Live Your Best Life With Content Marketing Goals
So you need new content on your website. You want everything: the white papers, the videos, the case studies, the testimonials. You have ideas for all of it.
That’s cool. Tons of ideas are way better than no ideas.
But have you channeled your inner toddler to ask yourself the most important question about this content?
That question is, Why?
Many people know what they want their website to be — the perfect meeting place for prospects and customers that will help you sell sell sell and get people to learn about you so they will want to buy buy buy.
But it is very difficult for content to be all these things at once — especially if you don’t know why you’re creating these things and the outcomes you want from them.
Much to the chagrin of everyone in business, most people aren’t ready to whip out their credit cards because you made a cool video. Many people who become aware of your brand don’t actually care about your brand. This is why you must know why you create and the outcomes you desire. It’s the only way to determine whether your content is working or not.
Let’s discuss.
What are your content goals?
In war and in business, it’s important to define your strategy before you define your tactics. Do you want to stock up on burning oil to dump on castle stormers if you’ll be executing an attack with drones? No. For so many reasons, no. (One is offensive and one is defensive, and also does oil melt drones? How do you dump oil on drones? Do you use more drones to fly higher? You can see how this doesn’t make sense.)
Content marketing strategy and goals are no different. If you have a bunch of ideas for videos you could make and put on your shiny new website, I, as content consultant par excellence, am first going to ask you, “Why do you want to publish these videos?”
Here are the answers we want to get to:
“My customers always have trouble doing this one thing and I want to make their onboarding experience faster and easier for them.”
“Our prospects are lacking specific knowledge, so we want to educate our market and hasten conversion.”
“We want to demonstrate our expertise and thought leadership in our space.”
(I am counting the last answer as “right” even though demonstrating expertise and thought leadership is not something that is easily measured.)
Here are some not-right answers that will get me asking you Why? again and again like a toddler:
“We want more followers/views on social media.”
“We can really easily create a bunch of videos about this.”
“We want some snackable content.” [🤮]
The content you create in service to a goal and the content you create because you can/want to will be two very different kinds of content that get very different results.
Who are you talking to?
I hate to break it to you, but “brand awareness” is not an outcome. I am aware of a lot of brands. I haven’t bought anything from most of them. Maybe I’ve clicked on their ads or read something on their site, so I’m aware, but I don't care.
This is why it’s vital to establish your audience. Are you looking for women in their thirties who are interested in yoga? Or are you trying to reach Director- and VP-level executives who are looking for an automation solution like yours?
These may be the same actual people, but you want to reach them very differently. The former audience may find you via Pinterest or Instagram. The latter audience might find you through a Google search, an industry event, or a network connection. The former audience cares about their personal goals, while the latter audience cares about delivering on their objectives, managing their projects, and growing their career.
Would you spend a lot of time taking pretty pictures for Instagram if you want to sell them your SaaS automation solution? No.
What outcomes do you want?
The last part of defining your Why? is knowing what outcomes you desire from your content. If your goal is to make customer onboarding easier and faster, you might define that as:
Our customers are using our SaaS solution regularly within three days of purchase
Call volume from new customers will decrease by x%
Onboarding satisfaction scores will go up by x points
Outcomes for something like brand awareness are a little squishier but might look like:
We’re seeing an x% increase in new visitors to our site
Our social ad engagement has increased by x%
Our branded search terms have increase by x
When you know your outcome, you know how you can measure your content. Good content is not cheap. When you pay someone to write a blog or create a video, you want results. You’re not a hobbyist, you’re a business, and you want content creators who think like a business.
If you’ve got an in-house marketing team that handles content, ensure they’re thinking like this. If you’re looking for consultants to help you establish and maintain results-based marketing, it’s critical that they think of content with a goal- and business-oriented mindset.
That’s what we do at Edify Content. We work with well-equipped marketing teams, small marketing teams that need extra hands, and companies with no marketing teams that need help in that area.
We approach content strategy with business goals in mind, and develop strategies tailored to those specific goals. Want to see for yourself? Email us at hello@edifycontent.com to schedule a free 30 minute consultation.
