Nearly 40% of marketers say content marketing is an essential part of their marketing efforts. And 81% say their company sees content as a business strategy. But, at the core of any content marketing plan lies the question: What constitutes good content? In many cases, brands interpret it as “well-written content” — think impeccable grammar and spelling. While these are key elements of effective writing, they only scratch the surface.
Just like a traditional marketing campaign, your content strategy should focus on your marketing goals. When it comes to content, success lies in ensuring that your message resonates with the right audience. Imagine designing a beautiful billboard ad on a quiet road with little traffic. Even if it's a work of art, its impact is lost because the audience simply isn't there. In content marketing, the same holds true — good content isn’t just about creation; it's about strategic placement and visibility.
If content isn't tailored for the channels it's meant to thrive on, it’s unable to deliver any value to your business. Quality content involves reaching out to your audience, emphasizing the importance of their time, and expressing your desire to connect, entertain, and fulfill their needs.
In this article, we'll delve into the critical role of effective content in crafting your marketing strategy, shedding light on how a Product Information Management (PIM) solution can enhance your overall approach.
What defines good content?
Defining "good content" is subjective, varying based on individual perspectives and goals. According to Sandra Herdering, founder of S.HE Business, “good content is content that sells well because it offers interested parties the added value, they need to make a confident, informed decision." Consistently producing valuable content — be it insightful blog posts, educational videos, or eye-catching infographics — demonstrates expertise and a commitment to supporting your target audience.
With 63% of content marketers using their content strategy to build loyalty with their existing customers, the standards for effective content extend beyond technical aspects. What qualifies as "good content" can depend on factors such as relevance, clarity, and engagement. Creating impactful content involves developing a content strategy, ensuring consistent publication, measuring performance, crafting multimedia content, prioritizing promotion, and gaining a deep understanding of your target audience.
Why do we need a content marketing strategy?
A content marketing strategy is not just a trend; it's a must-have for businesses. It serves as the guiding force amid a multitude of touchpoints, ensuring meaningful engagement and tangible business outcomes. By offering value, you position your brand as an industry authority, earning trust from potential customers. Over 70% of both B2B and B2C marketers have already recognized this, incorporating content marketing into their overall strategies.
As Sandra Herdering, points out, “identifying the exact moment when content triggers engagement can be challenging.” It's the collective impact of all touchpoints that makes the difference. A content marketing strategy answers your audience’s questions, forges relationships, boosts conversions, and generates leads. Its effect can be seen in the achievement of three goals: creating brand awareness, building trust, and educating the target group.
What are the challenges in content marketing?
Businesses face several challenges when managing their content operations. For B2C marketers, the primary obstacles include creating content that resonates across various roles within the target audience (42%) and the need to improve internal communication between teams or silos (41%). On the B2B side, the challenge is finding partners with adequate topical expertise (65%). Notably, businesses that spend the least on content marketing often struggle with crucial aspects like publishing volume, lead generation, and measuring ROI.
As organizations strive to build brand awareness and engagement, they also grapple with:
- Understanding the target audience: About 65% of content marketing assets go unused because they are irrelevant. To tackle this, invest time in understanding your audience well. Then, make your content valuable by directly addressing what your customers are interested in, worried about, or need. How? Use personalized content — it can boost your sales by a solid 19%.
- Maintaining consistency: According to McKinsey & Company, “the 3 Cs of customer satisfaction” are “consistency, consistency, and consistency.” Consistency enhances brand recognition and user experience. Always maintain a tone and style that is consistent with the brand or desired communication approach.
- Creating seamless digital experiences: Adapting your content to the intended platform is crucial, keeping in mind that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Pay attention to factors such as SEO, and readability, and ensure a seamless user experience to maximize impact.
- Overcoming cognitive load: Clarity is key for lasting impact. In a 2023 study, ads with high cognitive load saw a 40% dip in brand recall. To counter this, embrace simplicity in your messaging. Additionally, leverage storytelling; stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. They create an emotional connection, making your brand more memorable.
- Elevating impact through design: Leverage visuals to enhance understanding or engagement. A well-designed presentation can significantly elevate the impact of the content. Content with good images gets 94% more views than without.
- Navigating analytics: Effectively measuring content marketing ROI involves monitoring performance through analytics tools, tracking metrics such as page views, social shares, and comments to gauge reach and impact. The commitment to optimizing strategies is evident, with 61% of top content marketers conducting ROI-centric content audits at least twice a year.
Product information is the be-all and end-all — the basis for the whole story
Product information is crucial for compelling brand stories and successful content marketing. Every product detail contributes to the narrative, shaping how buyers perceive and engage with a brand. In today's digital era, consumers expect seamless digital experiences — driving the demand for accurate and reliable information. In fact, they are willing to spend 140% more to get personalized experiences and content has an impact in their purchasing decisions (93%). Businesses are responding to these expectations by implementing Product Information Management (PIM) systems.
