The article was originally published on Content Marketing Insider (10/04/13) In the terminal decade, marketers accept experimented amongst novel technologies, edifice the pipes to connect amongst their online audiences. Modern CMOs cultivate a blend of digital media, including emails, blogs, tweets, posts, as well as other forms of social media. While using these tools has elevated marketers to an fifty-fifty to a greater extent than key role inward many organizations, it has also challenged them to locomote along engaging amongst an increasingly demanding audience. Marketers accept created a beast, hungry to devour novel content at a blistering pace.
Feeding the creature is where content marketing comes in. Consumers are looking for high-quality content, but it typically has a real brusk lifespan. (Think of a creature amongst a fast metabolism!) Fortunately, nosotros are starting to run across some novel tools that tin assistance marketers generate measurable ROI from their content strategies.
We accept identified 5 key elements of an effective content marketing strategy, along amongst a listing of applications to assistance marketers execute on each element:
- Curation: There’s no shame inward repurposing existing third-party content on relevant topics. By doing so, yous locomote the trusted channel where audiences locomote to respect high-quality as well as relevant content, without all the noise. Companies such equally Percolate as well as Trapit tin assistance marketers position relevant content as well as repurpose it for their ain audiences.
- Creation: It’s difficult to accept a content marketing strategy without some master content, as well as marketers accept locomote increasingly comfortable relying on a blend of internal as well as external writers. Original content tin hold upwards long-form (multiple paragraphs or pages) or short-form (140-character tweets). New companies such equally Contently as well as Scripted allow marketers to respect bully writers most topics ranging from jail cellular telephone phones to trampolines.
- Workflow management: Editorial calendars are critical, specially when multiple writers as well as divisions are collaborating or as well as hence content. Marketers also require to larn by revisions as well as approvals. This is where workflow management platforms such equally Kapost as well as Zerys tin help.
- Distribution: After the content is created, it needs to hold upwards published through multiple outlets: blogs, contributed articles, LinkedIn, Facebook, as well as Twitter. This distribution is non trivial, given the multiple formatting restrictions as well as the varying preferences for each audience. Companies such equally Tapinfluence as well as Papershare come upwards inward here.
- Analytics: This entire procedure volition hold upwards repeated multiple times, as well as hence measurement effectiveness is critical. You can’t amend what yous can’t measure, as well as hence having an analytics solution is the exclusively agency to closed the loop as well as generate a self-reinforcing cycle. Companies similar Simplereach as well as Awe.sm assistance marketers rails ROI.
Content marketing is a relatively novel industry, as well as currently nosotros run across multiple companies focusing on dissimilar pieces of the value chain. Within several years, I predict that at that spot volition hold upwards consolidation, equally marketers merely can’t bargain amongst 5 dissimilar vendors to larn by their content marketing strategies. There volition hold upwards category winners that expand into other parts of the content marketing cycle, but it’s however also early on to say which companies volition emerge on top.
