The most important content you’ll ever develop: A documented content strategy.

Marketers are creating more content than ever before. A recent study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) found that 70 percent of marketers are creating more content than they were a year ago. And yet, 65 percent of B2B marketers do not have a documented content strategy.

Kind of ironic isn’t it? Marketers are producing more content, and yet less than half of them have a formal documented strategy that drives the development process. Without a documented content strategy, it’s easy for organizations to lose sight of the purpose and intent behind their efforts. When this happens, content development becomes highly fragmented, disjointed and is less than effective.

Using a disciplined content development methodology to document a formal strategy, marketers can align all content, including brand awareness, product, demand generation and public relations content, to attain well-defined and measurable business goals. A documented content development strategy should also clearly define how you will infuse your corporate messaging into established storylines and content streams.

CMI’s research shows a documented strategy does make a difference. Their study indicates that 60 percent of marketers with a documented content strategy consider their B2B content marketing efforts to be highly effective (CMI defined effective as “accomplishing your overall objectives”) as compared with 32 percent of marketers who only have a verbal strategy.

So don’t just talk about your strategy. Get it in writing. After all, it’s the most important content piece you’ll ever create.

Learn more about creating cohesive and compelling customer experiences here.