How to Add Value to an Existing Content Marketing Strategy

Convincing a client that content can add value to their business is often the first hurdle of many, even if the internet is awash with glossy statistics to get behind. Once you have the client on board, maintaining the same cheery relationship often comes down to tangible results to explain the more abstract notion of brand awareness. The term ‘added value’ gets bandied around in the marketing industry and results are highly subjective in the eyes of the business holder. Creating a successful content marketing channel is often like completing a difficult math question: show that you have the result, but also how you got to that stage. Here are some tips on how to get your great content noticed.

Take care of the details

The client will have outlined KPIs and a general sense of what they are about and their audience in an initial discussion; simple research of their website and competitors will also tell you more. To add value, take that information away to build up a content strategy that is cohesive, well-researched and relatable to their target market.

Execute a cross-channel strategy

Content should complement other client channels and vice versa. Get together with the media team, managers, the SEO and PPC team and the boss, aka the orchestrater of the deal, to gain insights on which social media posts are clicked on, which PPC ad gained the most engagement and how the client’s email marketing posts are faring to shape your ideas going forward. If a competition has been set up in social for example, include a link in the next blog to drive traffic, or if more people are entering a similar search term for the same product, for example ‘jobs’ rather than ‘careers’, use this in future material to climb the rankings.

Use competition to your advantage

The difference between riding of someone else’s coattails and utilising other blogs to your advantage is all about the execution of your delivery. As any writer worth their salt should know, plagiarism is a big no-no, however, you can research existing content in the industry which is either out of date, badly designed or vague and update it to inform readers in a knowledgeable way, by either explaining what those 10 points actually were in 2013 for example, or follow up a political piece on policy from last year by explaining how many people are now affected.

Cast your line further afield

If you feel like you’re trapped in a small bowl, cast your line over to a wider, established audience pool through guest blogging. When emailing potential sites for a guest blog opportunity, aim high as many guest blog spaces are free. Simply type into Google a news-related search and use the top-ranked publications as your first line of enquiry. Keep going until your land a spot for your voice to be heard. Even if you land a spot on a page two or three website, you’ll be reaching out to a targeted readership in your industry.

Remember Google Analytics

Content marketers must deal with raw, hard data to shape a strategy. If you haven’t already, ask each and every single client for access to their Google Analytics account, and if they don’t have one, create one because the Audience, Acquisition and Behavior tabs may become your best allies. Expanding the uses of each tab will need a blog-length answer in itself, so let me direct you here. Remember to set up a strict comparable time frame to make your efforts worthwhile.

Target influences

Once you’ve built up a bank of content that is worth shouting about, delegate an email outreach strategy to increase traffic. Take to Twitter to find out which influencers have been retweeting what: staff of big brands, editors, managers, etc. If you find a story that relates to something you’ve written for a client, seize the opportunity to contact them directly with a sweet but short message to let them know that your blog offers further reading or a different twist.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Let’s discuss your content marketing ideas in the Cobb Digital HQ over a brew. Call us on 01273 208913 to find out more.