A full content marketing strategy has many moving pieces: It might include a blog, a resource center, infographics, newsletters, social media, and whatever we decide to invent (or reimagine!) next week. And, too often, marketers tend to adopt a "more is better" mentality, directing a fire hose of content at a highly distractible audience.

What's more, it can be difficult for content creators on the backend to keep track of and derive the greatest benefits from the digital assets they already have, losing them within a disorganized content fray.

Rather than throwing as much budget as possible toward content creation, taking a "quality over quantity" approach can reap greater rewards. We'll discuss why a "less is more" approach is beneficial and how to ensure any content you do create has the maximum marketing impact.

Create less content with more purpose

One of the primary goals of any marketing activity is to present a brand's products or services in a favorable light. But in today's content-driven online environment, marketing materials about content not directly about the product are often just as valuable to a company as the products themselves. White papers, instructional e-books, how-to articles, videos, images, and infographics are, in many instances, replacing traditional advertisements.

Accordingly, it makes financial sense to treat each piece of marketing content like a valuable product with a measurable ROI rather than just another blip in a marketing spam barrage.

When marketers adapt a more is better mentality, they essentially create spam that neither their current nor their potential customers want to read. Catchy headlines with useless content may drive readers to a site, but they'll bounce quickly, never to return. A barrage of hastily made videos weakens a customer's reputation and expertise standing in the customer's eye.

Instead, think of creating epic content as if it were an investment. Invest the time, invest the money, and your product or company will become an industry expert and leader rather than a nuisance.

Now that we've discussed the "why," let's take a look at the "how." Here are a few key strategies for making the most of your digital assets.

1. Set clear goals

Getting specific and realistic with what you can produce is what will give your digital asset strategy momentum. First, set the big goals, such as "increase revenue of product X by 10% by next January." Then, break that bigger goal into smaller steps:

• Launch an educational video series about product X. This goal should have even clearer sub-goals (objectives), such as posting something new every Tuesday and ensuring your social media efforts produce at least 100 views.
• Increase comments on product-specific videos, infographics, and photo campaigns 20% by November of this year by analyzing engagement rates.
• Diversify the types of content promoting product X to include visual media trailers hosted on YouTube by year's end.
• Increase number of retweets about product X by 30% by reaching out and distributing content to influencers.

With such clear goals for your content set, you'll be sure to wring the value out of your digital assets down to the very last drop.

2. Create content your followers actually want to consume

Too often, marketers try to create content in the dark when there are better ways to go about production that keep marketers out of the content mill mentality and increase the lifespan of the digital assets they create. A few key strategies:

• Go beyond text. Consider infographics, video, cinemagraphs, images, podcasts, quizzes, and surveys. Varying your content will keep followers coming back and linking in, which in turn can help you to attract new followers, wringing more value out of the content you create. (Here's an example of how you might create a new piece of content out of another.)
  
• Use Google's Keyword Planner tool to brainstorm relevant content. Enter your target keywords and search for customer questions with low competition rates. Brainstorm videos and infographics to fill in the gaps that your competitors have left behind. Fit those efforts into your larger marketing strategy by promoting them with blog posts and social media posts. Together, those efforts will lend your potential customers a helping hand while establishing your expertise.
• Make it actionable. All of your content should have immediate value to fans and followers; most of it should also give them something to do. Consider asking your readers to vote on a product, enter a contest, or post a photo.
• Aim to create epic content, every time. Create content that addresses consumer questions, entertains, and actually relates to what your product does.

3. Actively curate digital content from users