Will Griffith shares five steps towards generating a useful content marketing strategy that makes the most of your resources.

The growth of digital content has exploded and according to the Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers created 70% more content last year than they did the previous year while 42% published new content multiple times per week.
The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we really need new content daily? It seems to me that many of us have fallen into this cycle of churning out as much content as possible, but is this really the right approach?
Two reasons behind organisations creating content with a ‘spray and pray’ approach are that they:

• don’t have a documented content strategy – only 35% of B2B marketers say that they have it documented, and
• don’t manage content as a strategic asset – up to 70% of content is wasted each day and never repurposed again.

It would be far more effective to create the right content for the right audience at the right time. It would be more productive to find ways to repurpose the content that so much time has been spent on creating rather than creating content haphazardly.
Having a documented content marketing strategy is key to ensuring the content you create is timely, relevant and targeted.  
A content map will enable you to align your brand and product stories with your buyer’s stages, questions they ask, and their content needs and preferences.
Here are five easy steps to get started.

1. Define your buyer stages

Think about how people buy from you and the stages they go through. Some companies start simple and only define three stages: early, mid, and late stage. Some companies look at as many as five stages: interest > learn > evaluate > justify > purchase. In the end it depends on your buyers, the length of the buying cycle and how complex your process needs to be.

2. Develop buyer personas

When it comes to content, one size does not fit all. While a marketing manager of a small business and the CEO of a large enterprise might be on the same customer journey, their content needs are likely to be very different. It is important to identify your top purchase influencers and decision makers. These are your buyer personas. Once you have identified them, give them each a name. Describe who they are with as much detail as possible and include things like what they fear, what motivates them and identify their goals and challenges. It’s always much easier to create content with someone specific in mind.

3. Understand the questions your personas ask at each stage

Different personas will have different questions at each stage of their customer journey. The purpose of your content should be to answer those questions, so that your buyers can make informed decisions and naturally move through the funnel to the purchase stage. General questions buyers ask at each stage of their journey include:

• interest: what is my problem?
• learn: how can I solve my problem?
• evaluate: which solution is the best?
• justify: how do I justify my decision?
• purchase: how do I get started?

4. Answer your personas’ questions

Start to align your brand or product stories with the questions your personas ask. Keep in mind what makes your story unique and what differentiates you from your competitors. You may want to start off by taking an inventory of your existing content and identify gaps. Capture all the details that will help you to categorise your content so that you can easily find the right content for the right persona at the right stage.

5. Identify preferred content types at each stage

Certain types of content work better at some stages than others. During the initial stages, prospects are often more interested in informal types of content consumption like newsletters, infographics or videos – things they do not have to commit much time to. In the mid-stage, they are more interested in case studies or demos. Later in the cycle, when they are more committed to your products and services, they want detailed information, like product specifications and pricing and will spend much more time consuming your content.
Creating a content map is the first step in documenting your content strategy and calming the content chaos. As more content is being created each day, adding order to the process is critical. Your content will be most effective when it’s planned, produced and published for a specific persona. You’ll have content that will address your audiences’ needs during each stage of the buyer journey and will have a balanced business content marketing strategy that will effectively support key business objectives.

Will Griffith is regional vice president of Oracle Marketing Cloud, APAC.

For more tips on how to build your content strategy, check out our downloadable content strategy template.