The main goal of any marketing plan is to attract customers and engage with an audience. Are there certain marketing methods or techniques that work better than others? Absolutely. Content marketing is an example of a marketing method that helps deliver the right message to the right audience. Using more personalized messaging and more targeted delivery of digital ads, emails, social media ads, and other campaign elements can help nurture your customers on their buyer’s journey better than traditional advertising methods.
Some marketers have begun seeing results with the agile method, most often used in software development, in relationship with their content marketing. The Content Marketing Institute describes the relationship by saying, “Content Marketing, meet Software Development, whose job is to continually deliver high-quality, functional software. And Software Development, meet Content Marketing, whose job is to continually deliver high-quality content that has an impact. You have some big things in common.” These common things can help drive better content marketing.
What is agile content marketing?
“Agile” refers to a development process where, as Copyblogger states, “you start with something simple, understand that it needs improvement, and quickly make those improvements based on feedback. With agile content marketing, you’re not starting with a minimum viable product. You’re first trying to build a minimum viable audience using the same lean principles of iterative and incremental development so that you understand how to grow the audience further and better understand what they want to buy.”
Agile content marketing means you spend less time developing it from the onset – it’s created from an informed position but delivered with the idea that it’s flawed and will need to be developed further based on feedback.
How can agile content marketing help your business?
Here’s how to create an agile content marketing plan that will help you reach audiences in a meaningful way.
#Research
Your research starts with general marketing research that explores what your intended customers are currently buying, what problems they are trying to solve, what issues they have with current brands and other information.
#Publish
Your research helps you create content and the next step is to publish it. Publishing anywhere you can solicit feedback is a good start. Generating meaningful feedback is more important than the method of distribution, so start in a place where feedback is easy, such as social media posts, blogs, or emails.
#Adjust and Improve
Some feedback is automatic – you’ll know your content is performing based on things like reshares on social media, click-thru rates on emails, engagement on a page, and more. But you can also solicit feedback. If you’re sending out an email, you can ask if the information is helpful. On blogs, you can ask questions directly after the post such as “Was this article useful?” and give users an opportunity to vote or share feedback. On channels like Facebook and Instagram, you can invite readers to share what they think, what’s working, what isn’t, and what they’d like to see more of. Using this feedback helps you optimize your current content and shape future content efforts.
#Grow and Connect
Once your content is in a good place, it’s time to share it more broadly. From cross-posting blogs onto social media or sharing infographics from emails on landing pages, using your content in more places is the first way to grow its connection with audiences. You can also encourage employees, customers, and users to share content to increase their exposure. That’s the ultimate test of good marketing – if it’s sharable and relevant outside of its initial use.
The importance of an agile marketing plan
Content marketing is an important part of your marketing plan, as it’s a more personalized way of reaching out to audiences. Using the agile method for content marketing helps you create the best content by actively listening to users and working to provide for their needs. Attracting audiences is as simple as connecting with them in meaningful ways that help make their lives easier – which can be accomplished through careful agile content marketing strategies.
