Previously we discussed three content marketing strategy types; Inbound, Addictive, and Tentpole. Today I’d like to expand upon that concept and look at three content marketing goals and then tie them to our previous discussion on content marketing strategy types.
Engaging in content marketing to achieve your SEO results is a common business goal, but it’s not the only goal content marketing can accomplish. Here are three primary content marketing goals to consider:
SEO
Creating content that attracts search engine traffic depends on using targeted long-tail keywords, creating good headlines that invite click-throughs, and delivering content that conforms to Google’s search rules. If your primary goal is SEO, your content focus is to create content that is popular and therefore gets high traffic volumes.
Customer Retention
A second content marketing goal has nothing to do with attracting prospects but entails serving your current customer’s needs as a way to providing quality customer service experience so that prospects and customers remain loyal to your brand. For example, you might have a frequently asked question (FAQ) section that answers commonly asked questions. Or perhaps, you might host a user forum so that your users can be engaged with other users. Or, you might provide a series of how-to-videos to help customers make the most of what you offer.
Authority
A third content management goal focuses on proving that you are a thought leader in your industry and are worthy of their attention. Often when authority is the goal, as is the case with my blog, the content may not rank very well with search engines because the content is focused on conveying less common information and may be pushing the boundaries of common understanding.
As a business with a goal of establishing authority, much of your content tends to be more advanced and covers content areas that are not in the zeitgeist. Therefore there is less search traffic for your content keeping the overall site from ranking really well but perhaps having landing pages ranking high for smaller niche keywords. For example, several of my specific posts rank high for specific the long-tail keywords like; “Leverage Contingency,” “Thick Markets,” “Self-Weeding Gardens” and many other very important topics for the business owner to understand. However, since these topics are not concepts or as common as search terms like “Business Loans” or Business Entity” site level SEO can suffer.
Tying Together Goals and Strategies
Now let’s tie together our previous discussion on content marketing strategy types with today’s discussion of content marketing goals.
So, we have three content marketing goals and three content marketing strategy types to serve the goals. ln the chart, we can see how these combinations work together to create nine possible content marketing strategies.
The yellow highlighted blocks indicate that the content marketing strategy type and the content marketing goal are aligned. The unhighlighted blocks show a disconnect between that content marketing strategy type and the content marketing goal.
Looking across the first row, you can see that if your goal is to drive organic traffic to your site through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the focus would be on investing primarily in an inbound content marketing strategy type. You would want to make sure that your content made use of long-tail keywords that you can rank for and are relevant to your brand.
An addictive content marketing strategy type might also be somewhat useful to this goal but to a lesser extent. Furthermore, you would probably never invest in a tentpole content marketing strategy since you have yet to gain the number of followers or established yourself as an authority to make that content type effective.
If your goal is to strengthen the relationship with existing customers and build a reputation for superior customer service as a way to retain customers, inbound and additive content marketing strategy types are your best strategies.
Finally, if you want to establish your business as a thought leader in your industry, it requires that you be a bit more controversial and less mainstream. Since being a thought leader means being in front of popular trends and exploring niche concepts that are not yet popular, optimizing your content to attract organic traffic should not be your number one priority. However, creating content that makes a prospect think in new ways should be a priority.
Moreover, once you get recognition for your authority, you can take your audience to the next level by employing a tentpole content marketing strategy type.
How can you use your knowledge of the three content marketing strategy types and the three content marketing goals to pay dividends to your business?
