How important is it to document your content marketing strategy? Probably more than you think.

When businesses document their strategy, they commit to it and have certain goals that they want to reach. Documented marketing strategies provide clear guidelines to follow.

This makes a difference when it comes to the actual implementation of the strategy. According to a recent Marketing Profs article, businesses that document their content marketing strategy are much more likely to be successful:

“Content marketers who have a documented strategy are eight times more likely (60% vs. 7%) to rate themselves as being effective content marketers vs. those who have no strategy, written or otherwise.”

It’s similar to writing down a to-do list so that you’ll actually accomplish what you have to do. If you’re a disbeliever of this tactic, then try this out:

This Saturday, make a to-do list as soon as you wake up. Include everything you want to do from eating breakfast to getting some housework done. At the end of the day, evaluate everything you’ve done and see what goals you met.

The next Saturday, go through you regular routine without adhering to a to-do list. Evaluate what you did throughout the day and see if you accomplished a lot. Then, compare your two Saturdays in terms of production.

The lesson here is that when you write your plans and goals down, it gives you a clear outline of what to do. If this is effective on a personal level, imagine the difference it makes on a business scale.

When strategy is merely discussed, goals can be pushed back and plans can gradually change. This completely misses the idea of strategy planning. The point of strategy planning is to write down your goals and see how your business compares to them one year later. The evaluation won’t mean anything if you gradually changed your goals over time.

Take another look at the statistic provided by Marketing Profs and consider which side of the equation you’d like to be on.

Much success,

Looking for more great reads? Check out these related articles:

• How to Use Event Marketing to Better Your Content Strategy
• The Ultimate 6 Step Guide to a Strong Content Marketing Plan
• Is Your Content Marketing Strategy Current or Outdated?
• Utilizing Instructional Blogs in Your Content Marketing Strategy
• 7 Questions to Help Your Content Marketing Strategy
• How to Create an Awesome Content Marketing Strategy
• How to Make Your Customers Beg for More Content
• Should You Spend More on Content Marketing?
• 6 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy