For me, the basics are quite simple actually what is content marketing strategy? Stop thinking about content marketing as some kind of technique and start thinking about it with your common sense social instincts. Here's what I mean:
- When you meet someone for the first time, it's common courtesy to ask their name, and what they do, and then stop and listen. Same for content marketing. Start listening. Or as Chris Brogan calls it, develop bigger ears. Just start by listening to the conversations around you - your competitors, your future customers, your industry folks in general. Make notes of what's interesting, which stuff engages you, what items you click through, and what kind of traction the content is receiving.
After you've met someone and listened for a while, they would customarily ask you "and what about you". It's now your turn to say something interesting about yourself and drive the conversation forward. Similarly, with your content, your aim is to tell a story. But not just any story. Your aim is to tell the story of YOU.
- My other tip for beginners is to create content for a specific person. You can't go wrong with this. Don't try to guess who your audience is. Don't even conduct focus groups or send out surveys. Identify the one person - preferably a real person - to talk with. Imagine this person is nodding, smiling, shaking their head, interrupting you to ask questions... Now create content for just this one person directly. When you do this, you get immense clarity and define your audience automatically.
As a beginner, start with these. There's obviously more, but it's important to treat content marketing as simple as possible to avoid overwhelm. It's not a new form of marketing - it's still just people talking to other people. If you can remember that, you're unlikely to go wrong.
content strategy is a strategy that takes your business goals and then uses content as a primary means to achieve those goals.
New business owners might assume a content strategy is a 'nice-to-have', but not entirely necessary early on. However, producing high-quality content to meet business needs can help companies build trust with new audiences and, ultimately, succeed over the long haul.
Here are some key points.
You can read this also HOW TO START CONTENT WRITING FOR BEGINNERS?
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 solutions 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 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.
Today's content strategies prevent clutter by managing content from a topic standpoint — as explained in the video above. When planning around topics, you can easily visualize your company's message and assert yourself as an authority in your market over time.
Why 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
· Define your goals
The first and foremost step is to establish logical goals. We often target unrealistic goals only to be frustrated at the end. Instead, try to identify your agency in the digital marketing ecosystem and create plans accordingly.
Bear in mind the resources you have and the budgets you can allocate. A logical goal does not push you to burn your cash reserves; it motivates you to make the best of available finances.
· Understand your target audience
Once you have a goal, the next step is to understand your target audience. We live in a world where consumer behavior is changing rapidly. Products and services that were mere convenience are a necessity today. Start with a blank canvas and understand the current consumer trends.
· Identify burning issues
In your audience research, you will come across pain points. Identify the burning issues of your customers. Are they frustrated with something? That is a good topic for creating a DIY blog. Are they confused about something? That is a good topic to create an explainer video. You get the gist.
· Create honest content
Creating honest content is the most critical thing in the world for agencies. Too many hogwash firms misguide clients with dreams and nothing to show for it.
Clients are looking for honest agencies. So, create genuine content which shares insightful, actionable information with the audience.
· Publish and promote
Publish your content on all relevant channels. Create a dedicated content funnel. For example, if you have a whitepaper, create social media posts, infographics, and videos related to that content. Direct visitors to the centerpiece with every channel.
1. We start by setting up the objective of the campaign and the metrics/KPIs we will focus on. Do we want to gain traffic? Do we want to generate leads? Do we want to increase our revenue? Do we want to promote a launch? It's crucial to know what your goals are before you even start drafting a plan.
2. Then we look at who it is we want to target. It's essential to know your audience in order to create the right content, be on the right platforms, decide on the types of format (blog posts, infographics, videos, e-books, etc.), and have the right tone and message. Creating audience personas at this stage can help when it comes to future campaigns.
3. Next, we come up with content ideas. What we do here is get a huge list of content topics and titles. We do this through a combination of brainstorming, typing keywords on search engines, studying competitors, and using tools like Google Trends.
4. Now it's time to create a calendar. You want your content to be organized. Will you publish one blog post a day? One per week? How many times a day will you post on social media? It's important to document all of this so your team has something to reference and stick to.
5. Create your content. Note that we've done four steps before even creating the content. Make sure your content is well written, scan-able, and fits with your overall strategy. By the way, it's always handy to have your content reviewed by your colleagues before publishing.
6. Distribute your content. A lot of businesses, marketers, or entrepreneurs spend so much time and money creating content but so little when it comes to promoting it. I usually suggest spending 20% of your time creating content and 80% of the time distributing it.
7. Track results, gather data, and check your KPIs. Did the content you create achieve its goals? What kind of content worked? What kind of content didn't? Optimize your content according to the results you got and prepare the next content campaign accordingly.
Summary:
There's a lot of advice to take above, so we thought we'd stick this handy summary in to give you a quick rundown of the most suggested actions:
· Do your research. This takes time, but finding content ideas, creating audience personas, and working out what KPIs to track are critical when it comes to creating a successful content strategy. It can take time but in is very necessary to research.
· Track KPIs to analyze performance. You'll never know if your content strategy is working unless you track your KPIs. If your content isn't delivering what it's supposed to, then tweak it and try again. And keep on tweaking until it works.
· Turn to your colleagues. A fresh pair of eyes on your latest blog before you hit publish is a must if you can get them. And getting input from other teams within your business helps too (sales, PR, operations, etc.).
· Use the right tools. The Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, and Gmail), Google Trends, Google Autofill, Buzzsumo, and AnswerThePublic are your friends here.
· Make a plan and stick to it. Make sure everyone knows what the plan is, no matter if it's a long or short-term plan, you need to document it and reference it to stay on track. Making a content calendar is super useful.
Well, there you have it. We sincerely hope you found this article useful. If you did, we'd love it if you could give us an upvote. And, if you really liked it, perhaps you’d be interested in heading over to the Converge blog to read more great content.
Why 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.
Thank you! Now, I'm aware of the importance of content strategy. This type of marketing strategy helps us build a relationship with our customers and engage them on a more personal level. content strategy Melbourne is one of the most effective marketing tactics available, and it is also cost-effective and can generate three times as many leads as conventional marketing methods. It also helps you get your products in front of a new audience while building loyalty among current ones.
ReplyDelete