Create Rewarding Content Marketing Strategies in Just 7 Steps

You are aware of the benefits of content marketing for your business.

And these statistics further validate the effectiveness of content marketing as a powerful tool to grow the online presence of your business.

But what makes you crazy is why content marketing isn’t working for you!

Listen to this! What do you think content marketing involves? Is it just about creating and distributing content?

Well, if that’s your theory about content marketing, you are bound to fail! Because your very basic about content marketing is wrong.

So, let’s first learn what EXACTLY content marketing is!

What is Content Marketing?

The process of content creation and distribution has to be strategic in order to attract and engage a clearly defined audience, and ultimately drive profitable customer action for your business, like brand awareness and increased revenue.

This strategic approach is what we call as ‘CONTENT MARKETING’.

Now, there are two attributes to understand in the context of content marketing.

1. The Audience

Before creating content, you must answer questions like:

• Who will read your content?
• How many types of audience you have?
• What problem will you solve for your audience through your content?
• What makes you unique?

2. The Content

As they say, you must deliver ‘Valuable and relevant’ content to your users. Answering the above questions will define the value and relevance of your content.

Besides, you must also focus on the content formats like audio/text/video and the channels you’ll publish on based on the needs of your audience.

Can you see the involvement of ‘STRATEGY’ in content marketing unveiling? Read on to know further!

Why you Need to Create Content Marketing Strategies?

Number one advice from content marketing experts!

Why? Because this will help you prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective ways to generate website traffic and new leads.

With an effective content marketing strategy:

• You won’t feel challenged with content marketing
• Will be able to use all content marketing tactics and social media channels effectively
• Justify your marketing budget on content marketing

4 Elements of Content Marketing Strategy

1. Positioning your brand

With a clearly defined brand and product positioning, you can provide a consistent experience to your consumers and build a right image of your brand.

To brainstorm about your position in the market, start answering these questions:

1. Who are your existing and potential customers?
2. What kind of experience they are looking for?
3. Who are your top competitors and how they market themselves?
4. What’s your brand’s unique value?
5. What problems do you solve for your audience?
6. What makes you better than your competitors?
7. How can you highlight your brand’s personality?

2. Owned Media value proposition

Answer questions like:

• What value do you provide to your audience with your content?
• How do you stand out from other content creators?
• Why should readers choose to follow your content channels?

Research your audience to identify the type of information they are looking for and their favorite resources. Then, analyze your competitors’ content strategies.

Consider all publishers in your area of expertise as potential competitors, like online magazines, industry blogs, or influencers’ video channels.

Documenting this information will help you build your credibility as a content publisher.

3. Business Case

Raise your hands if you know this!

What’s the aim of your content marketing strategy?

Of course, to attract new readers and followers, and drive your business forward.

For the purpose, it’s critical to identify the goals your company needs to achieve, and figure out your content marketing strategies accordingly.

4. Strategic plan

Finally, comes the plan that you will execute to achieve your goals with content marketing.

Think through each step of your content marketing strategy, who you want to reach with your Content Marketing efforts, how you will deliver that content to them and, finally, how you will measure your targeted results.

Types of content you can use in Content Marketing Strategies

Blog posts
Ebooks
Case studies
Infographics
Videos
Podcasts
Social Media

7 Steps of Creating a Complete Content Marketing Strategy

1. Audit your existing content

If you aren’t starting anew and already have some content on your website and other platforms, perform a content audit.

Analyze what kind of content works best for your business, what attracts your audience, and what more you can do to improve your results.

This is crucial because there are approximately 1.6 billion websites and over 70 million blog posts published each month.

With such an unfathomable amount of information for your audience to take in, can you create content that stands out and catches the reader’s attention? Your content audit will tell you this.

2. Establish your content marketing goals

Have clearly defined goals, and make sure that every content piece is built towards achieving those goals.

Start with goals related to your overall vision and mission before moving on to identifying long- and short-term goals for your business.

3. Determine your audience

Define your target audience clearly and draw them in with your content. To do this, understand their lifestyle, their challenges and concerns.

Audience ≠ Buyers

Your audience isn’t solely made up of buyers. It also includes people who begin interacting with your brand long before they intend to make a purchase.

So, create and deliver content to attract your potential customers at every stage of the purchase journey.

4. Plan content production

Before you write, think about the purpose of each piece you want to create.

Make sure your content covers every part of the customer journey to support your prospects at each stage, and, ultimately, develop a long-term relationship with them.

Key points to remember in content creation:

• Create SEO-friendly content
• Diversify your content
• Repurpose your content
• Take advantage of user generated content

5. Develop an editorial plan

Prepare an editorial calendar documenting the content and types of content you’ll create and publish in a month.

This allows you to allocate your resources appropriately and see which workflows are taking longer than expected, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Use Topic Research tool to get ideas for subjects you should write on as well as related questions, subtopics, and headers.

6. Plan content distribution

Content distribution is as integral as content creation.

So, provide omnichannel communication to your audience and keep your brand at the forefront of their minds.

Align your goals and content across multiple channels to give your audience a clear picture of who you are and what you can offer.

7. Analyze your content performance

NEVER EVER FORGET THIS!

Creating content without evaluating what is working for you and what isn’t is a sheer waste of time and resources.

Therefore, visit your Analytics tool consistently to understand what type of content is connecting with your audience, and then determine what pieces to generate next.

Your audience is the best teacher to learn what type of content to create based on their interests.

Content metrics to track:

1. User behavior: unique visitors, pages per session, bounce rate.
2. Engagement: likes, shares, comments, mentions.
3. SEO results: organic traffic, dwell time, backlinks.
4. Company revenue: number of leads, existing leads affected, conversion rate.

FaQs about content marketing strategy

Should I share the strategy with other teams?

Undoubtedly, Yes if you are a large organization with big teams.

Sharing your content marketing strategies (documented) keep them on the same page and ensured every team member works toward the same content goals.

How often to update your content marketing strategy?

Your company’s mission and business goals will stay consistent even as your content marketing program grows and develops.

However, review other aspects of your content marketing strategy periodically to update your topics in consistent with the trends in your industry and your audience interests.

Conclusion