According to a recent survey, around 63% of businesses do not have a documented content marketing strategy, and it is evident that the companies with an approach are most likely to feel that the marketing strategy they use is the best. However, many things are undocumented, and you should try to be more resourceful in creating your own strategy. Content marketing plays a pivotal role, and it is vital as it answers your audience’s questions. It also helps you build trust and develop relationships. Both conversions and lead generation are enhanced. It serves as the cornerstone for all online business promotions. You should therefore give it the consideration it requires.
The following steps should be followed to create a content marketing strategy that is successful-
1. Set your mission and your goals
You should start by setting out a content marketing mission statement, as it will prove to be a good starting point for your content strategy. It is a brief statement that makes it easier to focus on what is essential. Thus, the content marketing strategy always stays on track. The following are the things a content marketing strategy outlines-
- Your target audience.
- The content you are going to use to reach them.
- The benefit your target audience will get.
Following should be your typical goals-
- Improving the revenue as a result of your content marketing strategy.
- Trying to make more sales and getting high-quality leads. It will help you meet your revenue goals.
- Improving the perception of your business. Thus, you will gain influence and authority.
- The success of SEO leads to more traffic.
- Reduces marketing costs. Thus, the content becomes more effective.
- Social media engagement will boost your traffic.
2. Establish your KPIs
You should make your goals specific and measurable. Setting KPIs for your content marketing plan is necessary here. The KPIs will also help you know when you have achieved your desired goals by providing milestones you can check off. They will also include what you plan to accomplish in terms of sales, SEO, and revenue. Thus, they will also help you achieve different aspects of digital marketing, such as social media metrics and email marketing.
You should strive to-
- Hit a revenue target within the month or year.
- Get more signups for the lead magnet.
- Get new email subscribers.
- See an increase in the site’s traffic and engagement with the onsite content.
- Improve the search ranking to help boost traffic.
- Get a certain number of mentions and comments for your pillar content.
It is also essential to pay attention to marketing expenditure, track your spending on different types of campaigns you have conducted and keep an eye out on the cost of acquiring leads and making sales.
3. Know your audience
If you want to chalk out a successful content marketing strategy, you should be clear about who your audience is so you can create the right content to reach them. Following are the three actions that you should take-
- Collect the demographic data
Collecting the demographics of your visitor’s emails, social media followers, and visitors is essential.
- Get customer feedback.
It is essential to take feedback from your customers, their most urgent needs, and how you can address their problems with your content. It helps you understand the priorities of your readers and flesh out your buyer personas.
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How to create buyer personas?
You can create buyer personas when you have customer feedback and demographic data. They describe your ideal readers and customers so you can target the content better. If you do this, you will have a better understanding of-
- The kind of content your audience will respond to.
- How it will help them.
4. Assess your current position
If many businesses already have the content out there, it will include the content on your blog, podcasts, videos and social media content. Thus, you should be able to figure out whether that content is helping you meet your goals. You will need to carry out the audit for that, which means-
- Logging all the pieces of content, such as blog posts.
- Assessing their usefulness.
- Identifying the gaps.
You should also compare how your content compares with that of your competitors. Thus, you can see how any new content will fit in the market.
You should analyze your content and find the following-
- Content titles.
- Content length.
- Backlinks.
- Social shares.
Why should you identify the gaps in your content?
It is essential to identify the gaps in your content and find out the keywords related to your niche that you are not targeting with your content.
5. Figure out the best content channels
It is essential to figure out the best content channels, focus on what is working, and expand from there rather than trying to do everything at once. You can take a reference from these channels, and thus you will be able to make modifications to your content whenever required.
6. Decide on the content types.
It is also essential to consider the types of content you need to create. There are some content types out there that every content marketing strategy will include. The content marketing strategies that are the most successful rely on the core of content published on your site. It can also be repurposed and shared on other sites.
Thus, blog posts are an essential part of the matrix and they deliver solid and efficient results. Thus, your blog posts are actionable and valuable and they also may include a range of article types.
7. Identify and allocate resources.
It is very important to ensure you have everything you need to deliver your content marketing strategy. It also involves questions like-
- Who is in charge of producing and maintaining the content?
- What physical and digital tools do you need to create the content?
- What will your publishing workflow look like?
