Businesses invest in content for a number of reasons. First, content helps to establish, build and maintain credibility, but it does so much more than that. It also creates awareness of your brand and your product or service, helps to drive conversations with your prospects and customers, and it can help your site rank higher in the search engines. But just creating and publishing content won’t lead to all of these results. To be successful with content, you also need to be strategic with it, and publish it for the right reasons. And to that, you need to have a content plan.
According to Content Marketing Institute, the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content strategy and plan, with 64% indicating a strong correlation between documentation and success. Why is that so high? For a couple of reasons.
First, a content plan keeps you organized with your content so you can ensure everything you publish has a purpose and a goal. The purpose tells you what you’re creating and who it’s for, along with why it’s important at that time. The goal ties the content to a business goal or objective, and helps move your audience through their buying process. So, documenting the purpose of your content for your audience and your business keeps your content focused while helping you better measure its results.
That focus also prevents you from creating content that’s perceived as scattered, reactive and detached from your goals. Instead, the plan will make sure you consistently publish content that your audience needs and wants, which ultimately leads to more engagement and outcomes.
Finally, a content plan eliminates any last-minute scrambling to create and publish something. Instead, you’re proactive and getting content published on time consistently. This helps build that trust with your audience that’s so important, build brand awareness and provide your audience with the information they need.
Now, THAT’S a great question that has several answers.
Some people and businesses may think they don’t need a content plan because they don’t publish much content or publish it on an “as-needed” basis. And because they publish whenever they feel like it, they don’t see a need for plan.
But even if they do publish content rather consistently, finding the time and resources to put together and document a proper content plan is just not a priority. They may also lack the data needed for an effective plan, like really understanding their audience, what their challenges are and where they consume content. If they don't collect this information, they’ll have a very difficult time planning their content.
And finally, content planning may feel overwhelming and they just don’t know where to start.
It’s easy for us to tout the benefits of content planning because that’s what we do so, we asked some of our contacts who we know plan their content why they do it and the benefits they’re enjoying as a result. It should come as no surprise that everyone who answered had nothing but praise for content planning.
“Editorial content is critical to ensure strategic messages around identified priorities are met, and we work closely with our university campus partners to develop the content plan,” says Meloney Linder, vice president of marketing and communications at the University of North Dakota. “As a result of our content plan, we’ve seen an increase of followers on social media, an increase in engagement and an increased reception of information.”
Including the appropriate partners who are working toward the same goals is so critical to ensuring consistent messaging is pushed out across the organization. So is being intentional with your content, as another marketer in financial services told us that the only way to tie content to initiatives and results is to plan that connection. “Smart planning typically leads to smart results,” he says.
And results don’t necessarily mean more sales. It can also mean a wider audience, growing email list or requests for samples, as Jen Petit, principal at Office Products Marketing. Jen represents many brands, including her own, and began planning her content monthly to get eyeballs on all brands.
She says it’s starting to pay off. “It hasn’t lead directly to any sales yet, but I’ve seen lots of soft benefits,” Petit says. “For instance, I’m able to use it to promote my company and attract new brands to represent.”
If you don’t plan your content but want to start, or if you are looking for a simpler way to do it, you’re in luck. We have a content planning and implementation program called “Roadmap to the 7Cs,” and we’re also building a self-study edition that you can implement yourself. For more information or if you have questions, please contact us.