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Check that your content marketing achieves the following:

1. Each piece of content is useful/relevant to your target audience (because you understand their buyer personas, you know their likely needs, and understand their problems).
2. It is mapped against their buying stages.
3. It is relevant to your business, company and market sector.
4. It is not promotional – promotional materials will neither excite nor inspire.
5. It is helpful, informative (entertaining?) and well-written, and keeps your audience reading to the end (to the call-to-action).
6. It closes a gap – content marketing should answer a business question or problem. Giving people information about topics where there is no need for information will be a wasted effort by the organization.
7. It gives proof – since you write to support a business goal, your content may seem biased. Make sure that the content you create gives proof either through quotes and testimonials or through actual metrics and statistics.
8. It is the right fit for your channel, whether it’s being used in email, on social or elsewhere.
9. It invites links to other websites and is easily shareable.
10. It has a clear call to action for your audience to follow.
11. It has pre-defined metrics and is designed to be measurable.
12. It is written by a subject expert and (ideally) edited by a professional writer/copywriter.
    
    

Content marketing has grown to become one of the best ways in which you reassure potential customers of your professionalism, knowledge and expertise. Plus it can increase the number of people coming to your website and boost your Google ranking - leading to more sales and business growth.