In 7 Easy Steps, Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Here’s a quick rundown of each of the seven phases to establishing a content marketing plan to get you started:
1. Make a list of your objectives
Whatever your content marketing objectives are, make sure they’re long-term and aligned with your company’s overall goals, mission, and vision. Stick to three to five company goals at most, and record them, to keep your approach focused and crystal-clear. Always keep in mind that creating content for the sake of creating content is never a good idea.
2. Decide on your “One Thing”
There is a massive amount of information available, and more is being added every day. What is the core of your content strategy?
- Is it possible to be excessively useful?
- Is it to Inspire and motivate?
- Is it possible to both educate and entertain?
Suggest first in jotting down all of your company’s brand statements. Then, for each of your top three rivals, check out any messages from your list that they are also utilizing. You’ll be left with a fully distinct collection of brand messaging that might help you define your “one thing.”
3. Track Your Content Marketing Results
If you want to track content, start with something trackable and think out how you’ll show it works before you create it. Be wary of vanity metrics that don’t truly tell you anything. Instead of looking at eyes, we need to look at action to see whether your content is truly doing what it’s supposed to.
4. Make a list of your top five target audiences.
Time and attention are magically created by relevance. To be relevant, we need to know who we’re talking to and who we’re targeting, and there are a few different ways to do that:
- Audience: High-level groups of people who are similarly motivated and have a shared goals or purpose. Consider returning customers.
- Individuals (or companies) who have one or more similar features, or may be grouped through a common trait form segments of an audience or the list. Consider working-at-home parents.
- Persona: A data-driven, comprehensive yet fictional description of a hypothetical set of users’ aims and behavior.
To avoid becoming fixated on what your audience physically looks like or stereotyping by age, ethnicity, or gender, consider substituting stock photographs with icons or symbols.
5. Determine the needs of your target audience.
The 5x5x5 method looks at your top 5 audiences’ top 5 queries in each of the 5 critical phases of the marketing funnel to help you better understand their desires, needs, and expectations so you can produce content that meets all of them.
6. Use Less Content to Produce More
Repurpose or reuse material: Give old stuff a new lease of life by remixing it. This might involve adding fresh information to some still-relevant material, converting an infographic into an animated movie, or republishing content to make it more visible to consumers.
Curate content: Curate material from reputable sources, but be sure to give credit where credit is due and incorporate your own thoughts on the topic.
User-generated content (UGC): Seek more content ideas and pieces from your consumers or social community.
Atomization: The process of breaking down a large piece of material into eight smaller parts.
7. Make a content schedule
We have a whole blog article about content calendars, as well as a free content calendar template, that will guide you through how, what, and why to schedule content
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