How to Choose the Right Content Marketing Platform for Your Company

Modern businesses need a content marketing platform to maximize their time and success in digital marketing.

A platform that allows you to create content, promote and distribute your content on the best channels and at the right times will allow you to use analytical tools to continuously improve and fine-tune the content marketing strategy.

It can be hard to narrow down the options and find the right solution for your company with all the content marketing technology options.

These guidelines will help you choose the right content marketing platform for your needs.

Quick Takeaways

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  A content marketing platform's goal is to make it easier for marketers to execute their content strategy.
  
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  Content marketing platforms make it easier to determine the ROI of content marketing.
  
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  Content marketing platforms that are effective for collaboration, content creation, SEO, distribution and analytics.
  

What is Content Marketing Platform?

Before we get into the details of choosing the right content marketing platform and comparing them, it is important to understand what “content marketing platform” means.

Although each platform has its own unique features and functionality, they all share the same goal: to help marketers manage their content marketing strategy and make it more efficient and effective. Although content marketing is highly effective, it can also be time-consuming and resource-intensive to manage. 60% of marketers create at least one new piece of content each day. This can be made easier by a content marketing platform.

A platform could include tools for content creation and optimization, promotion, automation, analytics, and analysis.

It's unlikely that there will be one platform that can provide all of the functionality needed to execute your content marketing plan. Your content marketing platform should be the central management tool, integrating with all the other components of your martech stack to tie everything together.

A Content Marketing Platform: The Benefits

Let's not forget to mention the benefits of content marketing platforms as part of your marketing strategy.

More efficient work flow

Content marketing platforms can help you speed up content creation, optimization, promotion, and maintenance by automating repetitive tasks, using intelligent algorithms, and reducing time-consuming testing, optimization, and testing cycles.

Increased Compliance and Consistency

A central platform is used to manage all content production. This ensures consistency in brand voice, and ensures that all marketing communications meet set standards.

Simpler Analysis and Optimization

It is notoriously difficult to determine the ROI of content marketing campaigns. However, your content marketing platform can help make it easy. Advanced optimization and analysis tools make it possible to identify the best content performing for you so that you can replicate it.

Important Functions of a Content-Marketing Platform

Standalone marketing software solutions may focus on a few functions. Content marketing platforms, however, are more like a collection of tools. This combination of functionality allows you to manage all content marketing activities from one central platform. It also eliminates duplication and issues caused by different tools being used by different teams.

It is worth looking at each function of various content marketing solutions. The following are some of the most essential functions of a content-marketing platform:

Research & Content Creation

The hardest part of content marketing is choosing what topic to write about. A platform that is reliable will give you tools to do keyword and competitor research, and insight into your audience, so you can select topics that are most likely to be of value and interest.

You can also use many platforms to create content. These tools include sourcing images, curating other content and optimizing your content layout so it is SEO-friendly and converts well.

Collaboration & Project Management

You will need a way to ensure that everyone involved in the content marketing process can communicate and work together effectively.

Most content marketing platforms include tools that allow you to manage the entire process of content production with multiple members. This could include a cloud-based collaborative editing program and an editorial calendar.

Content Management

Content marketing platforms should allow you to manage all of your content, both the existing and new content you create. It's easier to find your content for later reuse and analytics data will allow you to quickly see which content is performing well.

Content Promotion

Your job doesn't end when content has been published. Your content marketing plan must be promoted to the right people at right times in order to make it successful. Marketing platforms can analyze data and find the best places to promote your content, automating the task so your team can focus on other tasks.

Analytics and Optimization

Continuous improvement is the key to content marketing success. Your content marketing platform will gather data that will help you understand how your content is performing, so you can optimize existing content or create new content.

How to Compare Platforms

You'll be able to find solutions for your company once you have a better idea of your content marketing goals.

Be sure to ask yourself important questions about the alignment of each solution with your business and marketing strategy before you decide on a platform based solely on its features.

• What's your ongoing budget? It is important to not only consider the initial investment but also the costs of maintaining it. When calculating your ROI and making decisions about your investment, you must also consider additional hardware requirements, support fees, and training.
• Is it easy to use? While a complex system with sophisticated functionality might seem appealing, it won't be useful if employees aren't able to use it due the steep learning curve. Consider who will use the platform and what their skills are. Also consider how much training is required to fully integrate the platform into your daily workflow.
• Can it be integrated with your existing tools? Most likely, you already have software tools that you depend on for the daily running of your business. It may be okay to use a new platform as a replacement for some of these tools. However, it is important to make sure that the platform integrates with your existing systems, such CRM or email marketing platform.
• What kind of support is offered? Is there a 24-hour help desk for any questions? How soon can you expect to receive support tickets?
• How flexible does the solution look? Can it scale with your business? Is the license limited to a certain number of users? What happens if your team expands? Can the software be adapted to your changing content marketing requirements?
• How frequently is the platform updated? Are they known for their innovation and are they planning to continue improving the platform in the future? It is essential that you choose a solution that can evolve with the marketing technology industry.
• Are there any other clients using the platform? Do they have good reviews and a track record?
• What is the level of reporting and analytics? Are data collected in real-time? Is it possible to calculate each campaign's ROI? Are the reports actionable?

There are many things to consider and you shouldn't base your decision on which platform is the best. It is important to consider your goals, the features you are most interested in, and how the platform will fit into your business workflow.

It's important that all members of your content marketing team participate in the decision-making process. After all, they will be using the platform. After narrowing down your options to a few vendors, book a demo to get an idea of the platform's capabilities and how it might work for you.