Whether you are just about to start with content marketing or have been using the same proven strategy for a considerable amount of time, it is always a wise idea to review your current strategy. This way you can make sure that your present content marketing strategy is up-to-date, innovative enough and in-fact effective. After all, the competition is fiercer than ever.
In order to stay competitive, the first step is to develop a solid, smart content marketing plan. If you are having trouble planning for the next year or just simply want to incorporate new ideas into your plan, read our post. We will try to touch upon everything you need to know about content marketing in 2020 and beyond.
What does content marketing strategy mean exactly?
Content strategy refers to the way you manage and promote content you create, whichever formats you have chosen. Your content can be written, visual or downloadable, whichever type comes to your mind. A content strategy must be part of your overall marketing plan, showing who you are and what your expertise is in a given niche.
You’ve probably heard about the importance of creating content and how essential it is for your business to grow. But as you will see in this article, you need to have a well-thought-out and well-established goal that will drive your content marketing strategy. When developing your content strategy, there are a few key things to keep in mind:
1. Who you create the content for
Who is the target audience of your content? Do you create your content for a single audience or for many different audiences? Just like in the case of your business where you have more than one type of customer, your content strategy can serve multiple ‘types’ of readers or visitors as well.
Using different types of content and marketing channels will help you deliver various types of content to each type of audience and get the most engagement with these people.
2. Solutions for the Audience
Ideally, the product or service you provide will solve a problem that you already know your audience is facing. And the content you create is meant to show your readers how to deal with that specific problem, how to sort it out permanently.
A well-structured content strategy is made for people on both sides of the product’s sales road: those who are still trying to recognize the challenge they are facing and those who are already using your product to overcome those challenges. The latter group is more likely to perceive your content as a set of guidelines. The content you create further underpins the credibility of the product offering the solution, and your customers become more qualified users of your products or services.
3. What makes you and your business unique
Your competitors are likely to have a product or service similar to yours, which means potential customers need to know what makes the products or services you offer different, better. This is where the content comes into play. With the tool of content marketing, you will be able to prove why they should purchase from you.
4. Forms of Content
What form will your content take? Do you want to make infographics? Maybe videos? Would you like to write blog posts? Once you have identified the topics you want to write about to provide more information, you need to decide which formats fit into your budget. The point is that the form you choose should express and interpret your message as much as possible.
5. Select content marketing channels
Just as you can create content in different formats, you can also use different channels to publish them. You can always use your own marketing channels. A good example here is your website and blog. You can also share content on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
6. Creating and publishing content
Creating content and figuring out the most effective way to publish it is no easy task. However, one of the most important elements of a content strategy is knowing who will be responsible for creating the different types of content (if there are several team members in your business), and where you will publish that content. You might want to create a calendar to help you organise your overall strategy. When planning your calendar, you will have a better idea of what content strategy you should follow. This will make you online marketing efforts more effective.
Why Create a Content Marketing Strategy?
Content marketing helps attract new customers and it is a reliable and cost-effective source for increasing website traffic.
The ongoing traffic coming from evergreen content gives you the flexibility to experiment with other marketing tactics such as social media ads. In addition, content does not only help attract the audience – it also promotes brand awareness and provides information to your Readers.
Effective content marketing is about a lot more than just blogging or sharing an article on Facebook. Your Content Marketing Strategy is a long-term approach that aims to provide value to your targeted consumers and thus help these people connect with you, your brand, and your business.
How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy
1. Define your goal
Why would you like to develop a content marketing plan? Why do you want to create content? Before you start planning, get to know your own goals so that you can later identify the right elements for your strategy.
2. Do your Buyer Persona research
To develop a successful marketing plan, you need to clearly identify the target audience of your content – also known as the buyer persona.
This is especially important for those entrepreneurs who are just starting their marketing process. If you know your target audience, you can create more relevant and valuable content that people are curious about. This experience will also result in a better conversion rate.
If you have experience in marketing, it is still worthwhile to do some research as your target audience can change for a number of reasons. You may want to expand your current market or simply target a different group. Reviewing the target market is a must every year – without market research the audience – and as a result your business – will not grow.
3. Perform a content audit
Most people start with blog posts when it comes to their content marketing strategy but if you like experimenting, you can try to create different types of content. For example, if you have been writing weekly blog posts over the past year, you might consider creating an e-book where you can compile all your blog posts into one final guide.
