More than three in four enterprise content marketers believe content marketing has become more important to their organizations in the past 12 months, according to the most recent Enterprise Content Marketing Report. That said, their chief complaint was that content marketing isn’t strategic enough, leading to ad hoc requests and creating new content for the sake of content.
Putting the Social Media Cart Before the Content Horse
Perhaps not surprisingly then, more than half (56%) of enterprise content marketers said they do not have a documented content marketing strategy. Despite this lack of strategic planning, nearly the same percentage (53%) said they are investing in social media in 2024 (up from just 34% in 2023).
Social media spending accounts for $1 in every $3, and by 2026, that spend is projected to exceed $122 billion. So, before you invest your company’s marketing budget in social media, you need a solid, documented content marketing strategy. Only then will you be able to create a successful social media strategy that’s worthy of your budget.
Let’s back up a moment. The proliferation of content since 2020 has created a max exodus of the previously put in place—and sometimes unspoken—rules of brand content. Standing out in what has become an overwhelmingly massive pool can feel intimidating at best. Take some insights from top enterprise marketers to beat the odds and make your content work harder – and your marketing budget go further – in 2024.
Separate Your Brand From The Competition
80% of top enterprise marketers differentiate their content from the competition compared to 61% of all enterprise respondents[2]. Still, only 12% consistently always differentiate their content from the competition. There are several ways to do this: Produce higher quality, SEO friendly content, cover topics that competitors aren’t covering, actively promote your content, and create content formats your competitors aren’t using. Some of the most successful content formats for 2024 are:
- Micro-blog posts or long-form social posts
- Videos
- Webinars
- Interactive assessments
- Multi-page PDF documents
- Whitepapers or eBooks
- Research reports
That doesn’t mean you have to start over creating new content from scratch! You can repurpose your existing content into these new formats. Using a strong SEO tool can help you not only write high-quality content that gets found but it can also show you how your content stacks up against the competition.
Consider The Recall Value of Content at Every Stage
72% of top enterprise marketers create content for specific stages of the buyer journey, compared to just 47% of all enterprise respondents. According to LinkedIn, buyers are either in-market or out-of-market. And just 5% are in-market at any given time. That means 95% of your target audience is not (yet) ready to make a purchase. So, your content needs to be memorable. It needs to have what we refer to as “recall value.” Put every asset in your content library into one of these four buckets, and in addition to understanding the objective and the attribute that will meet that goal, think about how you want your target audience to recall that content.
Awareness
Objective: Positions brand as an industry thought leader
Attribute: Leads to, not with, your brand
Audience Recall: I’ve heard of this brand.
Content Formats: blog posts, infographics, videos, eBooks, data vis
Consideration
Objective: Positions brand as a potential partner
Attribute: Compares your brand to others (infographics, videos, webinars)
Audience Recall: This is a brand we should consider.
Content Formats: webinars, videos, customer stories/case studies, info-books, testimonials
Conversion
Objective: Positions brand as the best solution for prospect challenges
Attribute: Convinces your prospect to become a customer
Audience Recall: We need to work with this brand.
Content Formats: Research, interactive assessments and calculators, demos, free trials
Loyalty
Objective: Upsell current customers and keep loyal by continuing to offer valuable content.
Attribute: Insights and special offers exclusively for customers.
Audience Recall: We are proud partners of this brand.
Content Formats: Explainer videos, newsletters, special offers and promotions
With a solid content marketing strategy and fresh content formats to back it up, you’re ready to focus on distribution – and that’s when we can talk social media strategy.
Building Your 2024 Social Media Marketing Strategy
Be sure to include the following elements in your social media marketing strategy:
- Overall company and marketing campaign objectives
- Benchmark metrics and KPIs tied to each objective
- Organic social media content calendar build-out
- Social-first content including videos, animations, and branded templates
- Standardized workflow process
- Paid media support
- a/b testing
Want to optimize your social media marketing strategy and boost your brand’s recall value? Get Behind-the-Handle expertise! Click here to learn more.
[1] https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/the-cost-of-social-media-advertising-wheres-the-value
[2] Enterprise Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends
