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Whether you're just starting out with content marketing or you've been using the same approach for a while, it never hurts to revisit your content strategy plan — to make sure it's up-to-date, innovative, and engaging for your customers, no matter when or how they intend to buy.
After all, you've got more competition than ever.
The first step to getting a leg up on the competition — and actively engage your audience — is to have a solid, smart content marketing plan in place.
If you're having trouble planning for the upcoming year or need some fresh ideas to include in your plan, read on.
In this post, we'll dive into what content strategy is, why your business needs a content marketing plan, what steps you need to take to create your strategy, and some types of Content Marketing.
What is content strategy?
Content strategy refers to the management of pretty much any tangible media that you create and own: written, visual, downloadable — you name it. Content strategy is the piece of your marketing plan that continuously demonstrates who you are and the expertise you bring to your industry.
Content creation is important to the growth of your business, and it needs to have a well-planned purpose.
When you develop a content strategy, there are a few questions to answer.
1. Who will be reading your content?
Who's the target audience for your content? For how many audiences are you creating content? Just as your business might have more than one type of customer, your content strategy can cater to more than one type of reader or viewer.
Using a variety of content types and channels will help you deliver different content to each type of audience you have in mind and engage everyone your company does business with.
2. What problem will you be solving for your audience(s)?
Ideally, your product or service solves a problem you know your audience has. By the same token, your content coaches and educates your audience through this problem as they begin to identify and address it.
A sound content strategy supports people on both sides of your product: those who are still figuring out what their main challenges are, and those who are already using your product to overcome these challenges. Your content reinforces the solution(s) you're offering and makes your customers more qualified users of your product.
3. What makes you unique?
Your competitors likely have a similar product as yours, which means your potential customers need to know what makes yours better — or, at least, different. This is where content comes in.
In order to prove why you're worth buying from, you need to prove why you're worth listening to.
4. What content formats will you focus on?
What forms will your content take? Infographics? Videos? Blog posts? Having identified the topics you want to take a position on, you'll need to determine which formats to budget for so you can best express that position.
5. What channels will you publish on?
Just as you can create content in different formats, you'll also have different channels you can publish to. Channels can include owned properties, such as your website and blog; and social media properties, such as Facebook and Twitter. We'll talk more about social media content strategy in the step-by-step guide later in this article.
6. How will you manage content creation and publication?
Figuring out how you'll create and publish all your content can be a daunting task. It's important for a content strategy to know who's creating what, where it's being published, and when it's going live.
Why Do Marketers Need to Create a Content Marketing Strategy?
Content marketing helps businesses prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic and new leads. If you can create just one blog post that gets a steady amount of organic traffic, an embedded link to an e-book or free tool will continue generating leads for you as time goes on — long after you click Publish.
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Now, let's dive in to learn the specifics of how to create a content marketing plan.
1. Define your goal.
What's your aim for developing a content marketing plan? Why do you want to produce content and create a content marketing plan? Know your goals before you begin planning, and you'll have an easier time determining what's best for your strategy.
2. Conduct persona research.
To develop a successful plan, you need to clearly define your content's target audience — also known as your buyer persona.
This is especially important for those who are starting out or are new to marketing. By knowing your target audience, you can produce more relevant and valuable content that they'll want to read and convert on.
If you're an experienced marketer, your target may have changed. Do you want to target a new group of people or expand your current target market? Do you want to keep the same target audience? Revisiting your audience parameters by conducting market research each year is crucial to growing your audience.
3. Run a content audit.
Most people start out with blog posts, but if you want to venture out and try producing other content pieces, consider which ones you want to make.
If you've been in business for a while, review your content marketing efforts and the results from it in the last year by running a content audit. Figure out what you can do differently in the upcoming year and set new goals to reach. Now is a great time to align your team's goals with the rest of your organization's goals.
4. Choose a content management system.
Have a system in place where you can create, manage, and track your content, otherwise known as a content management system (CMS). A few vital parts of content management include content creation, content publication, and content analytics.
5. Brainstorm content ideas.
Now, it's time to start coming up with ideas for your next content project. Consider a content calendar or map out the tactics you may consider.
6. Determine which types of content you want to create.
There are a variety of options out there for content you can create. In the following section, we'll discuss some of the most popular content formats marketers are creating, including some tools and templates to get you started.
