Creating A Content Marketing Strategy For VARs

By Nick Rojas, contributing writer

It can be tempting for a company to use its content outlets, such as blogs, social media, eBooks, and other articles, as avenues of self-promotion. They use these distribution channels to advertise new products, customer acquisitions, or other business wins. While the business owners and employees may love reading these updates, customers don't. Instead, for value-added resellers (VARs) to ensure the continued loyalty and engagement of their audiences, companies need to create content that appeals to these customers.

Many content creators and marketing executives in the B2B space, for example, worry about their ability to create meaningful content, as 87 percent of respondents in a 2014 Forrester study admitted they found it a challenge to create content that engaged their buyers.

One of the best ways for VARs to ensure success is with a content marketing strategy that is documented and directed with an editorial calendar. It can be difficult to consistently create and distribute high-quality content that's relevant to the audience, but by following an editorial calendar busy marketing teams are able to assess their business goals and think about content in a long-term scope.

American media consumption will average 15.5 hours a day by the year 2015. VARs looking to connect with customers will need to meet these content demands. The best way to stay organized and up-to-date is to have a steady stream of content always in the wings. An editorial calendar is necessary to stay on top of the content.

Successful editorial calendars include enough ideas and topics to create a consistent publishing schedule for each chosen distribution channel. When creating the calendar, marketers should consider potential topics, types of content, publishing dates, due dates, and relevant keywords.

This foresight allows marketers to create content that better targets potential customers. This is an effective strategy for reaching consumers, as 82 percent of potential customers felt that industry-related content was more valuable to them, according to 2013 research from MarketingSherpa.

How can VARs create content that resonates with customers looking for an IT solution?

• Pick an area of focus. What problems are customers facing? Choose what solutions and areas to focus content around. Once this is decided, develop a keyword strategy and choose topics that will be educational or entertaining for the audience. Review other blogs for ideas. What are the competitors doing right and what are they doing wrong? Think about what can be learned from major competitors and capitalize on any weaknesses.
• Create compelling headlines. The headline is one of the most important aspects of a content piece, as it is the first impression a person has of the content and can be a major factor in their decision whether to read it or not. Headlines should be compelling, short, and avoid being overly promotional. The headline should contain a clear benefit to the consumer and should compel them to click on the article. Think about what end-users want in a piece of content. What would make them click through to read the article or view the video? Short headlines that include relevant headlines tend to have better click-through rates.
• Know the audience. Utilize buyer personas to learn about the ideal customer and the best ways to target them. By knowing the audience a marketer is in a better position to determine the best ways to reach them with marketing messaging. Think about what problems customers searching for IT solutions are facing and brainstorm how the decision maker will solve them. Know the audience on multiple levels - both the broader organizational level and the buyer/individual level.

The success of any content marketing strategy boils down to the quality and relevance of the content. If marketers create content that is useful to the customer and reflects their issues, concerns, and interests, they will be able to more effectively amplify the content.