Michael Corbett

According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 30% of B2B marketers say their organizations have an effective content marketing strategy — a most disappointing statistic. It’s even more discouraging when you stop to consider the sheer volume of brands represented in the other 70 percent.

If your company isn’t getting traction with its inbound marketing traffic, it’s likely because your content marketing “wheel” is out of alignment. Here’s 5 strategies to make the road to success less bumpy:

Craft Relevant Content for Your Audience

Take a dive into social media and see what people are saying about your brand or industry. Do some keyword searches and see what’s getting the most engagement. There’s nothing worse than spending valuable time on a project, only to find that your target audience had no interest in it. So, take a bit of time before you begin creating your content to see what subjects or themes are resonating.

Show Mastery of the Subject

In creating your content, you want to ensure that your expertise is shining through and your audience sees that you’re well-versed in emerging trends and issues. So, why not use a subject matter expert from your company or industry to deliver your message? According to research by Demand Gen Report, 96% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders.

Share Content Across Multiple Channels

Now that you’ve created more relevant, insightful content, it’s time to amplify it. Traditional media sources, like print, radio, and television, are still extremely valuable in today’s social media-dominated landscape. They carry influence along with sizeable audience numbers. In fact, when looking at reach alone, you find that over 50% of the U.S. population continues to maintain some form of engagement with traditional media.

That said, with over 2 billion users now on social media platforms, you can’t afford to treat them as bolt-ons. They are now core to every campaign – and by far the greatest form of free visibility your company can acquire. Every piece of content you create, from photos and videos to blog posts and press releases, should be adapted for your social media platforms. Use that content to start a conversation and build a loyal following around your company. Show off what makes you different and do what you can to humanize your brand.

Measure Your Performance

What’s a good marketing campaign without the proper measurement of performance? Following the analytics available to you from Google and other vendor partners will give you a better idea of how your marketing campaign is performing – particularly when viewing data from both pre- and post-drop perspectives.

In addition, securing backlinks from credible sources and incorporating well-researched keywords also increases the visibility of your content – not to mention your SERP score. Be sure to track data points that show what your audience is searching when they find your content, where they’re clicking, time spent on the page, and other important metrics. Compare them to other campaigns you’ve completed.

Adjust Your Strategy

Perfection is something we constantly strive to attain, but there’s always room for improvement. Even if you generated results that exceeded your initial expectations, look back at your strategy and analyze the parts where you could have done better.

Crafting a content marketing strategy is both an art and science – and, as with any form of experimentation, outcomes will vary. The results will inevitably show room for improvement – but, by tightening the spokes of your marketing wheel, you can count on consistently better outcomes. Enjoy the ride!