7. Publish and manage your content.
Your marketing plan should go beyond the types of content you'll create — it should also cover you'll organize your content. With the help of an editorial calendar, you'll be on the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content library on your website. Then, create a social media content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on other sites.
Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen — they're just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn't ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate spikes of traffic.
Most people count on incorporating popular holidays such as New Year's and Thanksgiving in their marketing efforts, but you don't have to limit yourself to these important marketing dates. If there are niche holidays that might appeal to your audience, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media.
Types of Content Marketing
Blog posts
Ebooks
Case studies
Templates
Infographics
Videos
Podcasts
Social media
These are the eight most popular types of content marketing you can create for your readers and customers.
1. Blog Posts
If you haven't already noticed, you're currently reading a blog post. Blog posts live on a website and should be published regularly in order to attract new visitors.
Posts should provide valuable content for your audience that makes them inclined to share posts on social media and across other websites. We recommend that blog posts be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, but you should experiment to see if your audience prefers longer or shorter reads.
2. Ebooks
Ebooks are lead-generation tools that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. They're typically longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which are written to attract visitors to a website.
Ebooks are the next step in the inbound marketing process: After reading a fabulous blog post (such as this one), visitors might want more information - we hope they do.
This is where calls-to-action (CTAs) come into play, directing people to a landing page where they can submit their contact information and download an ebook to learn more valuable information for their business. In turn, the business producing the ebook has a new lead for the sales team to contact.
3. Case Studies
Case studies are your opportunity to tell the story of a customer who succeeded in solving a problem by working with you. A case study is perhaps your most versatile type of content marketing because it can take many different forms — some of which are on this list. That's right, case studies can take the form of a blog post, ebook, podcast ... even an infographic.
Your goal in a case study is to show the people who are considering your product that the proof is in the pudding. Before choosing a customer for a case study, you should determine which form the testimonial will take and the area of your business to which you're trying to drive value.
4. Templates
Templates are a handy content format to try because they generate leads for you while providing tremendous value to your audience. When you provide your audience with template tools to save them time and help them succeed, they're more likely to keep engaging with your content in the future.
5. Infographics
Infographics can organize and visualize data in a more compelling way than words alone. These are great content formats to use if you're trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
If you're ready to get started, get our templates for creating beautiful infographics in less than an hour.
6. Videos
Videos are a highly engaging content medium and are shareable across social media platforms and websites alike. Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity — after all, it's 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content — it's a medium worth experimenting with.
7. Podcasts
Starting a podcast will help audiences find your brand if they don't have time or interest in reading content every day. The number of podcast listeners is growing — in 2018, nearly one-third of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast in the last month. If you have interesting people to interview or conversations to host, consider podcasting as another content format to experiment with.
8. Social Media
Once you've been regularly publishing content on your own site for a while, it might be time to start thinking about distributing your content on other sites. This could mean repurposing content into new formats and publishing them on your blog, creating original content specifically for external sites or publishing website content on various social networks.
Posting on social media, however, is pivotal to amplifying your brand's reach and delivering your content to your customers where you know they spend their time. Social networks on which businesses often post include:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Snapchat
YouTube
Tik Tok
When launching a business account on any of the social networks above, it's important to post the type of content your followers expect to see. On Instagram, for example, users want photos, videos, and graphics that reflect current events, show off user-generated content, or even go behind the scenes of your organization.
On Facebook, your options for what to post open up a bit: Not only can you share your blog posts and website content, but you can also post native Facebook videos, product promotions, and original memes that resonate with your customers. You can also interact with other businesses that have a similar audience as your own.
While the goal on social media sites like Instagram or Snapchat is to connect more intimately with your audience, your goal on platforms like Facebook and Twitter is to expand that audience, drive traffic toward your website, and start conversations in your industry. Do some basic market research to discover which platforms your buyers are on, and mold your content to their expectations.
When you're ready for more ideas, there are a plethora of different content types to diversify your content marketing.
It takes time, organization, and creativity to grow a successful content marketing strategy. From building the foundation of your content marketing plan to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your strategy for the new year won't be a hassle if you follow the steps and contact Doozy Digital Solutions today.
Happy creating!