4 Questions to Help You Troubleshoot Your Content Marketing

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If you’ve ever noticed that some content marketing campaigns are more successful than others, you’ve probably also wondered why. Does success come down to strategy, execution, timing, or other factors?

Whether you’re new to content marketing or an industry veteran, here are a few questions that you can ask to help you achieve more consistent content marketing results.

1. Am I solving a clearly-defined problem?

What makes a problem “clearly-defined”? A few examples:

• A sales cycle that’s taking too long
• A lack of awareness of your product
• A lack of understanding of how your product can help solve pain points

The best content addresses a clearly-defined challenge. It offers the reader clarity about why they’re consuming the content in the first place. Without a well-defined purpose, your content will lack focus, and your team members are likely to fill in the gaps with their own ideas, agendas, and content approaches.

2. Do I have the right team in place?

If you aren’t new to content marketing, then you know that assembling a content team is tougher than it sounds. There’s more to it than simply hiring a writer. Other essential parts of your team might include:

• A content strategist to help identify the story that you want to tell and determine which content your audience finds useful
• A designer to decide which form of content to publish, what they want readers to feel, and how to accomplish your goals through content, and
• An analyst to measure how well your content performs and determine which improvements you should make for better performance.

3. Do I have the right tools?

Having the right tools at your disposal to deliver and track your content ensures that it’s reaching your target audience. Here’s a tip regarding tools: don’t get caught up in the search for the perfect one. There is a huge range of tools that you can use—it’s just about finding one that works well for you.

Some of the basic tools that you might need:

• An email platform to distribute your content to your contacts
• A website platform to host your content and monitor it
• A CRM platform to store and analyze customer interactions and information, and
• Marketing automation software to make repetitive task simpler and faster.

4. Do I have a clear definition of success?

If you’re going to achieve your goals, you better know what they are first.

Marketers often try to focus on too many metrics at once. They may believe that this approach increases their content’s chances of success or simply that they should be tracking as many metrics as they possibly can–because they can.

It’s a good idea to limit yourself to one or two metrics to focus your content marketing program. When you have fewer goals, your entire team can work together to achieve them. It may take some time to agree on what those metrics should be, but a narrow focus can lead to a better outcome.