More and more companies are getting on board with content marketing. Ultimately, in a world where purchase decisions progressively start with Google and your business' website meets your prospects before you do, content has a key role in determining prospects engage with your brand.

Need help getting started with your content marketing strategy? Let's discuss ways we can work together to develop a strong plan for your success

The power of content marketing is very well documented. According to The State of Inbound Lead Generation study by HubSpot, businesses with blogs generate on average 67% more leads than those without one. 

Nevertheless, in order to enjoy the benefits of content marketing and achieve the kind of results we've mentioned above, a clear content marketing strategy must be in place.

Although creating a content marketing strategy is a crucial part of any business marketing plan, a large number of companies still don't have it as a priority. Here are just a few of the risks of not having a comprehensive content marketing strategy.

1. Lack of clear direction

Setting up straightforward goals and writing them down somewhere can truly make a big difference. Without a content marketing strategy, your company can't know how many online visitors it has on a daily basis as well as which percentages need to rise and which need to fall.

On the other hand, if you're having well-defined goals, your business can easily identify its weak spots and know what needs to be changed.

2. Your competitors may outperform you

Did you know that 69% of B2B marketers (which are your competition) have a  documented content strategy? This number has been increasing slightly over the past years, rising from 39% in 2019 and 37% in 2018. Nonetheless, what's even more interesting is that a good content marketing strategy seems to be linked to success.

This suggests that not planning really does mean that your competitors may outperform you and you'll most likely fail when it comes to content marketing. Hence, if you don't have a content marketing strategy, you're helping your competitors gain market share.

3. Failing to plan Is planning to fail

This doesn't only apply to marketing, but to plenty of activities in everyday life, too. Despite that alternatives and improvisation can create good outcomes in some situations, content marketing is a serious and precise matter which can greatly affect your business' success rate.

This is why a good strategy and organization skills are required.

4. Online customers might be skeptical

Remember: not even the buying process is how it once was. Nowadays, buyers are more cautious, carefully searching for online information about products and services.

Moreover, due to the abundance of information that's freely available on the web, customers are more informed than ever.

If you don't have a strategy for addressing this, they might question the reliability of your company.

5. The sales pipeline won't grow

The state of a company can be most accurately visualized via the sales pipeline. Without a concrete content marketing strategy, you're missing out on a lot of inbound digital leads for your business. And simple math tells us that fewer leads equal fewer sales.

These are just a few of the many risks of not having a clear content marketing strategy in place. As with everything in life, not putting the effort to develop a plan is itself making a decision to not have a plan.

A good content marketing strategy can help you generate more leads through your website, improve online brand awareness (which helps potential customers and partners find your business), and boost your website's search rankings. Plus, it will help you nurture leads at every stage of the sales funnel.

Here are some simple steps to develop a content marketing strategy that will work.

Define your goals

Think about why you want to create content and which are the results you want to achieve. Whether the answer is generating more leads, demonstrating your industry expertise or increasing business exposure, once you know the specific goals, you'll be able to develop the rest of the content strategy with ease.

Build or refine your buyer personas

Buyer personas offer you precious insight into your prospects, which allows you to understand their pain points, goals, and issues. This way, you can create specific, targeted content to help them solve their problems.

High-quality content tailored to your target audience proves that you're understanding your prospects, that you have expertise and knowledge and that your business is the solution they need. 

Run a content audit

Review the content you already have (if any), repurpose (if possible), and identify any gaps. Map the existing content to specific buyer personas and stages of the Buyer's Journey. This will enable you to accurately map out your content and figure out what content you need to create next.

If there's no strategy behind content marketing and content creation, no matter how much you invest in these processes, you won't attract the right target audience or get the results you need.