I spent some time this morning reading The 2021 State of Digital Content Report and found myself drawn to a summary of content marketing goals.
The survey asked, what is the primary goal for your content strategy?
35% of respondents said their content marketing goal was to create awareness of the brand and generate positive feelings.
Brand attributes
Content marketing is a fantastic tool for raising brand awareness.
We define brand awareness as the extent to which consumers are familiar with your business and its attributes.
Brand awareness is about much more than recognising your logo.
For an online business, you can use content marketing to tell the story of your brand and the qualities it represents.
We know from the psychology of persuasion that people tend to buy from brands they recognise and trust.
Sharing valuable content with your target audience is a compelling way to build that brand recognition and sense of trust, especially if you share content that answers commonly asked questions.
Thought leadership
The second most popular primary goal for content marketing, with 28% of respondents, was positioning the brand as thought leaders and subject matter experts.
Thought leadership, while a slightly cringe-worthy phrase, is a popular tactic for content marketing and helps to build credibility. It’s a great way to demonstrate brand helpfulness too.
Helpful information
In third place was to provide customers with accurate, helpful information and support for buying, using or repairing products, with 16% of respondents agreeing this was their primary goal.
Imagine being a buyer and comparing two different businesses. In the absence of significant differences around price and service, you would be much more likely to buy from the brand that offered a suite of helpful content designed to provide information, answers and support.
You might approach this content strategy by creating a series of short videos demonstrating how to get the most out of your product or service or how to keep it in good shape.
Lead generation
In fourth place was lead generation, a content strategy often assumed to be the primary goal for most brands. Only 15% of respondents listed lead gen as their primary goal.
Content marketing for lead generation involves convincing your audience to take a specific action, moving them into your sales funnel or engagement ladder.
Done well, content marketing can be an incredibly effective lead generator and is very scalable, too, mainly when supported by paid social media advertising.
Customer education
In final place was to help sales or commerce teams generate more revenue, with 7% of respondents claiming this was their primary goal.
A sometimes overlooked goal for content marketing is to encourage more referrals, as it can play an educational role with your existing customers, raising awareness of additional products, services or areas of expertise.
What is your content marketing goal?
It’s OK to have more than one content marketing goal, but a good idea to start with one and grow your content marketing activity from there.
