Content marketing is projected to be worth $600 billion by the end of 2024 and has the highest ROI out of all digital marketing strategies. As brands strive to engage their audience meaningfully and sustainably, content marketing sits at the heart of every successful strategy. It helps to build brand awareness, generate leads, and nurture customer loyalty.
On average, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional advertising and generates 3x more leads. The problem is that with so many teams, quality controls and legal requirements, large-scale brands can struggle to implement a profitable content marketing strategy at scale. Enterprises must invest in the right tools, teams, and technology to implement a robust content marketing strategy that generates a high ROI.
Before diving into content creation, enterprises need to evaluate the readiness of both their website and their marketing team.
Consider these questions:
In large organisations, content is created at scale. This means that controlling the output across teams can be challenging. To avoid conflicts and streamline the content creation process, consider investing in a dedicated content hub or DAM. This approach ensures a single source of truth for your content from creative, and copywriting to other important media and documents.
You will also need to ensure you’re working with the best Content Management System (CMS) tools that support your business goals and direction. Tools like Sitecore 10 and Sitecore XM Cloud are best in class for delivering content in multiple languages, at speed and with granular personalisation. At Sagittarius, we rely on Sitecore CMS tools to create powerful, connected customer experiences for global brands.
In addition, automation tools help streamline the content process to ensure the same rules are applied to all content created and is controlled centrally. Establish protocols for managing recurring manual tasks, such as status updates, throughout the content creation lifecycle. You can also configure automated triggers which enable certain actions, like notifying a stakeholder of completed work, sending content to relevant teams for proofing or getting legal sign-off.
In smaller organisations, teams are likely to involve one or two people, or a small agency, who are responsible for content. As brands grow, marketing departments can expect to deal with multi-site, multilingual teams who contribute to the organisation’s overall content process.
Roles may include:
There may also be certain layers of red tape which require quality assurance checks before content is published. Whilst this important step adds to the timeline of your content production process, it is made easier by investing in leading tools and implementing careful planning.
You may also want to consider agencies to support specific functions in the business, whether that be for SEO Content strategy services, Social PPC Advertising or AI in Digital marketing services. The key is to make sure you have a strong brief, clear goals and a defined budget, and choose an agency that champions your interests.
Marketers who prioritise blogging are 13x more likely to drive positive ROI, and many enterprise brands have some form of blogging strategy. However, as teams grow and change, older content often gets forgotten or labelled as outdated and is left hiding deep within the structure of a website. This mistake can cost brands heavily, and not just in time and budget used to create new content that may partially exist. Critically, poor-performing old content can weigh down the overall growth of new content, which in turn affects your SEO success and credibility. By refreshing older content with relevant keywords, updates and new ideas, brands can expect a significant increase in their overall content growth as a result.
With this in mind, make sure your content marketing strategy is set up for longevity, with periodic audits to assess the content which is working. Monitor algorithm updates and analyse customer behaviour to optimise for evolving digital trends. Additionally, make sure your teams are keeping an eye on any broken links and pages, that may lead to increased bounce rates and frustration, to ensure a seamless user experience. Our team of experts are happy to run a digital audit on your website to help you understand the gaps and the opportunities for your brand.
Incorporating visual and video content into your content marketing strategy can significantly enhance engagement. Video content, for instance, has around 92% audience reach worldwide, and 82% of global internet traffic comes from video content. Additionally, 96% of people turn to videos to learn more about a product or service, and including videos on a website can increase the time spent on the page by 88%.
Research shows that despite the appetite for video, enterprise brands are not doing enough to create quality, optimised video content that engages, inspires and converts their customers. This can be down to a lack of resources but often comes down to a lack of process or technology. The good news is that if your brand already has a lot of content, repurposing this can be a simple way to satisfy customers’ expectations for video and even boost for current content. Using the key strategies highlighted here, brands can ensure they are catering for the growing demand for video with better ROI.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly at the heart of content marketing strategies and there are no signs of its usage slowing down. As of 2024, approximately 55% of marketers are integrating AI into their content production workflows. AI tools are employed for a variety of tasks, such as drafting initial content, performing spelling and grammar checks, and optimising content for search engines and user engagement.
The adoption of AI in content marketing brings advantages and improves the efficiency of content creation processes. Marketers can generate a larger volume of high-quality content with greater accuracy in language and style, resulting in more polished and professional content outputs.
However, this is not to be a replacement for human writing (as we’ve seen with the often ludicrous and hilarious results produced by generative AI in the news) and requires a warning sign. AI content typically lacks the nuanced understanding of how an audience behaves and the creative thought leadership that only industry expertise provides. As Google updates its algorithms to penalise AI-generated content, marketing teams will still need to focus on creating original and authentic material, using AI as a helpful tool to support the process.
A robust content marketing strategy is the key to effective digital marketing. 68% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from it, emphasising the role of content in shaping brand perception. Businesses must have the infrastructure in place to support large-scale content management, creation and publication processes to take advantage of the impressive ROI provided by strong content marketing activity.
As a trusted Sitecore Partner, we specialise in utilising Sitecore products to help your teams ideate, implement and optimise your content marketing strategy, automation and technical expertise. Whether you’re new to Sitecore or aiming to optimise your current setup, we’re here to provide expert guidance.
Having successfully implemented over 100 Sitecore solutions, we’ve assisted numerous enterprises in achieving their digital transformation goals.
If your brand is considering Sitecore CMS tools or simply trying to understand “what is Sitecore?” we can help. We can go through Sitecore pricing, key features, and how a migration may look. If you’re already using Sitecore and want to see a better ROI from your content marketing strategy, we’d love to talk to you.
With more than two decades of experience as a recommended Sitecore Agency, we’ve partnered with global brands to maximise their Sitecore investments, creating compelling experiences that drive conversions.
Explore our work to see how Sitecore has empowered leading brands in their content marketing efforts and contact us if you’re ready to get started.
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