketers treat their subscribers with extra care. As the study shows that 50% of marketers can fairly understand and truly connect with the target audience’s values, interests, and needs (Content Marketing Institute, 2020). These are the crucial factors for the success and relevance of their strategy.
Content marketing pros never missed the details in numbers. Numbers never lie as they said. Learn to project and anticipate your audience’s response, stimuli caused by the current market environment, and other factors influenced by your competitors. For example, here is the latest trend when it comes to content marketing.
- 88% of company ROI (Return of Investment) came from video content marketing (Wyzowi State of Video Marketing Survey, 2020)
- 92% of marketers witnessed an abrupt growth in personalized marketing content (Forrester, 2014)
- User-generated content continues to flourish in e-commerce content marketing where 85% of their audience trust the decisions and suggestions made by other users.
- Research shows that 98% of B2B (Business-to-business transaction) marketers admitted that content performance is worth its cost (Walker Sands, 2019).
Identify Your Content Distribution Channels
Content distribution is the system of allocating, publishing, and promoting your content. These content distribution data will empower you to make informed decisions when it comes to where and how you’re going to publish your content.
- About 95% of the marketers confirmed the importance of multichannel marketing when it comes to setting your target, yet only 73% established multistrategy channels (Saleh, 2019).
- There are 91% of retail brands operate on two or more social media channels (Social Pro Daily, 2020).
- Also, 72% of consumers declared that they would prefer connecting companies through multichannel marketing (SailThru, Multi-Channel B2C Campaigns)
- Now, 80% of the end-users said that a video presentation about the products and services rendered has a significant impact on knowing the company and what it can offer.
Know Your Competition
The first step in knowing your competition in digital content is analyzing the content created in your market. In doing a competitive content marketing analysis you have to make a thorough inventory of your rivals’ content. In making an inventory you have to collect as many as possible from blog articles, videos, and off-websites content of your competitors.
The content types you can unearth from the inventory supplies you with ideas as to the extent of content investment, the type of format being used and enjoyed by their audiences, and the variety and significance of topics and keywords. Content types may include any of the following:
Blog articles, E-newsletter, emails, podcasts, and other audio recordings, webinars, ebooks and white papers, and presentations through various channels and sites. Then assess content quantity as well as the quality.
Take notice of how frequently they published certain content and the type of channel they are using. Moreover, the trends in engagement frequency like the shares, comments, and other forms of engagement will allow you to deeply understand its performance level. Lastly, organize and label the content topics to prepare for analysis. This is the time where you use your magnifying glass in analysis.
Looking into the specific details of the content topics. Delving into the micro-level of each part of the content will provide you with valuable information with regards to content marketing gaps which will be a great opportunity for you to strike. The content’s title and descriptions or labels are salient features of the content. Studying the integration of quality and quantity of content range by topic will allow you to see which topic to start with and which to avoid.
Assess Your Current Content
In assessing your current content, present KPI or Key Performance Indicators is the best tool to do it. This will reveal key points of your content and how people engaged with it.
KPIs empower you to set SMART goals for a long-term strategy that will secure not only present but also future successes.
Bear in mind that with all the information you’ve gathered based on actual and reliable data you are now on set for more productive performance fueled by the improvement you will make. Numbers and statistics will provide you with reliable information as support to the changes you will make with your approaches.
Choose a Suitable Content Management System
There are essential factors in choosing the right content management system (CMS) to deliver outstanding services to your valued customers. Choosing the most suitable content management system is the apex of the entire process of developing a digital content strategy.
Completing all the procedures mentioned will prepare you for this pivotal moment. With the ever-increasing demand for instant services which will give the customers a personalized experience, your CMS must be able to collect all your customers’ interactions and engagements with you in order to anticipate their desires and needs.
This means that you are able to generate all these treasured engagements in different websites, apps, contact centers in a click. This is very important to have a clearer macro perspective on what you are dealing with.
A CRM that has multiple languages setup is a big plus in a market where globalization influences how we interact and transact business. A multi-language CRM will not only offer streamlined workflows but also a personalized and culturally appropriate tone that smoothly communicates to your clients.
Furthermore content with context is the new in for e-commerce. Your content management system must display the date on how your audiences consumed your content. Through this, you are more apt to deliver the right content, offers (benefits and perks), products, and services which they will truly appreciate.
