Maximizing your digital marketing budget requires a good road-map.

When multiple contributors are involved in a marketing campaign think:

photographer,
videographer,
graphics designer,
copywriter(s),
editors,
social media ‘magicians’,
performance analytics collection and reviewers,
and more!

S3 Solutions strongly recommends you consider utilizing a “Content Calendar” as your organization’s centralized marketing road map.

In prepping for designing your DMM (Digital Media Marketing) calendar, it’s vital to remember that “Content is King.” Even Instagram quickly realized that without purposeful content all those pretty pictures, where just… pretty pictures.

Content drives the story regarding your brand.
Your content conveys inspiration. It converts interest into action. Content is King!

Quality content always keeps 3 key ingredients in mind:

Create impressive buyer Personas
Effectively capture your audience through content Timeliness
Engage and convert your audience-into-customers through CTA (Call To Action) along any point of the sales funnel

Let’s break down these three elements:

1. Persona First ask – who are the largest category of ____ (insert your product or offering here), lovers you best speak to?

For a regional tourism client, our marketing efforts unite marketing around 4 key visitor personas: Foodies, Outdoor Adventure Seekers, Family Fun and Romantics

For a local winery client, our marketing efforts are focused on these 5-primary wine personas:

The Wine Snob. …
The Nervous Buyer. …
The Just-Turned-Legal – new – Drinker. …
The Regular. …
The Experimenter.

Attached is an oldie but goodie research article regarding the scientific testing for specific wine personas. S3 still agrees with the article’s closing statement; “… which ones describe your customers? Once you have nailed down which of these buyers is your ideal client, you can create strategies to appeal specifically to your niche.” Takeaway: Understanding the personas of your clients is critical.

2. Timeliness There are three primary types of content. And scheduling their deployment is essential for deep customer engagement. Too many “Hurry!” or “Sale” messages create fatigue. Too few reminders of your roots messages fail to help your brand stand above the others. The three key types of content are:

General News Release (think General = “snackable”. Quick and typically short on shelf-life)
Content Marketing Release (think of a “Well Balanced Meal”. Ideally linked to SMPR (Social Media Press Release) via a Blog or related new release/article. This track-back one-two punch gains eyeballs because of good social media presence, but it has deep engagement because it draws viewers into becoming readers – and hopefully buyers – of the linked details they’ll find when they click-through to your great website content)
Evergreen News Release (think timeless or Evergreen news and in a ‘Sumptuous (and long-lasting) Favorite Feast’. This can be historical ‘About Us’ details that are worthy of repeating at each anniversary celebration. Or ‘Subject Area Knowledge’ expert tips and techniques that provide deep added-value affinity to your brand and its offerings. e.g. a general merchandise retailer we market for has Evergreen content on ‘back to school tips’ calendared for deployment beginning every August 1st. While many of our festivals & special event clients have a customized 90-count down of Evergreen content scheduled leading up to their annual celebrations. A good marketing Content Calendar will help you identify cyclical events where your customers seek your Evergreen advice.

3. CTA (Call To Action) is defining the outcome you want your social media reader to make. “Learn More”, “Sign-Up”, “Buy Now”, or simply “Like/Share/Comment”, etc.?

As will #2 you can’t live alone on CTA’s of “Buy, Buy, Buy” or scarcity claimed of “Hurry!” or “Limited Time/Inventory”. Never forget that you always have to earn (and re-earn) your customers’ right to be heard. Don’t forget and never abuse the privilege of serving up your message to your valued customers. You need to formulate a mixed and well-balanced diet of content that appeals to your target personas and, through thoughtful and strategic engagement, drawing them towards your desired CTA.

“Thanks to S3 Solutions we’ve achieved a coherent look and message across all of our digital marketing channels and social networks.” – Scott

Next Steps:

Once you’ve reflected and defined your organization’s prime customer Personas, then you are ready to begin thinking of marketing your full year of events and activities through the lens of Timeliness and Call(s) To Action. And don’t forget to contact S3 Solutions to help you pull it all together in the form of a high functioning Content Calendar for marketing!