Content marketing has been around for ages, but digital content marketing is among the newest in the marketing world, and is still maturing. Digital content marketing has to be sophisticated and precise. Gauging a company's digital content marketing maturity level is something that is imperative in order to reach optimum marketing abilities. Companies can increase campaign effectiveness by focusing on improving the various components of their digital content marketing endeavors.

Strategic Planning
Digital content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on writing content to build and retain a defined audience--which will ultimately drive profits. The approach focuses on repeatedly distributing relevant, entertaining content in order to attract target audiences. And timing is everything! Content marketing should speak to a targeted audience and fit in a specific place in the buying cycle. Other digital content marketing characteristics include telling a story with customer-centric examples, using meaningful images to help convey the message, and presenting the message in interesting, varied outlets (social media, e-newsletters, blogs, infographics, etc.). Lastly, great content marketing should employ a call-to-action and be woven into additional pieces for high visibility. With all of these content marketing factors, companies need to strategize in order to see results.

The 8 Percent
A recent report by the Content Marketing Institute indicated that, when it comes to a company's digital content marketing maturity level, many businesses fall short of producing effectively engaging and driven content that pulls in potential customers to your social media niche. Of the companies interviewed, they ranked their digital content marketing maturity level as follows: