If you’re like most business professionals, you are likely enjoying today off, spending time with friends and family and celebrating the lives of those that have served our country. Memorial Day marks one of the first holiday’s of the summer that give busy professionals a chance to take an extra day to unwind and enjoy the warm summer months.
If you’re taking the time to read this on your day off, the least I can do is offer you some helpful content marketing recipes for a successful holiday BBQ. A successful meal and content marketing plan both require a full range of elements to meet the needs of your audience, whoever they may be. The four recipes below will help you get started.
#1 – Something Substantial: Content Mission
Most good BBQ’s include a protein such as a burger or steak that the grill master puts most of their energy into creating. Similarly, your content plan should center around a consistent content mission. Your content mission should describe your purpose for creating content and how you intend to use that content to help your customers solve their business problems.
Just like the difference between purchasing stew meat and filet mignon to throw on the grill, you need to invest your time in developing a content mission that will help you develop a “best answer” approach for your customers.
Use the following recipe to develop a content mission:
- Determine who your content mission is for.
- Identify your message and determine how you will deliver the content to your audience.
- Set benchmarks for your desired outcome.
#2 – Something Starchy: Content Calendar
Carbohydrates provide your body with energy and let’s face it, they’re delicious. No grill out is complete without some tasty potato salad or [insert your favorite starch here]. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a good way to plan your content appropriately, without overdoing it (just like when you find yourself facing down an enormous bread basket).
A well-developed (but flexible) content calendar will help keep you on track and aligned with the content mission that has been developed. If you need help creating a content calendar of your own, check out this awesome list from Curata.
Use the following recipe to develop a content calendar:
- Always identify who each piece of content is for.
- Create a consistent experience across all digital marketing channels to build confidence with your audience.
- Do your research to ensure that content is optimized for customers and search engines.
#3 – Something Healthy: Content Measurement
In the frenzy of planning all the staples needed for grilling, a very important element is often overlooked, fruit and vegetables (no, corn is not a vegetable). To balance the fat and calories in some of the other dishes, it’s nice to accompany a grilled meal with a healthy vegetable or fruit.
Another often overlooked element of marketing programs is the importance of tying content to business objective and then measuring their impact.
Use the following recipe for content measurement:
- Identify benchmarks and set performance goals prior to launching content campaigns or assets.
- Utilize unique tracking urls and tracking codes to properly identify sources for conversions.
- Review your metrics, see what is working and what is not and use that information to evolve your content strategy.
#4 – Something Unexpected: Unique Content Types
Every once in awhile, you might bring something new into the mix and find that you’re pleasantly satisfied with the outcome. For example, last week we decided to try our hand at grilling my favorite food, the artichoke. The results? Amazing!
Like the unexpected success and simplicity of a grilled artichoke, it’s important to provide your audience with something new from time to time that captures their attention. Testing new content types can help break marketers out of a content rut and create more stickiness with your audience.
Use the following recipe for developing unique content types:
- Collect information from your audience to determine which content types resonate with them the most.
- Go outside of your comfort zone and try something new such as video interviews, infographics, interactive content, motion graphics, live-streaming video and more.
- Both successes and failures will teach you an incredible amount about how to delight your audience with unexpected content they are not getting from other sources.
What Are You Cooking Up Today?
These four content marketing recipes should be the basics that you need to have a successful holiday BBQ. While each marketer will add their own flair or have some secret recipes of their own, these will help you get started. Always remember that both grilling and marketing are a process that may seem frustrating at times, but often create many rewards when it comes time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
