Content marketing has become a go-to strategy for many businesses in the digital age, with brands choosing to create engaging and promotional material to share with their followers.

However, for any content marketing campaign strategy to be a success, it is vital to have seven key pieces of information.

• Set a goal

For any strategy to be successful, a goal is required. Strategists will have many objectives throughout a campaign, but content marketing should focus on the top priority.

Though most firms will be looking to attract new customers and, as a result, make more money, it’s important to dig deeper than that. For example, does your brand want to increase website traffic? Or perhaps boost product awareness? Specificity is important.

• Know your target audience 

One of the worst ways to start a content marketing campaign is by not knowing the target audience. By knowing who the content is aimed at, the right kind of content can be produced. It will also ensure it is published on the platforms where it is likely to get most engagement and enable it to offer a unique angle that will attract the target audience.

• Understand the competition

Research into competitors and the strategies they use is also essential. Search engines are a great way to quickly discover similar companies and brands. Once you’ve done that, it doesn’t take much to identify the ways in which a competitor’s own content marketing is conducted.

Key questions are how are your goals different? Do your target audiences match or overlap? And what differentiating factors could make your strategy fresh and appealing?

• Work out which mediums to utilise

There is a vast array of ways to distribute content, from email newsletters and blogs to social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Though there’s no need to limit campaigns to a single platform, it is important to recognise the differences between each so content can be tailored accordingly. For example, content that works on Pinterest is unlikely to come over well on LinkedIn.

• Set a message 

Rather than simply producing content for the sake of it, identify a key message or feeling that all content produced for that a campaign should have. This includes not only visual stimulus, such as typeface and imagery, but the emotional tone.

• Costs

As with all forms of marketing, content marketing has associated costs, and these should be thought about when planning strategies. Budgets could factor into how broad a campaign becomes or what sort of content is produced.

• Return on investment

 Though return on investment (ROI) can be a challenge to identify, it is important for brands to have an idea of projected returns before embarking on a content marketing campaign.

Put simply, the ROI could be how much the company wants to gain from the campaign; for example, how many new customers should be gained or how much additional revenue should be generated.

These seven pieces of information are essential to give content marketing campaigns the best chance of success. And, by taking the time to research, brands reduce the risk of an expensive strategy not providing the desired ROI.