5 Tips to Finding Success with Your Content Marketing Program in 2021

It’s a brand new year, and if there’s anytime to plan out new initiatives for 2021, it’s now. And if you’re like Calysto, one of those initiatives is creating a strong content calendar that can be followed throughout the year to continually call out the benefits of your company and its products and solutions. With live events still up in the air—at least through mid-year—having strong content to help with lead generation is critical.

As you ponder your content for 2021, here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Content should reflect your business goals. Your company’s annual Strategic Business Plan and Annual Marketing Plan likely takes into account a wealth of potential company “events,” such as acquisitions, new product launches, new partners or partner programs, and so on. Each will need to be supported by strong content. Likewise, if you have plans to enter new vertical or geographic markets, get ready to build content around them.
2. Check content against your Positioning and Messaging. Each piece of content should reflect at least one of your Key Messages and corresponding Proof Points. Take a solid look at your Positioning documents before you develop content to ensure you are telling stories that best reflect how your company fits in the market and the value it brings to customers.
3. Revisit your audiences. Your company’s Business Plan should rank your top audiences and vertical markets, so make sure your content reflects that as well. The more you demonstrate your knowledge about a particular industry, the more value potential customers will see in working with your company. Another think to keep in mind when it comes to audiences is their position in the marketing funnel—are they early in the cycle, or ready to pull the trigger on a purchase? Being able to deliver the right content at the right time is critical.
4. Yes, you need a content calendar. Even if its continually adjusted, a content calendar helps organize the content you are going to use to support different initiatives throughout the year. A strong content calendar includes every initiative you have planned, including press releases, blogs, videos, white papers, case studies, content for specific verticals, and so on.
5. Define how you will measure success. It’s great to define goals, but if you’re not measuring the success of your content marketing efforts against those goals, you can’t tell what efforts are working and which are falling flat with users. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure frequently, at least once per month.

The new year is a great time to reassess what’s working and what isn’t in terms of your content programs. For more information on developing a content marketing strategy that rocks, download our white paper.