You’ve updated your website with all the keywords. You’ve added weekly content. You’ve even paid for Google Ads.
So where are all the hits to your website?
A business colleague suggests a digital content strategy and now you’re scratching your head wondering where to begin.
Building a digital content marketing strategy is one of our specialties. Let us walk you through the basics of what digital content is, why it matters, and where to go from here.
What Is a Digital Content Marketing Strategy?
You thought you were building a content strategy and then you learn about digital content and it’s a whole other monster.
Digital content marketing includes anything that’s… well… digital. For example:
- Youtube videos
- Podcasts
- Video testimonials
- Instructional videos
- Social media videos
- And more
A digital content strategy is key to driving more traffic to your site.
Yes, blogs work. Yes, updating your main pages with keywords works. And yes, Google Ads work.
But a quality content strategy for digital marketing gives your audience an in-depth look into your business’s inner workings.
Why Is Having a Strong Digital Content Strategy Important?
People love to watch and listen. Digital media is the ultimate tool in multitasking for people who feel too busy to sit and read a 10-minute piece of content.
Instead, they can watch your video or listen to your podcast while they complete other pressing tasks in their day-to-day life.
Not only that, but 52% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy a product after watching a video.
In addition to widening your reach and increasing brand authority, a solid digital content strategy will:
- Generate more traffic
- Create brand awareness
- Generate more leads
- Get more shares
- Increase your sales; and
- Improve your ROI
Don’t take guesses when it comes to your digital content marketing strategy.
Pretty-Impressive uses a multi-channel marketing approach to supercharge every aspect of your digital content. We are growth marketing experts and we know that visibility drives scalability. Our data-driven approach will turn every $1 in ad spend into $12 in profits.
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
8 Steps to Creating a Content Strategy for Digital Marketing
1. Define Your Audience
Identifying your target audience is a critical first step in your digital content strategy. But, that’s not the only step where your audience is concerned.
Once you know who your audience is, you need to know what their pain points are.
Many companies make the mistake of creating video content that’s geared toward impressing their executives without ever addressing the wants, needs, or frustrations of their potential buyers. This is a mistake.
Taking the time to research your audience can go a long way toward creating a digital content strategy that will drive results. Consider these looking into …
- Historical sales data
- Demographic data
- Web analytics
… and of course the perspective of the buyer. What problem are you going to solve for them with your product or service? This is what will drive the right traffic to your site and ultimately lead to more conversions.
2. Create Measurable Goals
Once you’ve identified your audience and their needs, it’s time to set your brand goals. What are you hoping to achieve with the production of digital content? You need quantifiable objectives, such as:
- Increase traffic to your blog
- Convert leads to sales
- Increase social media engagement and followers
- Improve your SEO
- Increase brand awareness
- Etc.
Now that you have your goals in mind, you’ll need to determine how you plan to measure those goals.
Using key performance indicators (KPIs), such as …
- How many visitors you get to your blog
- How many of those convert to leads
- Who’s following your social media
- If your ranking on Google is improving
- Etc.
… you can effectively measure whether your digital content marketing strategy is working and you’re meeting the goals you initially laid out.
3. Audit Your Current Content
Do you currently have digital content on your website or elsewhere? If so, conducting periodic audits will help you to see the current state of that content and whether or not it’s effective.
You don’t always have to create new content. Sometimes updating older or existing, ineffective content is just as valuable.
Audit your non-digital content as well. Are there opportunities to add digital content that will reach your target audience quicker than print alone?
Staying on top of your content allows you to quickly identify deficits and adjust according to the goals you’ve set out.
4. Gather Your Resources
If you’ve reached this point and you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, then it’s likely that you don’t have enough resources to put your digital content strategy into action.
Effective digital marketing campaigns generally consist of a team of writers, designers, technology specialists, strategists, and more.
Some companies choose to hire in-house, but budgetary restrictions may make this impossible — but that doesn’t mean you have to fall behind the competition.
Pretty-Impressive can help your company build an integrated multi-channel marketing campaign to attract and retain the customers you want.
Our out-of-the-box approach focuses on long-term growth and increased profits by using data insights that uncover usage patterns that take the guesswork out of digital content marketing.
5. Decide What Types Of Digital Content Will Work Best For Your Brand
Blogs are highly effective, which is why they’re the first thing that comes to mind when speaking of digital content. But, they’re not the only option.
Your content should be cohesive and engaging, but it can include a multitude of options, including:
- Informational videos
- Quizzes
- Polls
- Infographics
- Images
- How-to videos
- Corporate videos
- And more
Regardless of what type of content works best for your brand, you can be certain that it will help increase traffic and brand awareness.
6. Don’t Forget About The Importance Of SEO
Search engine optimization can’t go without a mention. Without SEO, your site simply won’t rank at the top of Google’s search results, making it nearly impossible to get any organic traffic.
However, the days of keyword stuffing and writing for computers are long gone. Google is now smarter than that and the algorithm is always changing.
First and foremost, your digital content should be comprehensive and add value to your audience.
It’s still beneficial to follow the SEO best practices you may already know, but more importantly, Google wants you to add content for people — not machines.
For example, a chiropractic clinic may want to rank for the keyword “whiplash after a car accident,” so they may consider adding digital content such as videos or images that are labeled with keywords. This is helpful to not only algorithm, but also valuable to the potential viewer.
7. Have A Multichannel Digital Content Distribution Strategy
Sharing your digital content across multiple channels is the quickest way to increase your views. What’s even better, is to make your content shareable.
Cross-promotion is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to reach as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.
The type of content that’s most likely to be shared includes:
- Listicles
- Infographics
- How-to guides
- Current event commentary
- Facts and statistics
- Videos
So, don’t just leave your video sitting on YouTube, or forget that blogpost on your website. Share! Through email or social media, you can be your own best brand ambassador.
8. Evaluate Your Performance And Make Adjustments As Needed
Content strategies are dynamic, so you should always measure the success of your digital content strategy.
A variety of content analytics is available to deliver this information and show you everything you need to make continual tweaks and adjustments to your strategy.
For example, if you see one topic that seems to be getting way more attention than another, it might mean that your audience isn’t as interested in the topic with less traffic. This allows you to reevaluate your content plan to create content around the topics your audience is clicking on.
By keeping a birdseye view on your content click-through rate, bounce rates, engagement, and conversions, you’ll be equipped with the right information to adjust to your audience.
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
Need Help Building a Content Strategy for Your Digital Marketing? Pretty-Impressive Can Help
Whether your current digital content strategy isn’t working, or you simply don’t know where to begin, it may be time to call in the pros.
The marketing experts at Pretty-Impressive can help you …
- Increase your organic traffic
- Build brand awareness; and
- Convert leads into sales
… by developing a unique digital content marketing strategy focused on running multi-channel marketing campaigns with data-driven results. We won’t just find you more customers — we’ll help you keep them.
