Content is not only what defines our brand but is also the first line of communication with our audiences. Whether it’s blogs, product pages, emails, social media posts, or paid advertisements, each medium has its own uses and style that must be considered. But in a very content-saturated world, how do you ensure your own pieces stand above the sea of articles and posts already out there, especially during a period of constrained resources?  

With so many channels and methods for generating brand awareness, building trust, and educating audiences, pressure to stretch yourself and your team to create brand-new pieces of content for each channel can grow. Fortunately, you can still create unique and convincing messaging from recycled and evergreen content. In this article, we’ll discuss strategic content management best practices that can set you up for success, even on a limited budget. 

Define Your Content Goals

As with any marketing effort, it’s critical to define your content goals before you start writing. Begin to define your content goals by analyzing your overall marketing goals. Is your team focused on:  

• Increasing brand awareness?  
• Growing sales by a certain percentage over the next quarter?  
• Deepening relationships and loyalty with your customers?  

Whatever your focus is, your marketing objectives should be guiding your content. For example, diving back into those goals from before: 

• If your goal is to increase brand awareness, consider increasing your share of voice by prioritizing public relations activities such as producing articles on other publications’ websites, increasing spend on paid sponsorships, and increasing your content production through outsourcing.  
• If you are focused on growing sales by a certain percentage over the next quarter, ponder prioritizing lead growth through producing more webinars, growing web traffic, and building a strong backlink strategy.  ‍
• If you are prioritizing deepening relationships or building loyalty with customers, focus on increasing your customer engagement score by writing more technical articles that help them get more out of your existing products and services. Also think about improving your customer loyalty program with exclusive offers, newsletters, and webinars. 

Secondly, ensure all goals are SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. So, for example, if you are focused on increasing leads, your SMART goal may look like this: Increase leads by 10% by increasing webinar-generated leads by 20%, grow web traffic by 15%, and create 10 articles for other publications to increase backlinks.  

Your goals act as your North Star; they will guide and determine what type of content to focus on, so ensure you complete this step before solidifying your content schedule. 

Audit Existing Content

Your content across your marketing ecosystem tells a story, so it’s important to build off what you already have. Through a content audit, discover what content your audiences find most engaging. Though the metrics you use to gauge performance may differ within an audit depending on your goals.  

For example, let's analyze the following goals and how it could change your auditing methods:

Improve web traffic:  

1. Identify your current top 10 most visited pages  

2. Determine which content ranked 11-30 could be improved to increase overall organic traffic  
   

Increase customer loyalty: 

1. Identify which content your customers find most helpful by analyzing which has the lowest bounce rates  

2. Figure out which emails customers are engaging with the most by looking at open and click rates  
   

Generate more leads:  

1. Look at what content generates the most leads  

2. Determine what content has the most visitors, but low conversions and high bounce rates 
   

A content audit helps you identify what content has performed well as well as what hasn’t in the past, providing you with a better understanding of what content to produce in the future. And more importantly, it will give you great ideas for future content pieces, so you can further solidify your organization as subject matter experts.

Create Content with Repurposing and Cohesiveness in Mind

People consume content differently. Some prospects and customers are deep researchers, searching through every eBook, blog, and infographic they can get their hands on. Many get their insights by scrolling social media or listening to a podcast on the way to work. Regardless of your audience’s preferences, your content should be evergreen and encourage repurposing across a variety of channels and mediums.  

Each piece of content connects another piece to the puzzle, making up your brand’s story, so each article, webinar, and podcast should bounce off each other like an ensemble of musicians bringing each of their own talents to tell a cohesive story. For example, old blog posts could be incorporated into new pieces to provide a modern update on the existing story, or an eBook could be diversified into different blog articles.  

What’s important is ensuring each content piece is helping you build your reputation as a thought leader. So, don’t feel pressure to create unique pieces of content every time. Reduce and reuse to your hearts’ content!  

Outsource Content Pieces to Experts Outside of Your Team

With the economic hardships we’re all facing, many marketing teams are having to do more with fewer resources. For those of us responsible for the content schedule, that means there are fewer funds to outsource content to other creators and agencies, which can encourage overproduction and lead to burnout. Even if you are a content team of few, don’t try to produce content in a silo. It’s not worth it for your own mental health.  

Lean on others to tell your brand’s story. Your entire company is filled with creative individuals with deep industry insights that you can leverage and learn from. Consider implementing a guest blog program and courage others to share their voice on your blog, in podcasts, webinars, and on social media via takeovers where it makes sense. Not only does this help your team to produce more content, but it also exposes your audience to several voices throughout your organization.  

By establishing different members in your organization as thought leaders, you can begin to solidify your presence throughout your industry as a trusted organization that solves your audiences’ toughest pain points. 

Need a Helping Hand? Reach Out to the Right Partner

Here at Lev, we recognize that even some of the most experienced teams need a helping hand. Whether you are looking to improve your content, email, or lead nurturing strategy, contact our Marketing Strategy and Services team. We pride ourselves on bringing deep expertise to every project—helping level up your marketing strategy and build stronger prospect and customer relationships.