Content is king, and considering the statistics, its reign will last for years to come. The number of searches for the term itself are up by 400% since 2011! However, it is still an underutilized advertising medium. Almost 70% of B2B content is wasted either because the content is off topic or does not relate to services that it is meant to promote. In other words, most of the content present on hard drives is left to rot, which has the potential to generate leads for your business!

You have to understand that the marketing team of today is way different than those that were operating 20 years ago. Yes, they still control the budget when it comes to content creation, but the content also has to be in sync with the sales funnel to generate profit. Here are a few ways this is possible:

The Secrets of a Profitable Content Marketing Strategy…

An effective content marketing strategy requires time, thorough research, effort and of course, effective execution. According to Carmen Hill, a renowned Social Media Strategist, you need to have a sturdy foundation based on content to turn potential customers into buyers and to create brand awareness.

The following are a few strategies that have stood the test of time and are quite effective in this regard:

Turn Potential Customers into Paying ones with Relevant Content

An effective way to see what your prospects want to read is by synchronizing your sales to your buying cycle and focusing on direct consumers. The more you know and understand their needs, the more focused your content marketing campaign can be. Get help from your sales and customer representatives for questions buyers typically ask and use the answers as a basis of the content you create.

Map out Publications for Maximum Exposure

To ensure your content reaches as many of your target readers as possible and ensures your business remains on for the top of search results for years, create an editorial calendar. Besides allowing you to determine your strategy, it will also help you plan customer centric content on a regular basis and thus, ensure your target reader always has something new and fresh to read. Creating productive content and posting it on a regular basis will result in a self sustaining infrastructure that will do wonders for your brand for years to come.

The success of a sales team lies in turning prospects into paying customers. This can be challenging as pinpointing the latter is not easy. This is where content marketing comes into play. Quality content can drive profitable consumer action and an organization that does this well, can leave its competitors in the dust.