Content Marketing Goals

What does a content strategy have to include?

When we at takeoff talk about "content strategy", we mean: A strategy for creating relevant, useful, coherent content as part of our inbound marketing . But what we also mean and consider is: How and where should this content be used and who is involved in creating the content?

This also shows that a content strategy cannot be a one-page summary. A content strategy includes a variety of other work steps, work materials and strategies that build on it or make up it. These include, for example:

1. Buyer Personas
2. Buyer's Journey
3. SEO content strategy
4. topic research
5. Content Audit
6. content distribution plan

Below we'll cover the key elements you should consider when developing a content strategy.

1. Goal and purpose of your content strategy

Traditionally, a strategy should answer what is to be achieved with it - and why. This shows how content is dependent and related to the company. While goals such as sales, growth, etc. naturally have to be adjusted regularly, the purpose provides long-term orientation for the "why" or vision in a company: Both set the direction for your content.

You should also define here what purpose content serves in relation to achieving your company goals: How will content help you achieve your goals?

2. Who is the target group for your content strategy?

Who do you produce content for? This question sounds banal, but it is not that easy to define for most companies. Do you use content to reach customers for a specific product or service? Or for everything you offer? Do you have even higher goals and want to develop into a " thought leader " in your industry?

We here at takeoff create content for different target groups: existing and potential customers, interested parties, marketing enthusiasts in general, etc. Each of these target groups is based on the goals and purpose we pursue as a company.

At this point, further work steps or additional elements come into play: customer interviews and the creation of an ideal customer profile (ICP) as well as buyer personas . Once you have defined and surveyed your target group, you need buyer personas to create targeted content for them.

3. Content mapping

Customers or users need different content in the different phases of their buyer's or customer journey : Typically, potential customers focus on their problems and gather information in the awareness phase, while in the decision phase they choose between options for solving their problem. And once they have become customers, it's all about retention and advocacy - with probably more content than for all previous phases combined.

A content map shows in detail how you attract your target audience and move them through your pipeline. You should also record major themes and campaigns here, as well as show how content builds on each other, is used and should "work".

It is important to provide context and show how the content fits together. It is also advisable to show the "big picture" and present how and when which content is used.

Needless to say, your content mapping will make up the bulk of your content strategy. To create this, you will need to use other resources and strategies, as mentioned above. These include:

1. buyer personas
2. SEO strategy (content clusters, pillar pages , etc.)
3. keyword research
4. content audit
5. topic research
6. website content strategy
7. Information on content creation (guidelines)
8. Content distribution plan/channel plan
9. Content workflows/processes (e.g. in the context of assignment selling)
10. content management guidelines
11. Performance analyses of e.g. landing pages , CTAs, downloads

You can use our content strategy template to collect and structure some of the information you gain during the steps mentioned above and then enter it into an editorial calendar. 

There are plenty of tools and templates for editorial calendars on the Internet. We ourselves use Trello to map and manage our editorial process.

Content Strategy Example: Content based on the "They Ask, You Answer" concept:

We generally recommend a very customer-centric approach and build content strategies according to the " They Ask, You Answer " (TAYA) philosophy. Among other things, a TAYA content strategy always includes creating content on specific topics: the so-called "Big 5" topics .

This is about:

1. costs and prices
2. problems
3. comparisons
4. leaderboards
5. reviews

These topics are particularly suitable for answering questions from customers at the end of the buyer's journey and for building trust. This content is then used intensively by sales as part of what is known as assignment selling : Sales uses content strategically to guide customers further through the sales funnel , to further qualify them and to build trust.

An important aspect of this method is that sales assigns customers the task of consuming certain content during different phases of the sales process: This is to ensure that customers go through the buying process better informed and sales cycles are shortened - and bad leads disqualify themselves more quickly. The use of video content and the interaction of text, video and other media also plays an important role here.

You see: Content is king, but context is queen;) Go into detail about how each content is used and what the output is – your sales colleagues will thank you!

4. Create a content strategy and measure success

The ultimate measure of a successful content strategy for most B2B companies is certainly: How many new customers have we gained as a result?

Well, if you use tools like HubSpot to implement your content strategy, you can analyze exactly which blog post or video helped close a customer. However, you should also track what exactly happens along the buyer's journey until someone becomes a customer.

For example, if you have defined certain content workflows for yourself as described above (such as in the context of assignment selling), then the following KPIs and benchmarks could be important:

1. Conversion rates of the individual funnel phases
2. Conversion/click rates of CTAs and landing pages
3. traffic sources and number
4. click-through rate
5. Average position in search results
6. number of newly generated contacts
7. sources of newly generated contacts
8. keyword growth
9. Content quantity: How much content was published for what purpose?

What else you need to consider for a B2B content strategy

You're probably aware by now that a content strategy isn't just about blogs and an editorial calendar. By this point, it will certainly already be a comprehensive document with a clear plan.

Now you just need to make sure that the content strategy is internalized and, above all, understood by all relevant stakeholders. Because even if you develop the best strategy in the world, it is of no use if everyone does not support it!

During the "final steps" of creating a content strategy, you should ensure the following:

1. Buy-in of all actors

A content strategy is a cross-departmental or company-wide strategy. In order to create relevant content, you need people who write, contribute information, are interviewed, distribute content, or manage the entire process.

The most relevant players will certainly come from sales, customer service and of course marketing. So make sure you create understanding, set commitments and goals, and ensure that everyone is on the same page, for example in a workshop . Ideally, you will then form a revenue team to drive your content strategy forward.

You can find out exactly what a revenue team does in our podcast " No leads, no fun ".

2. Adaptation of sales tactics

Marketing and sales now work together and create relevant content for your customers: But does sales also adapt its tactics and use this content in the sales process? Do sales colleagues send follow-up emails with links to blog articles or do they use video guides or white papers to prepare customers for an appointment?

The correct use of content in the sales process (keyword: assignment selling) requires training and monitoring: So plan regular training sessions and feedback meetings with sales.

3. Internal responsibility

Or in modern German: in-house ownership. You need someone within the organization who holds the reins. In our experience, most content marketing and inbound marketing projects fail because of the outsourcing of content processes to external parties (e.g. content creation). This may be an economical solution in the short term, but in the medium and long term, when the content strategy is scaled up, the costs for content in particular will explode.

The solution here is an internal content manager who is responsible for implementing the content strategy, takes over a large part of the content processes and ensures that the content fits your company - an agency will neither fully understand your company nor be able to communicate "correctly".

We also talk about why inbound marketing needs a content manager in this episode of our podcast " No leads, no fun ":

How often should you adjust your content strategy?

Most companies plan their content strategy for one to two years. This makes sense, of course, especially if you want to slowly build visibility for search engines using content clusters, for example . Unfortunately, the (corporate) world moves much faster and goals change.

But that doesn't mean you have to create a completely new strategy for every small change. We suggest planning for a year and checking quarterly to see if the strategy needs to be adjusted.

This 90-day rhythm allows the necessary flexibility in a volatile corporate world, but also ensures that there is a certain output that can then be continuously analyzed and improved.

Which content strategy tools do you need?

With over 11,000 marketing tools available, it's easy to lose track.

In our experience, you basically need:

A content management system (CMS): We use HubSpot 's CMS and Marketing Hub Professional .

SEO and analytics tools: We use Ahrefs, SEO Surfer, Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

Project management software: We use Trello for our editorial calendar.

Video hosting service: We use Vidyard/HubSpot.

Social Media Management Software: Included in HubSpot’s Marketing Hub.

Paid Ads Management Software: Either directly with LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Ads & Co or you manage your ads in HubSpot.

AI for Content Strategy

AI-supported marketing has long been standard for many companies. AI tools are often used, especially when creating content, for example, blog articles are written with ChatGPT.

We recommend that B2B companies use AI with caution as part of their content strategy: In our experience, B2B content always requires experience and knowledge, which is currently primarily found in the minds of your internal experts.

While AI can help you implement your content strategy faster, it won't take away all the effort of content creation. 

Nevertheless, there are of course AI tools that you should try out and use as part of your content strategy.

So how do you create a content strategy for B2B companies that also brings in customers?

Content, regardless of the context, works best when everyone within an organization understands:

• what goals are to be achieved with it;
• what purpose the content serves or how the goals are to be achieved with it;
• which target groups should be served;
• what the timetable looks like;
• and how success is measured.

A B2B content strategy that also brings in customers essentially depends on the "buy-in" of the relevant players. These do not just consist of marketing, but include all the people who are directly at the source of the content: your customers. Their questions form the basis of a content strategy along a customer journey.

Along the customer or buyer's journey also means that content is used strategically to guide potential buyers through the sales funnel: Sales therefore has a massive influence on the success or failure of a content strategy - and not only in terms of the creation of relevant content, but also on the external image of the company.

Because content is a crucial factor in positioning brands, building an expert reputation and establishing trust between B2B companies and customers. A really good content strategy therefore clearly clarifies the role of all other departments and players in the company - especially sales.

The "watering can principle" as a content strategy is still widespread in B2B companies.

In the best case, these companies initially had a rough direction for content creation in the form of an editorial plan, which was internally dubbed "content strategy" and then lost sight of in all the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

In the worst case, companies produce a scattergun approach and use the wrong content in the wrong format at the wrong time on the wrong channels.

Sounds drastic? Good! Because it is precisely these (real) scenarios that lead to another statement that we often encounter: