With today’s increasing awareness that “if you’re not content marketing, you’re not marketing” any conscientious marketer or business is carefully following informative articles and attending workshops and webinars on how to effectively create, curate, and share quality content.

And, if you are that diligent marketer, you’ve discovered that there are millions of whitepapers, articles, blogs and presentations on the topic of content marketing. From information on the importance of content marketing, to education on how to more successful or determine a return on your marketing spend, there is a wealth of information to consume.

As a result, marketers are getting the message that to be noticed, your content must stand out. You have to be better at curating and creating quality content than your competitors. Once you have assembled your persuasive content, what’s next?

How do you effectively reach your audience? How do you know that you are in the right place to even “listen” to what is going on? How do you secure the greatest return on our resources?

Let’s start by taking a few lessons, such as those from e-commerce merchandising pros, to help us define and think through how to leverage and “merchandise our content” to assure we get the yield we’re expecting.

Merchandising

When you hear “merchandising” you naturally think retail. Specifically, how to leverage window and floor displays, inventory rotation, free samples, signage and special pricing,… not simply product promotion, but to attract customers into your store and put them in front of them the right product, at the right time, so that as they enjoy the experience and maneuver through your aisles as they make their selections and buy.

E-commerce marketers’ goals are the same as traditional. It’s important to merchandise by keeping your site fresh, sustaining an intuitive navigation, using high quality images, and possibly the ability to highlight reviews to drive more clicks and sales.

Whether you are brick and mortar, or e-commerce, the savviest retailers are now going high tech and targeting the needs of a community with their products. Key to their success is accurate forecast and measurement, which is a must for any marketing campaign.

Merchandising Your Content

One of the first times I heard of Content Merchandising was in CB Whittemore’s article “How to Merchandise Your Content Marketing.” Whittemore did a great job explaining how he “merchandises” his blog, news releases, articles and presentations. And, they are still valid today.

My list is more generic. Setting aside goals, reporting and analysis for a later discussion, let’s simply look at how to merchandise your content. Run through this short list of items to assure you are getting the most out of each piece of content.

  1. Identify Buyer Personas
  2. Grab Attention
  3. Cross-sell
  4. Include a Call to Action
  5. Create an Editorial Calendar

Now, let’s dive into these five items and add just a few details for clarity:

1. Identify Buyer Personas

  • Know who your are talking to.
  • Speak to the heart of their concerns.
  • Does the content persuade them? Does the content handle their objections?

2. Grab Attention

  • Like traditional displays and signage, use content to draw your prospect in with catchy, effective titles. Make your content accessible, easy to find on your website.
  • Rotate, add new, or update your content weekly. Keep it fresh.
  • Always use high quality images, they are a reflection of the quality of your product
  • Know where your customer is hanging out and contribute your articles on those sites with links back to your web site, preferably to it’s own landing page.
  • Post extracts in social media, always linking prospects back to your web site.
  • Include links in your signature and sales collateral.

3. Cross-sell

  • Include at least three reference links within your articles, blogs and descriptions to your other articles to provide your audience with additional helpful information.
  • Links should drive your prospects to your website or a special landing page to read the relevant article.
  • Leverage curated links, those that can link back to your web site, to participate in conversations on social media and keep that conversation going on your web site.
  • Curated links from credible 3rd parties provide another opinion, almost like a review, to build your online reputation.

4. Include a Call to Action

  • At the end of every piece of content.
  • On every content landing page.

5. Create an Editorial Calendar

  • Map all the types of content, e.g. whitepaper, case study, webinar, prospect blog entries, user blog entries, articles, promotions, releases.
  • Show a clear plan of where and when each piece of content is positioned.
  • Rollout plans by platforms, e.g. social media, marketing automation, sales.
  • Update it and share it regularly to communicate to your team.

So, what is Content Merchandising?

Content merchandising is taking all your quality content, e.g. your articles, whitepapers, case studies, blogs, and product descriptions, and crafting a plan to put the right content in the right place, at the right time, for your targeted prospect. The primary objective of creating content is to convert prospects into paying customers. Follow these 5 steps to position your content in places to reach. Then listen! Your prospects and clients will give you further ways to engage, and you will be well on your way to building relationships and giving them the experience they are looking for.

Do you have a similar or different approach or a checklist? Please share!

Read more: Content Is King – And These 11 Trailblazers Prove It