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The most successful companies have a content strategy because it provides a framework businesses can use to guide their online marketing efforts. Instead of worrying about what content to produce next, your company can rely on a content strategy and stop worrying about what to create.
Even more, a content strategy will help your business align the content you produce with your business goals because you will know what to create, how to optimize it, and how to publish it based on your target audience.
A successful content marketing approach can help your company:
- Grow new recognition
- Build trust by providing valuable information that helps prospects and clients make a decision
- Influence product taste and boost sales
- Generate more quality leads by forcing traffic to your site (bear in mind that search engines benefit sites with quality content)
- Educate prospects and clients, providing the foundation for a wholesome lead-nurturing program.
Now that we talked about the importance of a content strategy let’s take a look at the top five steps you need to take to create a profitable online marketing plan with a content strategy today!
1. Determine Objectives for Content Marketing
Since your business is spending time and money on producing content, you should be able to define the things you want to see come from your online marketing strategy. What value does your business want from improved online marketing?
Do you want to make more sales, generate more leads, focus on a particular customer segment? The reasons that your business is marketing depends on the end goals that you want to achieve.
While the objectives will change based on your industry, market, customer, and competition, some of the goals that many companies look for are:
- Generate qualified leads
- Boost sales
- Teach and keep clients informed
- Build brand loyalty
Before you start creating a content strategy, be sure to identify the goals and objectives you want to accomplish. These factors will influence how you set up your marketing strategy and the types of content you produce!
2. Establish Your Organization’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
The primary goal of your content strategy is to create content that is relevant to your customers. The only way you can produce great content is if you know what makes your company different from your competitors. This difference will make your business unique, and your customers will love your message and marketing approach.
- Looking at your top competitors’ products/services and their internet content advertising efforts will help decide what sets your business apart from them and prospective customers would select your products/services more than theirs. This measure includes:
- Reviewing competitors’ sites and printed content
- Conducting an internet search engine optimization (Search Engine Optimization) assessment includes looking at the top SEO keywords you and your competitors use, reviewing social media accounts, and finding content gaps that you can use to grow your online presence.
3. Define Your Audiences
The types of content you produce, and the message you portray will vary based on your target audience. User personas mimic the audiences for your content advertising efforts. Know them just like you understand your family.
- Deciding client demographics (e.g., age, sex, income level, geography).
- Assessing customer psychographics (e.g., values, interests, lifestyles)
- Developing consumer personas (e.g., literary personalities representing chief target market groups to help determine what guides their choices to Select your products/services)
- Conducting keyword investigation, which can be employed to discover what info has been consumed on your market perpendicular.
4. Discover & Setup Your Analytics To Measure Success
The only way to tell what is working and what is not in your content strategy is to track various metrics. You can use Google Analytics and other metrics programs to track different metrics. The only way to find the content that is working for you is to monitor and measure. Different channels use different metrics to determine the success of content, so be sure to track the right metrics based on your content strategy.
This step determines all of the performance metrics you will use to measure and continually optimize your editorial content. Based on what content has been measured, these metrics could include:
- Open speeds
- Click-through rates
- Conversion rates
- Downloads
- Total earnings
- Internet page views
- SEO positions
- Facebook enjoys
- Twitter retweets
- Pinterest pins
5. Produce a Content Execution & Amplification Plan
Now that you know who you are marketing to, the message you want to use, and the metrics you will track you can begin creating excellent content. Your content strategy needs to be based around delivering great content for your customers.
Use personas and client talks to understand the needs and wants of your customers. Where and how do your customers go to find answers to their questions? Understand that, depending upon the funnel phase, clients will need different kinds of content.
Create a content calendar to help your marketing team work through the various elements to find the ideal content to post. Then develop a system to create, optimize, and publish content that will increase conversions for your business. Your content strategy revolves around your customer and is fueled by high-quality content, so a plan to develop and publish your content is necessary if you want a successful online marketing strategy!
Content marketing goes beyond simply making a sale. It involves establishing an ongoing, relevant conversation with your intended audience and producing content your prospects and customers want and need — when they’re not in the buying cycle. Use the above tips to build a content strategy that will make your business more money by attracting more qualified leads no matter what industry you are in! If you’re new to content marketing, you may want to check out this very insightful guide about content marketing from Content Mavericks to start with.
About the Author
Chris is an Orlando Digital Marketing Consultant with 13 years of experience helping small business owners make more money. He focuses on SEO strategies, freelance copywriting, and PPC management services to help his clients grow and reach their goals!
