Strategies for Content Marketing

There are numerous articles on content marketing strategies, and you can easily copy down a few “effective” techniques. But would it benefit your business? Are your goals similar to the ones focused on in the article? Are the target audiences the same? If your answer is a “No,” then you must consider performing a thorough analysis of your business, recognize your audience and decide upon the ultimate goal before creating a personalized Content Marketing Strategy.

Why Do You Need a Content Marketing Strategy?

Never write and syndicate content in a hurry. Such content would neither bring you traffic nor improve your customer engagement. A Content Marketing Strategy must be planned well ahead of time and documented.

Numerous surveys and studies have revealed that businesses that had documented their content marketing strategy performed well. Here are a few crucial reasons why you need a plan:

1. You know when and where the content needs to be syndicated

2. Once you have a clear picture, you will have enough time to perform A/B testing and make refinements

3. You will be able to remain consistent, and your ROI will improve

Essential Steps to Creating a Powerful Content Marketing Strategy

1. Determine Your Audience Behavior and Their Interests

Before you even start writing content for your business, you must understand your customer’s interests and goals. The content you write must be focused on serving their interests. If you have a list of old customers or the kind of service they have purchased from you in the past, you can consider choosing a topic that serves their past interests.

2. Choose Your Marketing Goal

Brand awareness, traffic acquisition, and lead generation are the most common goals that most businesses focus on. You must identify your business goals before getting into content creation. Analyze the key performance indicators and narrow down your mission based on these indicators. Once you clearly understand your goals, writing content and choosing a specific topic to suit your goals wouldn’t be much difficult.

3. Audit Your Current Content

It is always best to analyze your old content at least twice a year. This will help you understand the type of content that brought you the most traffic and conversions. It will also help you know the channels that brought in the highest number of visitors. With this data, you can work on producing better content revolving around the same topic or keywords, and you can also update the old content to suit customers’ liking. Moreover, you will have a clearer idea about the mediums you will need to focus on this time.

4. Prepare a Content Time Sheet & Develop Content

Organize a detailed content plan that should enlist the topic or keyword you would like to focus on. Also, note the due date when you want to have the final copy of the content delivered to you. Once these basics are planned and documented, start focusing on developing content. If you do not have time to write new content, try to get ideas from old articles that brought your good traffic. Convert them into infographics, slide shows, or videos and repurpose them.

5. Craft a Plan for Content Distribution

Once your content is written, make a list of paid and free mediums that would accept your content to be shared. Choose channels that are quite popular among audiences. Once you have a consolidated list in hand, try syndicating your content. If possible, get a list of top influencers (specific to your market), and contact them to have your content published on their sites or channels.

6. Keep a Check on Content Performance

It would be best if you didn’t forget about your content after syndication; keep checking its performance frequently. This way, you will know which content is performing well and the ones that you need to update or reconstruct.

Content Marketing Strategies may vary based on business requirements, but the key elements will always remain the same. So, keep testing, implementing, and improvising on your journey towards creating the best Content Plan.