The 5 Ws of MARKETING

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How to build a content strategy that works

Content Marketing: All theax)l kids are doing it. But are they doing it right?

Don't he one of the thousands of businesses checking the box on content marketing. Leverage your company's expertise on your industry and audience to truly build brand awareness, engage with customers and achieve business goals, using these tips.

The 5 Ws of Content Strategy

1. WHY are you doing content marketing? With any marketing trend, it's tempting to get on the bandwagon without figuring out how it fits into your overall marketing strategy or without setting appropriate expectations.

Content marketing is about building a relationship with your customers by:

* Getting the attention of new visitors (brand awareness).

* Developing long-term relationships with existing customers (brand loyalty and advocacy).

Like all relationships, you'll need understanding, communication and patience. Businesses must understand the needs of their target audiences before communicating how they can fulfill that need. Unlike paid media or other direct sales channels, content marketing requires a patient, bigpicture mindset, because the goal isn't necessarily immediate conversion.

2. WHO are you trying to reach? The first rule of content creation is understanding your audience. Your campaign starts with learning as much as you can about your competitors, the overall category and the digital visitors who are customers of your brand.

First, collect all the demographic and kxzation information you can, then answer these questions using the recommended data sources.

Q: What needs does your site currently fulfill for visitors?

A: Examine top hit pages, top search clicks and internal search terms. Reference bounce rates and...