{"id":31096,"date":"2014-09-30T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2014\/09\/30\/content-performance-marketing-3-steps-to-future-success\/"},"modified":"2020-02-19T06:55:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T06:55:55","slug":"content-performance-marketing-3-steps-to-future-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2014\/09\/30\/content-performance-marketing-3-steps-to-future-success\/","title":{"rendered":"“Content Performance Marketing” \u2013 3 Steps to Future Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

From more humble beginnings of White Hat SEOs touting “content<\/a> is king” to massive campaigning from search engines<\/a> and marketers around the idea of quality “content<\/a> marketing,” content<\/a> marketing has come a long way.<\/p>\n

However, the path we\u2019ve been on is coming to an end. As brands and marketers, we\u2019re at a fork in the road when it comes to content<\/a>; the next path we take will either elevate our journey to the next level, or throw us into a never-ending roundabout that takes us nowhere.<\/p>\n

The right path is marked “content<\/a> performance<\/em> marketing,” and it\u2019s less about how we get there and more about what we\u2019ve accomplished along the way. In this post, we\u2019ll talk about three key components of content performance marketing, where you\u2019re not just creating<\/em>quality content<\/a>, but also anticipating demand, optimizing content, and most importantly, measuring it.<\/p>\n

The Content Marketing Plateau<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t need to tell you how important content marketing is. Most marketers and brands that are on the leading edge are doing it in some form or another. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute<\/a>, the most effective B2B marketers allocated 39 percent of the marketing budget to content in 2013.<\/p>\n

I also don\u2019t need to tell you just how much data<\/a>\u00a0we have to deal with today. The amount of content that\u2019s being created goes hand-in-hand with the amount of data that\u2019s being produced.<\/p>\n

The more content, the more competition, and the harder it is \u2013 as consumers and marketers – to cut through the noise and scale efficiently. Read more on that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"scaling-content\"<\/p>\n

Content Performance Marketing: 3 Steps to Success<\/h2>\n

Step 1: Target Demand<\/h3>\n

Content performance marketing starts with understanding the demand for content. Your goal is to be visible where your audience is looking for your products and services.<\/p>\n

But the demand for types\u00a0<\/em>of content is changing every day, and the audience you serve expects more than ever before.<\/p>\n

In the past, shoppers on an e-commerce site would have been satisfied with well-categorized products on a website and good product content; now those same customers want you to help them buy the product by offering buying guides and a customized shopping experience.<\/p>\n

In practice, supplying the content for the demand leads to brands capitalizing on the long-tail queries that we see more and more today (especially with the growing mobile audience and how they search).<\/p>\n

One great example of answering these types of queries with in-demand content is Nordstrom and its how-to video on scarves<\/a>, answering the query “how to tie a scarf.”<\/p>\n

Brands that win are brands that know where their audience is and how they like to receive information, and then they create content assets that are optimized for those search queries.<\/p>\n

Here are five tips for targeting demand as part of a content performance strategy:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gauge demand by looking at the historical performance of your Web content over time, observing the peaks and meadows. Pair that with data on trending topics<\/a> over time, and what\u2019s happening now.<\/li>\n
  2. Assess the trends around the types of content your audience wants. As each content asset takes resources, be clear on those that are in highest demand to get the most bang for your buck.<\/li>\n
  3. Dive into the seasonality of your business, and understand when you need to ramp up content based on things like holiday shopping seasons \u2013 when the demand is higher for retailers\u2019 content.<\/li>\n
  4. Look at ways to extract competitor data, so you can get a better picture of how your organic content strategy is performing against your competitors. Where is your competition doing a stellar job? Where can you do better?<\/li>\n
  5. Remember, content performance marketing is about marrying data with wisdom, and orchestrating campaigns that fit into the lives of your consumers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Step 2: Optimize Content for Search Success<\/h3>\n

    Targeting demand is simply not enough to achieve content performance marketing; you also need to optimize your content to gain that visibility where your audience is. That means taking those real-time insights, and applying it to the content strategy immediately.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s one big opportunity for efficient content optimization that will drive more performance in the long run, and it\u2019s centered on giving content creators the tools they need.<\/p>\n

    These content creators are often not the marketing strategists in a company but still need access to information to help them understand what topics are in demand in real time, and how to optimize.<\/p>\n

    Full-spectrum optimization for content creators means:<\/p>\n