In recent time, outbound marketing strategies are not as effective for reaching the audience and converting leads as they once were. Content marketing has taken its place to combat this issue.
Do you wish to improve your online reputation, build a community and your brand with content marketing?
Do you want to effectively harness the power of a great content marketing strategy for your business?
Follow the guide below, you will get proper in-depth information needed to develop a great Content Marketing strategy for your business.
What is meant by Content Marketing Strategy?
In addition to expanding your reach, content marketing helps your business in the following way:
- Build strong relationships between your business and your customers
- Connect with your target audience to show them how your products and services solve their problems
- Boost conversions and lead generation process
- Educate your leads and prospects about the products/services that you offer.
Content strategy refers to the management of any tangible media that you create and own: written or visual. Content strategy is the part of your marketing plan that demonstrates who you are and the expertise you bring to your industry.
Why Businesses Need to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing enables businesses to prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic and new prospects. Content marketing strategy does wonders to your business by
- Improving brand awareness
- Boosting revenue
- Improving brand loyalty
- Increasing customer engagement
- Attracting strategic partners
Now that you understand why you should invest in content marketing. Let us now focus on ways to steps to successful content marketing strategy.
Step 1: Define your goals
What is your main aim for developing a content marketing plan? Why do you want to produce content? It is essential to know your goals before you begin planning. The integral part of your content marketing strategy is to set SMART goals. Each goal should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timed. These should be specific to your business and your objectives.
Step 2: Determine your target audience
If your content is not properly targeted, no one will be listening to you. You will need to do detailed research on your target demographic. Heidi Cohen’s 12-step marketing persona checklist will help you to find out your ideal audience. All content will be created and distributed keeping your target audience in mind.
Step 3: Identify your business’ strengths, challenges and competitive advantages/disadvantages
Before the content creation process begins, you need to understand your business’s value proposition by evaluating areas of richness in your business. Why would users on Twitter or Facebook click on your link? How does your product prompt a purchase? What do you have to offer your customers that is worth their money, time or energy? Is there something you sell that stands out in a cluttered market? Identify and work on your strengths, challenges and competitive advantages/disadvantages.
Step 4: Identify the same things for your competitors to evaluate your place in the market
Your potential followers are also being marketed to by these competitors, so you need to stand out in contrast.
Step 5: Conduct keyword research
Once you have your worksheets completed, it is time to identify the proper keywords to use in the content you will be creating. You will always want your readers to have an organic connection with the content. Optimizing your content with appropriate keywords is a critical factor in proper targeting. Keyword research is the starting point that outlines your text, images, audio, and video. The keywords you use as the foundation in your content creation should be 1) Relevant, 2) Competitive and 3) Specific.
Step 6: Make appropriate on- and off-page SEO tweaks
Most of your content marketing output will be always directed towards promoting your company’s website, make sure that the keyword optimization you developed in the above step is aligned with the Search Engine Optimization of your website. For each major content URL of your site, ensure that the keywords you identified have the following elements:
- Headline and sub-headline
- Image alt tags
- Body copy
- Page description and title tag
- Page URL
Step 7: Determine editorial themes, types, and topics
Once you identify the goals of your content marketing strategy, your target audience, the weakness, the strengths of your brand in the context of your top competitors. To begin, get a detailed idea on the themes, topics, and types of content you will be marketing.
- Themes: The categories you will be discussing with your target audience.
- Topics: The subjects that fall into the required content.
- Types: The type the content you will be producing and sharing like –
- Blog posts
- E-newsletters
- Webinars
- Videos
- White papers
- Case studies
- E-books
- Presentations
- Podcasts
Each individual piece of content must have a purpose. Identify the CTA for each post before publishing.
Also Read: 10 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Website For Lead Generation
Step 8: Create a content calendar
Keeping your content marketing consistent, Up to date, fresh and committed is as important to your success as targeting the right audience is. Always stay organized and put workflow into place. Create an editorial calendar that provides you with a schedule for what to post, where to and when to. It is best to have at least one month’s worth sketched out.
Step 9: Distribute and promote
The main aspect of your content marketing is strategic repurposing of content across various channels. You can design a graphic from one quote to pin to Pinterest or post to Tumblr, Flickr, or Instagram. You can also record a podcast about the process of researching and writing the document. Here is a distribution checklist to use:
- Post on Twitter
- Publish on Facebook
- Post on Google+
- Share on LinkedIn as a post
- Post an image from the post to Instagram, Flicker, Tumblr
- Pin to Pinterest
- Post it on YouTube
- Include a link in a comment on other blogs
- Promote in your e-newsletter
- Promote on website home page
- Present on any lead generation pages
Step 10: Self-evaluate
- Non-promotional
- Credibility-building
- Relevant to your readers
- Purposeful
- Shareable
- Supportive of the business or brand
- Interesting
- Shareable
- Understanding of your readers’ needs
- Indexable on search engines
- Organized and easy to consume
There you have it: All you need for self-evaluation.
Wrapping Up
With efficient content marketing, you can reach your target audience and increase conversions. Market your content to boost revenue, grow your brand awareness and recognition, and build relationships with your prospects and existing customers.
To start, determine which type of content works best for your business and audience, and develop a content marketing strategy to begin boosting your bottom line with the help of this guide. Do you find this helpful? Tell us in the comments below
Are you thinking how will you craft high-quality content that you will delicately distribute to the right people at the right time? Do not worry! We are here to look after all your content marketing needs. We will frame the best content marketing strategy according to your business framework. What are you waiting for?
