Increase marketing ROI with a documented content strategy.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than 90 percent of B2B marketers include content marketing as part of their marketing strategy. And in 2014, 70 percent of those marketers claimed they planned to increase the amount of content they produced. The question is: Are these investments paying off? A recent Forrester Research article reports that as much as 50 percent of corporate content is going unused. In other words, much of your content development dollars are going to waste.

We believe waste occurs because much of the content being produced is not relevant or meaningful to the audience it is meant to serve. Many companies produce content with little understanding of their target customer or without a goal of strategically aligning it to their corporate messaging and go-to-market strategies. As a result, content development becomes nothing more than an ad-hoc, reactionary function. It no longer serves an intentional, strategic and sustained effort that fosters thought leadership and positioning in the market.

We’ve all witnessed it. A new report comes out. A competitor issues a press release. An article appears in a trade journal. These events cause a flurry of requests that put the content strategy — and the content marketing team — into a tailspin. Don’t be mistaken. We are not saying there isn’t a place for “opportunistic” content in a formal content strategy. Because there absolutely is, and there should be. The problem arises when ad-hoc reactionary content “becomes the content strategy” and begins to dilute strategic discipline.

Only when a disciplined content development methodology is used to formally document a content strategy can you truly create valuable content that will extend and amplify critical elements of your Corporate Messaging Platform. This process ensures all content, including thought leadership, brand awareness, product, demand generation and public relations content, aligns with corporate messaging, business goals and strategies. The documented content strategy becomes a roadmap for and decision-making filter through which storylines, topics and content are produced.

Ultimately, a documented strategy will ensure the content you develop is relevant to both the needs of your business and the needs of your customers, eliminating wasted efforts and wasted dollars.

Download this quick read to learn how a documented content strategy can increase your marketing ROI.