MSP Content Strategy Tips That Result In More Leads
Content marketing is a highly effective strategy that can help you boost your lead generation. Unfortunately, 63% of businesses lack a solid content strategy. A content strategy serves as the roadmap to success and saves you from wasting time, resources, and money on something that doesn't give you a return on investment. From an SEO perspective, a content strategy also ensures that the content you create is power-packed and not written just for the sake of writing.
Learning how to build an effective content strategy for your MSP is one of the greatest assets you can have for your business. 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. If you want to compete effectively in your industry, you must follow suit.
At Ulistic, we have successfully used content marketing to drive traffic and boost conversions, and we would like to help you do the same. This guide outlines the steps you should take in creating a content strategy that works. Keep reading to find out more.
Before You Create a Content Strategy
Before you delve into designing a plan for your MSP content, create a mission statement that answers the following questions:
- Who is your target audience? Define your buyer personas, keeping in mind that you might have more than one type of customer, just like any other business, based on the five stages in the buying cycle. Your content should cater to all these audiences, which requires that you incorporate various content types.
- What problem do you want to solve for your target market? While your products or services solve a problem for your audience, it also should educate or coach them through the problem as they start to identify and find solutions for it. The content should support people on both sides of the solution you provide; those already using it and those still figuring out their main challenges.
- What is your unique value proposition? Your competitors probably have the same product as yours, so what would make customers buy from you and not them? This is where content comes in to help your customer know what to expect from you.
- What content formats will you use? Will you focus on blog posts, infographics, videos, or a combination of all three? Different topics can take various forms, depending on your budget.
- Where will you publish your content, how often, and how will you manage content creation and publication? The process of managing content publication can be a daunting task, so your strategy should define who creates what, when it should be published, and when it should go live.
Best Practices for Creating a Content Strategy
Once you have a mission statement ready, apply these best practices to help you move things in the right direction.
Define Your Goals
What is the purpose of your content marketing plan, and what do you hope to achieve by publishing content? Is your aim to grow your traffic or to offer support to your already existing customers? For this guide, the objective is to boost your lead generation strategy, and you need to create content that serves this purpose.
Do a Keyword Search
To create content that generates leads, you need to provide people with the information they are looking for. Keyword search is vital in helping you find the phrases and words that site visitors mostly use when searching for your products or services.
While at this, determine which topics not to go after, depending on their keyword difficulty. Knowing the type of content you can easily rank for is crucial for your overall content strategy. Additionally, understanding the complex content that would be hard to rank for will help you decide if you want to dedicate time and resources to that type of content.
Establish Your KPIs
The best way to achieve the goals is to ensure they are specific and measurable. Key performance indicators help you to know when you have reached the goals you set for yourself. They provide you with a list of milestones you can check off as you progress. Ensure you capture what you hope to achieve in terms of sales, revenue, SEO, traffic, and other various aspects of digital marketing like social media metrics.
Set Realistic Time Expectations
Content marketing is not a quick fix for your lead generation problems. If you want a strategy that will yield results in the shortest time, consider other marketing strategies. For a clear picture of what this means, Ahrefs conducted a study to establish how long a page takes to rank.
The shocking results showed that only 22% of pages in the top 10 search results list were less than a year old. This tells you that content marketing is more of a long-term strategy. If you're going to commit to it, be prepared to exercise some patience.
Understand Resource Allocation
You can approach content marketing from an in-house arrangement or using an outsourced team. Alternatively, you can combine both for more returns on investment. An in-house team is familiar with your company products and services, brand, voice, and the ideal customer. On the downside, they tend to be least prepared to create data-driven content.
An outsourced team brings a high level of expertise to the table. They have the human resources, time, software, and tools to create content that converts. On their downside, they may not be too familiar with your company's products and services because they are on the outside.
A hybrid strategy may be the best solution. With the right team of outsourced content marketers, your team will be more than willing to work in partnership to ensure they meet the company goals.
Kick-start Your Content Strategy
Does it sound like such an uphill task to create a content strategy and follow it through? You don't have to do it all alone. Professional services for content marketing exist to offer you the boost you need at this juncture.
At Ulistic, you can find all the help and support you need. Having walked that path for many years, we have what it takes to help you create an effective content strategy. Contact us today to book your initial consultation.
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