Corporate Content Marketing for Best in Class Results

Corporate Content Marketing for Best in Class Results:

Best in class companies utilize content marketing for brand awareness, customer acquisition, lead generation, and customer retention. It’s no surprise more than 60% of ALL companies plan to substantially increase their content marketing efforts in 2012. Why is content marketing so popular? What content marketing tactics do best in class companies employ? Here, in part six of my six part content marketing series, I answer these questions and more.

Why is corporate content marketing so popular? Great content ranks well in search and a good search ranking leads to more traffic, leads, and conversions. Google’s Panda update in 2011 changed SEO forever declaring content the primary force responsible for best rankings.

What kind of corporate content does Google like best? According to Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, Google rewards interesting, unique content because this type of content fosters visitor happiness. Yes, Google actually looks at visitor happiness now. Is your content engaging? Do visitors spend time reading it? Does your content answer visitor queries? Does it motivate visitors to perform an action? Does it inspire them to return to your site (your content core)? If you answered yes to these questions then Google is already giving your content and your search rank a big thumbs up. “Think more broadly about on page optimization – not just keywords,” explains Fishkin. Compelling images and creative content encourages a deeper experience for your visitors. (From Advanced On-Page Optimization – Whiteboard Friday by SEOmoz). Big takeaway: More relevant, unique and interesting content directly correlates with higher rankings and a deeper visitor experiences.

How do best in class companies create all of their great content? Producing enough engaging content continues to challenge most companies to some degree. One way they meet this challenge is outsource their content marketing to businesses like mine. Take a look at the percentage of companies who outsourced content marketing in 2010 and 2011:

(Data from MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends). Since 60% of all companies intend to increase their content marketing in 2012, I predict outsourcing percentages will grow as well.

What content marketing tactics do best in class companies employ? According to the MarketingProfs /The Content Marketing Institute’s report ” B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks report, Budgets & Trends,” best in class companies share 7 content marketing practices: 1. They invest 31% of their marketing budget into content marketing. 2. They segment their content based on the buying cycle. 3. Content marketing is C-Suite supported. 4. They plan to increase their content marketing over the next 12 months. 5. They use at least nine content marketing tactics. 6. They outpace less effective companies adopting blogs, articles, videos, eBooks, social media, and mobile content. 7. They have an effective distribution network using at least 3 – 4 social channels at a higher rate than their peers.