Content Marketing Strategy

Over the last decade we've watched technology transform the way marketers reach their audiences. The popularity of social media  and the standarization of email as a principal means of professional communication enables organizations to engage their audiences more frequently and intimately than ever before. Content comes in a variety of formats, including e-newsletters, printed newsletters, whitepapers, case studies, eblasts, webinars, blog posts, and social media messages. Implementing a content marketing strategy helps organizations streamline their efforts to disseminate information consistently.

The essential component of a content marketing strategy is an editorial calendar. Editorial calendars take the headache out of content marketing by reducing the time it takes to produce content, tracking the content you've already created, and helping to avoid mistakes that come with producing content on the fly. When developing your editorial calendar consider these five key content types:

• Content that builds trust- how-to articles, testimonials, reviews, articles

• Content that educates- white papers, newsletters, webinars, survey data

• Customer generated content- testimonials, videos

• Other people's content- RSS feeds for industry- specfic information to share, retweets and shares of great content from other organizations

• Content that converts- events, case studies, results

Before you begin developing your editorial calendar your organization will need to consider what type of information your audience is interested in receiving. One of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to determine this is through online surveys.

Check out the survey we created for Translucence subscribers here. Complete the survey and we'll send you a $5 Starbucks gift card!

Best of the Web- Content Marketing

Content Creation Strategies for Nonprofits- One-hour webinar by Kivi Leroux Miller of www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com

How to Put Together an Editorial Calendar- from the Content Marketing Institute

SurveyMonkey- who Alboum used to create our nifty survey in a jiffy! The basic membership allows you to create and disseminate a 10-question survey for absolutely free!