As a CEO of a high-growth company, you have a lot on your plate, from operations to management and hiring. Your organization is growing in staff and revenue each year, and you know you need to rethink your marketing along with it. Yet, other priorities always seem to get in the way. Sound familiar?

A major part of growing your business is your brand positioning strategy. Your company must come to grips with who it is to know where it is going. It’s comparable to the path any person takes to understanding themselves. You spend your childhood exploring and learning about the world around you. As a teenager, you struggle to find your identity, and by your 20s and 30s you should have the life experience to know who you are (atleast that is the goal!).

For others to look to your organization as a brand leader, it must be clear throughout your marketing communications what your organization has to offer. Taking a “who, what, where, when, why, and how” approach to the realities of your organization can help you detail the foundational elements of any strong brand position. For example:

• Who is your
  target buyer?
• What is your organization
  known for? What problems do you solve?
• Where,
  specifically in which cities, do you operate? Where would you like to expand?
• When are your
  services delivered? Is speed and efficiency your target?
• Why are you
  doing what you’re doing? What larger problem are you trying to solve?
• How will your
  business evolve in the next five years? How will you accomplish your goals
  while helping clients accomplish theirs?

Content marketing, a must for any size organization, is a modern and cost-effective way to address these questions and distinguish your organization’s brand identity. But it would be a mistake to publish content just for the sake of it. Just as you need to know the ins and outs of your business, you need to establish a purpose and goal for your content in order to deliver measurable results.

Read on for three tips on how content marketing can support you on the road to strong brand positioning strategy.

1.     Analyze Your Audience

When developing a content marketing plan, you first must establish whom you wish to reach through your content. Marketri tends to establish this when we do a strategic marketing plan, but in what age group and genders do your target markets fall into? What roles and responsibilities do they have in their organizations? What are they interested in? How do they consume information? What problems do they want to solve?

• It’s likely they have limited time to manage people.
• It’s likely they don’t have the visibility into the sales process that they’d like.
• It’s likely they struggle in defining and refining a set sales process for their team.
• It’s likely they need some help in qualifying leads and coordinating with marketing.

Doing research is a great way to learn more and get into the head of your audience. It would behoove you to even go the extra step to interview or survey target buyers to confirm your assumptions. Once you know your audience, you can determine your brand voice and relevant topics to speak to them directly.

2.     Add Value First

Customers are savvy these days and do not want to be sold to right away. Instead, let potential customers get to know the value you bring by creating content that is relevant to them. Think about the pain points your audience may have and address them in relevant content.

Embattled sales managers do not have much time, might lack structure in their departments, and may get little sleep. To cater to this buyer, you might emphasize the convenience and ease of use your offering provides with a list of FAQs on your website. This way, you are serving up answers to key concerns before you have a sales conversation with this prospect.

You might also take simple, short-message approaches to the benefits of the software you’re offering, with simple images and screenshots to make the user interface clear. Testimonials and examples of other sales managers solving problems using the software would also be beneficial to your target buyers’ understanding of how the platform could help them. Helpful blogs oriented toward problem solving would also help them understand their pains as symptoms of a broader issue, and potentially see the value in seeking a paid solution to put the puzzle pieces of their brand positioning strategy together.

By the time you have a(n actual) conversation with leads who have raised their hands, they will have explored your content and see value in your offering. With care and focus, the role of content will not
only support your short-term sales and lead-nurturing needs, but also build a library of reusable, useful content to support long-term organic lead generation.

3.     Keep Your Messaging Consistent

Once you establish your brand identity, you need to be consistent in what you present, or else you will confuse your audience. Your brand voice must establish who you are and what you offer and then remain consistent in order to resonate with your future buyers.

Say you have already published the list of FAQs to your website, in addition to blog posts about industry trends and new offerings. If these blog posts rotate through different tones and speak to different audiences, dedicated readers will notice the lack of focus on their specific circumstances. This mixed
messaging will confuse your audience and is likely to turn their attention elsewhere.

Content marketing is an effective tool to communicate to potential customers how your company solves problems—while showcasing company strengths. The road to developing your content marketing plan to strengthen your brand positioning strategy may seem daunting. But years later, when you reflect on how far you’ve come—and the customers you have acquired—you’ll be glad you put in the effort and steered your brand in the right direction.

Want More?

If you’re interested in learning more about strategic marketing plans and how they play a role in growing businesses, then download our guide by clicking the image below.