As much as we love the Thanksgiving holiday here in Canada (October) and the USA (November), we all dread the ‘fatigue’ associated with turkey leftovers. After we have been through all the salads, sandwiches, pies and soups, there is usually a collective cry – “No more turkey please!”
Content marketing functions somewhat similarly. If you stuff every content medium with too much of the same thing, your audiences will turn up their noses and walk away.
The lean startup model, characterized by a process of creating, measuring and learning from the results, has enormous implications for marketing experts, especially content marketers. In an age where data and metrics are readily available, there is simply no need to remain stuck to a premeditated content marketing strategy. Instead, as content marketers, we need to improvise and make changes based on what is, and isn’t working.
3 Steps for Going Lean with Your Content
- Offer a Tasting Sample: Lean content marketing should begin with a single piece of content, or just the initial portion of your content marketing campaign. There is no need to over-create during this phase, as you run the risk of wasting time and effort. For example, if the initial phase of your campaign calls for 20 blog posts, start by releasing only one. If your readers enjoy it, you can always continue along the same track. However, if they fail to respond favourably to your content, you can regroup and take another approach without having spent the unnecessary time and effort to create and release 20 blog posts in rapid succession.
- Monitor and Measure: Measuring your content is the next step in lean content marketing, and it’s crucial that you track at least one key performance indicator (KPI) or metric during this stage. Today, there are a limitless number of tools available that can help you track these measurements, including Google Analytics which is both very effective and completely free of cost. You can also measure your content organically by monitoring the feedback and comments on social media sites.
- Review Performance: Once you have published your content and analyzed the data, the final step is to learn from the results, even if those results are hard to swallow. For many content marketers, scrapping what they thought was a good idea can be a tough task, but remember, even if your content performed moderately well, there is always room for improvement.
Is your content calendar starting to look like turkey leftovers? Call MintCopy at 888-646-8003 or send us an email for useful tips on how to create content your audience loves to consume and share.
Sheetal Pinto is the founder of MintCopy, a content agency that has been helping businesses communicate effectively since 2008. With a passion for words and a knack for SEO, she’s worked with companies around the world to craft copy that not only engages but ranks. Whether it’s blog posts, website content, or social media updates, Sheetal has a talent for turning complex ideas into compelling stories. When she’s not optimizing content or editing for clarity, she’s probably daydreaming about the perfect headline or debating the Oxford comma. With over 16 years in the business, she’s seen the digital marketing and SEO content landscape evolve and grow. Sheetal’s mantra? Fresh copy, refreshing results!
