Stephanie Donelson

I’m betting you’re not just doing content marketing to do it. Like any tactic, you have a goal behind your strategy and a reason why you’re doing it the way you do. 

We have to set goals for our content marketing efforts if we want to be successful, and if we want to track that success and prove our department’s value. By knowing where we’re doing  well, we can then focus our efforts and create new opportunities to improve our marketing.

While a lot of these goals will be measured by the same metrics, how you look at those numbers will differ and tell you a different story. How you approach a piece of content that’s meant to nurture leads will be different than how you approach a piece that’s thought leadership, but you’ll still be looking at metrics like pageviews and bounce rate for a quick measure of success. 

If you’re looking for ideas of content marketing goals or want to be able to prove the value of content marketing and all its initiatives, check out these 5 content marketing goals to map to your 2020 marketing calendar. 

1. Lead generation

Obviously one important part of content marketing is making your brand visible online and attracting new users or potential customers to your site. Lead gen leaves the door wide open on what kind of content you can create to drive traffic to your site and get in front of the right people. 

Your lead gen content will most likely be evergreen and more generic when it comes to educating your readers on a certain topic. You won’t be pushing for a sale or name dropping your brand everywhere, but it’s meant to draw people in and introduce them to your brand by providing something valuable and informative – and that does not mean a sales pitch. 

Lead gen content pieces

• Ebooks/guides
• Infographics
• Cheat sheets
• Checklists
• Blogs
• Industry research
• Interviews
• Social media
• Contests
• Webinars
• Digital and print advertising

2. Lead nurture

Solve your customers’ problems and overcome pain points by generating content that helps them move along the funnel – and hopefully improve your brand’s conversion or close rate. Your lead nurture content should build trust with your potential customers and educate them on the benefits of your solution or product. 

Lead nurture content has to walk the line of being educational and sales-focused. You haven’t closed the deal yet, but you should be making the case of why your brand is obviously the right choice for your customers’ needs.

Lead nurture content pieces

• Ebooks/guides
• Blogs
• Infographics
• How-tos
• Cheat sheets
• Checklists
• Case studies
• Comparison charts
• Email campaigns
• Social media
• Webinars
• Free trials/demos
• Pricing sheets
• Advertising

3. Customer retention

Customer retention content pieces should be an extension of customer service and help customers immediately address any problems they may have, as well as provide an opportunity for customers to celebrate your brand’s successes with you. 

Obviously you’ve already closed the sale, so make sure they get the most out of their experience with your product in these content pieces.  

Customer retention content pieces

• How-tos/troubleshooting tips and tricks
• Q&As
• Blogs
• Promotional email campaigns
• Loyalty rewards and exclusive content
• Social media
• Contests
• Exclusive webinars
• Educational courses
• Events
• Apps

4. Branding

Branding content pieces allow you to position your brand as a thought leader, share brand news and communications, and generally just talk about how great your brand is at making your customers’ lives better. 

Branding content pieces

• Press releases
• Interviews
• About us pages
• Blogs
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Case studies
• Educational courses
• Events
• Apps

5. Talent recruitment

Finally, one area of content marketing that I feel is often overlooked is talent recruitment. Most of the time you have a careers page and a link to Glassdoor and that’s it. Take the time to create content for prospective employees to show them why they should come work for you. 

Talent recruitment content pieces

• Social media
• Career pages
• Employee testimonials and videos
• A day in the life of a current employee blog posts

What kind of goals do you set for your content marketing efforts? Tell me in the comments below or over on Twitter!