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Tiffany McEachern, a marketing consultant at Clearwater-based IT tech product distribution giant Tech Data Corp., believes in the power of purpose. Speaking at a recent virtual event, McEachern says an essential element of an effective content strategy is to create content that adds value. “Don’t just post to post,” she says. “Have an objective for each piece of content that aligns with your overall strategy.”
McEachern spoke during the American Marketing Association Tampa Bay Chapter’s Sarasota-Manatee Shared Interest Group virtual event May 20, dubbed “Developing an Effective Content Strategy to Grow Your Business.” Other advice points from McEachern, for both pandemic and in more normal times, include:
• Maintain a consistent social media presence. Share content at optimal viewing times and use relevant hashtags. If there’s only time and resources for one platform, focus on Facebook because it has the widest audience and largest user base;
• Regularly measure key performance indicators, or KPIs, that align with the company’s goals. With emails, KPIs could include open, click-through and list-grow rates. With a website, KPIs might include traffic sources, users and session retention. With sales, it might be the quote-to-close ratio and monthly sales;
• Find content inspiration from companies in other industries. “Think, ‘How could I adjust this to make it work for my brand,’” says McEachern;
• McEachern admires Starbucks, saying, its pandemic-focused social media strategy changed to fit the times, with recent posts offering information about pantry ingredients to try in coffee, a how-to guide for digital ordering and a link to download its app for a contactless coffee run;
• Use the power of stories. Good stories humanize content and build a stronger connection with the audience. Stories also allow businesses to show how their products or services help customers solve problems. McEachern points to Google’s emotional Loretta commercial for the 2020 Super Bowl as a good storytelling example;
• Plan in advance and “content batch,” taking as many photos as possible in one day, for instance. Content could also come in the form of customer-submitted photos.
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