How to Develop a Marketing Content Strategy

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A smart content management strategy is necessary for fleet providers’ marketing teams to manage the huge volume of your data efficiently and to allow informed decision-making.

Let’s look at a content management strategy in detail:

You must first identify your audience personas to develop an effective marketing content strategy. You must also define your content goals and measure the effectiveness of your content. Let’s look at developing and adapting a content strategy for different platforms. These tips will help you create content that will help you reach your goals. You can also learn about the different types of content you can use, including video, audio, images, and text.

Developing Audience Personas

Defining content goals is essential to any successful marketing content strategy. Whether your content is written for marketing or branding purposes, these goals will help you determine the types of content to produce, orientations, and even clothing to wear.

Here are some tips to help you define personas:

A good audience persona starts with research, such as surveys, data analysis, and feedback. Social data can be used to understand your target audience better. For instance, you can look up demographic data on your followers with social media analytics tools.

Social analytics programs can give you a comprehensive audience analysis based on your social presence across various platforms once you understand what your audience wants and needs, you can construct your persona.

Developing audience personas is an essential part of any marketing content strategy. They will help you build content that is relevant to each persona. A good persona includes the person’s name, age, and interests. They also have power to make decisions and are more likely to take action.

This will help you write content to meet their needs and reach your goals. In addition to developing audience personas, you’ll be more focused when writing and promoting content to your audience.

By carefully analyzing the needs and behaviors of your audience, you can create content that best meets their needs. It’s essential to address both men’s and women’s needs and wants. The persona is a realistic representation of a typical buyer. Through research, the traits of a persona are determined, including age, education, experience level, and familiarity with a particular brand. Then, you can create content that will meet the persona’s needs and drive sales.

Setting Selection Criteria

When creating a Request for Proposal (RFP) for marketing services, several vital criteria and components need to be incorporated:

Project Background and Goals: Clearly define your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and goals.
Scope of Work: Provide a detailed scope of work.
Budget: Disclose your budget.
RFP Timeline and Vendor Deadlines: Specify the RFP process timeline and vendors' deadlines.
RFP Requirements: Include minimum qualifications as well as submission and evaluation criteria.
References, Project Portfolios, and Case Studies: Request for references, project portfolios, and case studies.
Technical Capabilities: Evaluate the technical capabilities of the vendor.
Vendor Experience: Consider the vendor's experience in the field.
Vendor Approach: Understand the vendor's approach to the project.
Total Price & Breakout: Consider the total price quoted by the vendor with an unbundled breakout of costs by service.
Customer Success Practices: Evaluate the vendor's customer success practices.
Reputation and Customer References: Check the vendor's reputation and customer references.

Suppliers in every industry operate differently, so there's always the chance you won't be able to find a marketing service or product supplier that perfectly checks every box. Know which traits are dealbreakers and which are expendable to help you quickly separate the wheat from the chaff.

The key to a productive marketing services RFP is clarity. Be clear about the goals and define the specific KPIs and SLAs. The more accurate and complete the RFP, the more likely vendors will respond in kind.

Whether employing an RFP or pursuing a less formal method, "best practices" in selecting a vendor begin with developing a list of criteria the vendor will need to meet.

The right suppliers can transform an organization's performance. Companies that rely on the best strategic partners have been shown to generate significant competitive advantages. A cutting-edge vendor can help companies differentiate their products and boost their market share.

In a changing economy where product and service lifespans are getting shorter, fleet industry suppliers need the ability to rapidly identify and onboard new, more flexible supplier partners who understand the specific market conditions.

With all bids in hand, the business must compare each supplier's RFP to determine which meets the defined budget needs and quality standards. A vendor that overcharges cuts into the profit margin. However, a vendor that misses deadlines, or whose quality does not meet expectations, also negatively impacts ROI.

In most cases, a chosen vendor decision is only the beginning of negotiating the contract terms. Agreed-upon projects, the vendor account team, tactical timeframes, KPIs and SLAs, and more must be put into writing. If this process drags on, a short-term contract or a specific tactical pilot program might become an intermediate step.

Monitor Supplier Performance

Establishing KPIs and SLAs sets up an early-warning system for under-achievement by a vendor. Use this data to work with the vendor to improve processes and quality. If that fails, termination of the contract can alleviate a drawn-out unsatisfactory relationship and speed up hiring a new, better vendor.

Monitor cost efficiency over time. Just because the deal you negotiated a year ago was good doesn't mean it's a good one now. Be candid with the vendor about changing needs and performance metrics. Most vendors will be willing to work with a business to re-negotiate a deal that satisfies both parties.

Learn more about "best practices" that should be adopted to find the best fleet industry marketing vendor for your business targeting the fleet industry; reach out to the only fleet-specific marketing team, Fleet Management Weekly's Brand Acceleration, by clicking here or calling Ed Pierce at (484) 957-1246.