Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract a certain audience. This targeted approach helps generate awareness, leads, and sales for your business.
The key to successful content marketing is being able to identify what type of content you should be focusing on in order to reach your goal. So, what are the steps to developing a content marketing strategy? Let’s dive in!
Determine the Purpose of Your Content Marketing
The first step in developing a content marketing strategy is to determine the purpose of your content marketing. What do you want people who read this blog post to be able to do? Do you want them to learn new information, or are you trying to sell a product?
When you have a purpose, you can better focus on how your content marketing will meet that goal.
Knowing your purpose will also help you to determine what content marketing strategy will work best for your business.
There are many different strategies that all have benefits and drawbacks, so make sure to focus on the type of product or service you offer in order to find which one is right for you!
For example, if you sell health supplements then a blog with expert articles would be a good content marketing strategy. If, on the other hand, you sell weight-loss products then an ongoing webinar series is best.
Determine Who Your Audience Is
It is important that you know and understand who your audience is before developing a content marketing strategy.
You need to understand their interests, what they like and dislike so that you can create the right content for them. You also want to know who else competes with you in this space to make sure you are not creating redundant or similar material.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customer so that you can create material with an emotional connection.
It’s important to research and know what they want, not just what it is you are trying to sell them.
Once you have identified who the potential customers are, make sure this information is always in mind as a resource for new content ideas. You will also need to constantly reach out to them.
Create a Content Plan
Create a content plan with realistic deadlines and goals. Choose what type of content you want to create, such as text-based blog posts or video tutorials on YouTube that teach your customers about how they can use your product.
Will you be writing all of the content yourself or will you be outsourcing? Will you be using artificial intelligence copywriting software to help you create content?
Set up an editorial calendar and decide when you’ll be publishing these posts or videos.
Types of Marketing Content
Blogging
Blog posts are great for establishing your expertise as they let you share your knowledge with a larger audience than just one person in the form of text.
Podcast
Podcasts are a great way to provide your customers with valuable information that they can listen to and learn from throughout the day.
Videos
Videos give you the opportunity to connect on an emotional level with your audience by showing them how easy it is to use or install one of their favorite products, for example.
Infographics
Infographics make complex information easy to understand by visualizing data and statistics.
E-books
E-Books are typically longer, more in-depth pieces of content that can be given away for free or sold through your website’s store.
Make sure that your content aligns with the larger marketing campaign and is consistent across channels, such as email newsletters, social media updates, website pages, online ads, and other forms of digital communication. Content should also help accomplish business goals like branding and lead generation.
Develop an Editorial Calendar
The next step is to develop an editorial calendar to organize and schedule content. This is to ensure that the marketing team has a plan for publishing new and informative articles on a consistent basis.
It also helps to identify gaps where extra content might be needed, which can be filled by guest posts or interviews with industry experts.
The editorial calendar should include all topics of interest grouped into categories such as product features, industry trends, or customer insights.
These should be sorted by date and include the following:
- A brief description of each article (including any images needed)
- The author’s name
- The publication date and time for when it will go live on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
- Any relevant links to other articles or resources that the readers might find helpful.
Create a content calendar with deadlines for your website and social media posts so that you are not scrambling at the last minute. Keep in mind what time of day people use these different channels most often as this will influence where on the page or feed they should be placed.
Create an Online Presence on Social Media Platforms
Creating your online presence on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is crucial to developing a successful content marketing strategy. Make sure you include social media links on your website, blog, or newsletter in order for people to follow you.
They help you reach out to more people and also help you find relevant information about your target audience to post on your blog.
A great way to use social media for content marketing is by using it as a platform for customer service. With sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can easily reach out to customers with questions or concerns in real-time without having the potential of waiting on hold for someone to answer.
Learn How to Track Metrics
This is an important aspect of content marketing strategy. It is the measurement of your success with this type of campaign and it provides you with data on what to do next. If you don’t know where, when, or how to track metrics then check out these tools:
- Google Analytics (free)
- Hubspot Blog Tracking (free)
- Hootsuite
- Buffer
- Shareaholic
- Social Mention (free)
Once you know how to track metrics, it becomes easier to see what your audience is interested in. You can also find out which content was popular and when so that you can create similar content in the future.
Conclusion
Content marketing is all about creating a strategy that will provide you with valuable content your audience wants to consume. You can use various tools and techniques to create the best possible content for your company, but it’s important not to get too caught up in what needs to be done – rather, focus on doing something.
Now you know “what are the steps to developing a content marketing strategy” so you can get started! The sooner you start, the sooner your content marketing strategy will be successful.