How can PIM enhance your content marketing strategy?
56% of shoppers value product information now more than ever and may opt out of doing business with retailers with incorrect product descriptions. Yet one in three marketers admit that their content writing is only “somewhat” or “not so” effective. If attributes are missing from the product descriptions, you lose credibility with consumers. To drive sales, you must provide detailed, complete, and accurate product content so that they can easily access and fully understand the product's attributes and benefits.
Enter Product Information Management (PIM) – a data management solution that allows you to easily onboard, manage, and distribute channel-ready product content, anytime, anywhere. Implementing a PIM solution to manage product data is key to start gaining the benefits rich product content can produce.
Top 7 benefits of implementing PIM for your marketing strategy
- Centralized data management
72% of firms say managing data silos across multiple systems, technologies, and regions is extremely challenging. This is where PIM’s ability to streamline data management workflows, automate product data syndication and synchronization, minimize manual processes, and adapt to complex use cases is giving it a unique edge. It centralizes product data, ensuring that all authorized users can easily access the same accurate and up-to-date information. - Consistent brand messaging
Consistent brand messaging is essential, with 90% of consumers expecting their interactions to be consistent across all channels. With a version control feature, you can track changes made to product information over time. This ensures that updates, edits, or modifications are transparent, preventing conflicting or outdated information from being circulated. Teams can access standardized product details, ensuring messaging aligns seamlessly with brand guidelines across diverse channels. - Efficient multichannel publishing
Managing different versions of product information for various touchpoints can be challenging. PIM simplifies this by tailoring product details to each channel's needs, saving time and effort in manual data entry and updates. With a single source of information, it eliminates the complexities of managing channel requirements, ensuring accurate and updated product descriptions and images across channels. - Personalized content creation
PIM manages and enriches all product data, making it easier to process the information you’d like to personalize. Whether the data is coming from a supplier or an ERP system, PIM keeps it all in one location. This allows you to save time and direct your efforts towards generating tailored product experiences. By integrating AI capabilities into PIM systems, you can create highly targeted marketing campaigns and product recommendations. - Streamlined workflow collaboration
By automating your PIM processes, you can manage and quickly publish data to every platform, improving efficiency and re-aligning your workforce towards creative problem-solving. Whether it's quickly expanding product catalogs, tailoring data processes for targeted marketing, minimizing manual efforts for heightened productivity, or refining personalization, PIM emerges as the pivotal link for collaborative success in today's digital commerce landscape. - Improved time-to-market
Brands can focus entirely on winning on the digital shelf by eliminating the challenges around managing product information, such as inaccuracy, incompleteness, inconsistency, etc. With PIM, you can speed up time-to-market by 75% thanks to faster updates, quick data onboarding, and streamlined business processes. This allows you to easily manage a vast inventory and diversify with new products, as well as adjust prices in response to market changes. - Enhanced customer experience
By leveraging PIM, organizations can elevate the customer experience by presenting consistently updated and personalized content, reducing product returns, fostering brand loyalty, and ultimately boosting sales. The consolidation of product information in a single repository is the foundation of excellent CX and higher ROI. With this, the entire product experience becomes customer centric.
Leverage PIM to create engaging experiences for your audience
In content marketing, where every detail matters, product information takes center stage. By recognizing its role, the need for a dedicated data management solution becomes evident. That’s where Contentserv's PIM solution comes in — a dynamic tool designed to manage product specifications, data, and marketing content centrally. It can help you create product content at scale, deliver compelling customer experiences, and make data-driven decisions — ultimately ensuring success on the digital shelf.
Contentserv's PIM takes content marketing strategy to the next level by ensuring a consistent message across all channels. It boosts SEO rankings by enabling the review and enrichment of product information with relevant search terms. Additionally, it ensures all teams within the organization always have up-to-date product information at their fingertips, enhancing transparency and efficiency.
Contentserv integrates seamlessly into your existing IT landscape and ecommerce ecosystem, connecting all data points to provide a single source of truth and a holistic view of your target audience. Businesses and their marketing teams can also:
- Streamline collaboration among cross-functional departments, ensuring a seamless flow of information between marketing, sales, and product development.
- Establish product data quality standards and compliance policies throughout the entire product chain, ensuring exceptional campaigns and promotions.
- Seamlessly distribute product information across various touchpoints, including websites, stores, print catalogs, brochures, marketplaces, email, stores, etc.
The result? Customers feel a genuine connection to your brand, fostering loyalty and satisfaction. Before you know it, your target audience will start looking to you as a source of solutions to all their worries — and your company will benefit from it.
