The average cost to generate a lead through inbound marketing ($143) is about half of the average for outbound marketing ($373). (G )

90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. (TMG Custom Media)

Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. (Content )

These are three compelling statistics and evidence that a sound content strategy is critical to your bottom line. At Converge, we work with a number of universities helping them with their content strategies and execution. What we have found to be true at most universities is that they are rich with content. It is everywhere. The challenge is developing a sound strategy to gather it all and push it out in a smart, strategic way.

Below is a blueprint that may help you in that effort.

Analyze

• What content do you currently have?
• Who is in charge?
• Who is your target audience?

Strategize

• What content should be created?
• How will it be structured?
• How will users find it?
• What does success look like? How will you measure effectiveness?

Create

• What is the purpose, audience and brand message?
• What do you want them to learn?
• What is the best format? (COPE; Create once, publish everywhere)
• Create a content calendar.

Measure

• How are you doing with: SEO, Google Analytics goal conversions, traffic sources and dashboards?

If you stick with this blueprint, you will find that it much easier to take advantage of the content you currently have as well as creating new content that is laser focused on your recruitment or engagement objectives.