If you are looking to rev up a content marketing campaign to improve your user engagement metrics, you might as well put in some thought into tweaking your Content Engagement Strategy. Successful content strategies center around the preferences of your target audience wherein the communication is focused on what they are interested in. Online content that caters to your target audience can be dished out in different formats(infographics, e-books, brochures, videos, podcasts) to involve them in spontaneous conversations which can be a real-time feedback for your content marketing efforts.
Let’s have a look at the ways in which you can reach out to your target audience with some value-adding content marketing efforts.
# Create a Content Engagement Strategy
Once you have established yourself as a thought leader, the next immediate task would be to engage your audience’s attention on a consistent basis. While developing an engagement strategy you are obligated to put in efforts to create content themes and topics based on an in-depth research. Your content should be of value to your audience as you continue progressing through different stages of your content marketing program. Quality matters, so don’t end up mass producing content instead of focusing on its uniqueness quotient.
# Define Your Customer Segments
One of the key elements in content marketing is maintaining a sharp focus on your customer segment. Although digital marketing affords you the luxury of reaching out to a much larger audience, a sound content marketing strategy would be to concentrate your efforts on driving home the message to a single customer segment. The task of aligning your content marketing strategy with targeted pitching will help you identify your target buyer persona in the long run.
# Establish a Connect Between the Content & Your Audience
Content is an effective medium to build some online credibility. The engagement factor in content marketing can be a measure of your performance as a thought leader. According to a study by Aol & Nielson approximately 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared across the web space each day. Your audience plays the dual role of an influencer and a curator while sharing your content across different social media platforms. This makes it an imperative to deliver the message convincingly with a certain knack for creativity as the audiences today have a built-in BS detector that can tell apart a genuine approach from an exaggerated attempt at connecting.
# Fine Tune Your Content : Know what Your Audience is Looking For
Good content delivers value while boosting the growth of your business.The availability of multiple content marketing platforms has made it easier for content marketers to create and share customer-centric content. As a content marketer it is important that you keep an ear out for what your niche audience, competitors and industry experts are talking about. While crafting a content strategy for your audience, make sure that you add a valid call to action so as to engage them in meaningful conversations and faster conversions.
# Ensure Consistency : Deliver Reliable Content in a Timely Fashion
Consistent content creation and dispersal through blog posts, newsletters, online brochure pages, social media updates and press releases let you deliver the marketing messages for an unparalleled impact. The key to maintaining consistency lies in sticking to an Editorial Calendar with an itinerary for all the content that needs to be published in sync with a marketing campaign.
Post sales queries, FAQs, Post sales informational content can come in handy while keeping your customers enticed and loyal to the brand. In a nutshell, avoid self serving messages and promotional content while opting for value adding content that solves the pain points of your audience and fills in the content gaps.
# Track Your Social Engagement Metrics
Social media engagement helps promote the growth in brand awareness while impacting the overall traffic to a website. Conversation, Amplification, applause and economic value are some social media metrics that let you evaluate the performance of your content. The conversations and interactions happening on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn indicate how findable your content is. Meanwhile the the shareability quotient of your content is reflected in the retweets, re-shares and repins on the popular social media platforms. The more your content gets shared the better is the amplification rate for it.
# Engagement Marketing
Traditional marketing has given way to a more customer centric version of it where behaviour driven marketing and multi-channel engagement lead improved interaction with your audiences. Targeted media relations are basically built around the theme of customer engagement. Studies have revealed that consumers feel more engaged when a brand tends to reach out to them through personalized messages. A consumer today is not just a passive recipient of your marketing messages. Brands indulge in engagement marketing to reach out to their audience with informative and thought provoking content.
As a Content Contributor or a content strategist you must realize that the scope of content marketing is not just limited to creating better user engagement. Value adding content ultimately creates enhanced user experiences for your niche segment that keeps coming back to you for that "go-to-expertise" to get their product/service related issues resolved.
