Agile Content Marketing: What You Need to Know

Traffic and leads. As business owners, we flock to social media, content creation, PPC advertising, and other search tactics because we want higher traffic and more leads. Every day, a new strategy rears its head in the marketing landscape.  How do we maintain success?

First, we accept that “the only constant in this [SEO] game is change” (Gibbons, Searchenginewatch.com). Second, we prepare strategies that fit this endearing philosophy.

Enter agile content marketing.  This is “the type of content that responds and adapts to the needs of your audience” (Wilson, Copyblogger.com).

Just as SEO tactics change, customers change. They migrate with platform trends, and look for useful content along the way.  Their information needs shift as they learn more about the products and services they use.  Agile content prepares to grow with them.

So what does that look like, exactly?

Copyblogger Media founder and CEO Brian Clark describes the agile content marketing process in five steps:

Research

Start with what you know about your target audience. Use that information to make some educated guesses about the types of content they want. “Your guesses come primarily from general market research into who you’re trying to reach,” says Clark. Consider what they buy, what they need to satisfy their desires or solve problems, and how that relates to your product or service.

Release

There’s no time to waste. Put your research to work and get some audience-ready content out there. It might not be perfect, but that’s not the point. As Wilson says, “don’t take your content too seriously.” The Internet moves too quickly to get hung up on mistakes. Do your best, be professional, and move on.

Optimize

Invite user feedback for your content to discover what needs to change, and change it.  Monitor and record email survey results, comment sections on blog posts, and social media conversations about your content.  Track link shares, downloads, email newsletter subscriptions, and retweets to gauge what topics and formats are more popular than others.  You won’t know if your content is any good if you don’t consider the opinions and preferences of the people you expect to read it.  Use data-driven results to create the content your customers crave today.

Connect

Accelerate targeted customer growth and maximize content reach by distributing through as many publication channels as possible, such as social media, guest blog posts, and online networks.  This takes work-relentless, dedicated work-which pays off in audience gain and effective, increased brand presence.

Repeat

The data you receive from users will drive your content marketing efforts forward in an ongoing process of refinement.  Every comment, share, or “Like” comprises the overarching characteristics of the content you publish; this feedback is constantly changing. When customer preferences change, your content hitches a ride.

Agile = Ready to Change

“If there’s big news happening within your industry, you need to be prepared to drop everything and adapt, so that you can instantly shift your focus to what’s most relevant,” says Gibbons. Agile content marketing lives for this.  In an agile strategy, content takes shape by change- change you discover in customer data and measurable results.   SEO tactics come and go, but you’re always ready for what’s next.

Do you know where to get started? Contact us today to learn how affordable and easy it can be to deliver engaging, informative content that suits your customers’ ever-changing needs!

References
Clark, Brian. The Business Case for Agile Content Marketing. Scribe Content, 2012
Gibbons, Kevin. “Is Agile Marketing the Future of Search in 2013?” 19 December 2012. Searchenginewatch.com: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2232618/is-agile-marketing-the-future-of-search-in-2013
Wilson, Pamela. “How to Create an Agile Content Marketing Strategy (and Stay Sane Doing It)” 19 December 2012. Copybloggercom: http://www.copyblogger.com/agile-content-that-works/