You’d never take a trip without a roadmap

It’s true. You’d never take a trip without a roadmap, so why tackle content without one? In their study of B2B Content Marketing, the Content Marketing Institute proved something we’ve known all along: a documented content strategy is non-negotiable.

While this might seem obvious, only 44% of B2B marketers report having one. It might be possible to scrape by without a documented strategy, but we wouldn’t recommend it. Companies without this kind of roadmap are not experiencing the true impact of quality content. A documented strategy keeps content marketing effective in the midst of busy days and deadlines. According to this study, an overwhelming 84% of marketers who consider themselves ineffective at content marketing have no strategic roadmap of their own.

Here are three reasons your company needs content strategy:

1. New ideas are never a challenge.

No surprise here, the biggest content marketing challenge reported was lack of time. 69% percent of those surveyed said they don’t have time to generate great content on a regular basis. With a content strategy, creating material under deadlines is much easier; you have an arsenal of topics at your disposal. Those touch points were formed with specific outcomes in mind, tailored to your target and best of all, you’ll never feel pressed to start from scratch on a day that doesn’t go as planned.

2. It keeps your team organized and focused.

B2B content marketing is on the rise. 58% percent of marketers plan to increase their content budgets in 2014, and 73% of marketers say they are producing more content than last year – with more growth expected in coming months. Having a roadmap in hand leaves you prepared. Your entire team will know the why and how behind every piece of content produced. A documented strategy will keep the quality of daily content high, leaving you free to manage higher level things like increasing volume and budget.

3. Social media stays in check.

This study proves that while B2B marketers are still increasing social media usage each year, they are not convinced of its impact on the bottom line. A content strategy helps your team cope with pressure to spend seemingly endless amounts of time on social channels. It outlines which social channels to utilize, what to post and how often to do it — keeping efficiency up and effectiveness high.

Does your company have a documented content strategy?

Image via (cc) Inspire Kelly