If you are an experienced entrepreneur, look at your recent content marketing strategy and check the results of the last few years. Think about what to do next year, find alternatives for tactics that did not bring the expected results, and set new goals.
4. Choose a content management system
It’s important to have a system in place to manage your content. Some vital parts of content management are content creation, content publishing, and content analysis.
5. Gather ideas for content
As a fifth step, it’s time to gather ideas for further content projects. Don’t forget about the attractive titles!
6. Decide what type of content you want to create
You can create different types of content. Here are some of the most popular content formats that marketers create: blog posts, e-books, case studies, videos, infographics, podcasts, social media posts.
Blog posts
You are currently reading a blog. Blog posts are always posted on your website. It is important to publish regularly to attract new visitors. Posts must provide valuable content to the audience as it will encourage them to share these posts on social media or even on other websites. We recommend you to write posts of 1,000 – 2,000 words but it’s always a good idea to experiment a bit and see if your audience prefers longer or shorter articles.
E-books
E-books are usually designed to generate leads. When downloading e-books, potential customers normally need to provide some information (such as name and e-mail address). They are usually longer, more detailed and deeper, and published less frequently than blog posts that are designed to attract visitors to a particular web page.
E-books can be considered as the next step in the marketing process, in your content marketing strategy. After reading a blog post, visitors may be hungry for more information. And with a CTA (or call-to-action) button you can send them to a web page where they can download the e-book once they have been made available. By downloading the e-book, visitors can get even more systematic information about your niche while your business gets many priceless new leads.
Case Studies
Case studies or reports provide an opportunity to tell a story where a Customer could work with you to solve a particular problem. A case study is probably the most varied type of content because it can take many forms: blog posts, e-books, podcasts or even infographics.
The purpose of any case study is to show why you are worth working with, and you may also demonstrate your problem-solving skills. Before you choose which client to report on, you need to decide on the format and which area of your business you will focus on.
Infographics
With infographics you are able to organize and display data in a much more attractive way than words. This is a great content format that you can use if you want to share a lot of data in a clear and easy to understand, digestible way.
Videos
There is no questions about the importance and popularity of videos. A video is a very attractive type of content that can be shared across social media platforms and websites. Videos require a greater investment of time and resources than written content but as visual marketing grows in popularity (after all, a video is 40x more likely to be shared on social media than other types of content), it is definitely worth a try.
Podcasts
Launching podcasts can help your content to be discovered by an audience who doesn’t have the time or interest to read daily. Podcasts are extremely valuable when it comes to content formats. If you have one or two interesting people in mind, go ahead and schedule an interview with them. People will love it.
Social media
If you’ve been posting content on your own website for a while, you may want to consider sharing the content on other pages as well. Social media sharing plays a key role in boosting brand awareness and conveying content to customers as they spend an enourmous amount of time on these platforms. You should post on the following social media channels:
- Snap Chat
- YouTube
When you create a business account on any of these social media channels, it’s important to post the type of content that your followers expect and hungry for on that given platform. For example, Instagram users would like to see pictures, images, videos, and graphics that reflect current events and display user-generated content.
On Facebook, you have a bit more options: you can share not only blog posts but also pictures, videos, product promotions. You can also connect with other businesses with an audience similar to yours.
While platforms like Instagram or Snapchat aim to connect with your audience more closely, Facebook and Twitter are designed to grow your audience and drive traffic to your website. It’s a good idea to do some analysis on which social media platform your target audience is most active on so you can tailor your content to their needs and expectations.
7. Publishing and managing your content
A content marketing plan goes beyond producing and publishing content. An appropriate online marketing strategy should include content management. You might also want to keep a calendar to help you get started on creating balanced and varied content types.
Most of the ideas that come to your mind probably fall in the evergreen category. In a few months they will be just as relevant as they are today. Nevertheless, current topics – that is timely content – should not be ignored. While these will not represent the majority of your content, they can, from time to time, drive a lot of traffic to your website.
Closing thoughts
While this may seem like a lot of information at first, the work is just about to begin. Creating a successful content marketing strategy requires time, efforts, organization, and creativity. If you follow the steps above, you will have no trouble setting up your content marketing strategy for the new year and managing your content.
We wish you the best of luck.
Sources:
https://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/why-and-how-to-include-content-marketing-in-your-strategy-02135339