Every once in a while, Digital Marketing gets hit with trends that slowly start changing its overall scope. From Paid Advertising in the past to PR a few years back, we have seen Marketing evolve before our very eyes. The next era of Marketing is already here – And it’s called ‘Content Marketing’.
Now, Content Marketing has been around for quite some time but there are very few marketers or businesses who have fully been able to grasp its true potential.
- Is Content Marketing about creating content?
- Should I learn SEO to become a proficient Content Marketer?
- How do Content Marketing efforts translate to revenue generation?
Before we get to those high-level questions, we need to answer the bigger question which is – How do I get started with Content Marketing?
And just like any other Digital Marketing strategy, Content Marketing also needs a strategy in order to be truly effective. In this article, we’ll look at what a ‘Content Strategy’ is and how you can make one for yourself.
What is a Content Strategy?
By now, we understand that Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that involves creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience, with the ultimate goal of driving profitable customer action. The question that most of you have over here is – How do I figure out what type of content to create?
Before we get to that, let’s look at the overall scope of Content Marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute (the leading authority in this space), 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers, and 86% of B2C marketers consider content marketing a key strategy for success.
When it comes to a content strategy, this is a document that is crucial for businesses of all sizes. Creating an overall strategy will help you understand your personal roadmap to Content Marketing success. When implemented correctly, your business will be able to increase brand awareness, drive traffic, generate leads, and ultimately convert those leads into customers.
Without a well-defined content strategy, you risk creating content that doesn’t resonate with your target audience, leading to wasted time and resources. It’s like shooting arrows blindly toward the sky hoping they would hit your desired target.
Let’s get started with the Content Strategy process now. I have personally used this very approach for my own projects and for clients.
1. Define Your Target Audience
As is the case with almost every marketing campaign, you first need to figure out who you are speaking to. Unlike paid advertising where you can create a set of users with related interests, you cannot be that broad when it comes to Content Marketing. The rule is – The more specific you can be, the better results you will get.
In the context of a Content Strategy, this first step involves understanding your ideal customer’s demographics, behaviors, pain points, and motivations. Here’s a cool stat – According to HubSpot, businesses that prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI. However, if that business doesn’t even know who will read their blog, will the content reach the right people?
In a deeper dive, every business may find that their users actually hang out on social media when they’ve been spending all that precious time blogging to their heart’s content. Do you understand now how important it is to map out your target audience first before creating content?
Now I cannot just leave you without a process for defining your target audience. For starters, conduct market research in your industry. You can use tools such as Google Analytics to gain insights into your website’s visitors and how these users interact with your website.
Analyzing where users spend most of their time may help you understand which topics you should be talking about. Moving forward, you can use social listening tools to spy on your competitor’s websites and find out what users type under their posts. You can also check competitors’ customers to see who they are targeting. Here are some questions to ask while doing this;
- Is this person having a positive experience with my competitor?
- Are they expressing any pain points that I can effectively resolve?
- Where do they belong, what kind of posts do they engage with, and what’s their bio?
After you answer these questions, create user personas, which are fictional representations of your ideal customers, to guide your content creation process. You can use tools such as Xtensio which will give you a ready-made template for you to just fill in the gaps.
2. Content Creation
If you’ve got the first part of this process correct, Content Creation should be a breeze now. Why? Well, because you now know what exactly to create in order to attract your target audience. While previously you would have spent time looking at glittery posts and hoped to replicate them, now you know what works and what doesn’t!
Content creation is the heart of any content marketing strategy. It involves brainstorming ideas, creating a content calendar, and producing quality content that resonates with your target audience.
To generate content ideas, conduct keyword research to see what topics your audience is searching for. Use tools such as Google Trends and Buzzsumo to identify popular topics and content formats. Answer the Public is yet another resource you can use to find out the questions that users ask in your industry.
And if these tools are getting a bit too much, I have the full list at the end of this article!
Once you’ve written down ideas, it’s time to create a content calendar to stay organized and ensure a consistent publishing schedule. A lot of marketers and brands out there use super-complex content calendars with so many columns to memorize that you’ll lose the overall vision of why you even started out with Content Marketing.
To ensure you stay super-targeted, keep your content calendars to 3-5 columns at most and they should include these headings:
- Keyword/Name: This is the idea that you generated or the title of that content.
- Status: This will help you streamline the content creation process by understanding which content you have to create, what’s already being created, and what comes next.
- Publishing Date: I would suggest you focus on a single date of publishing. A lot of brands use separate dates for ideation and publishing but I’ve first-hand experienced how confusing that can get. And if you’re not consistent enough, you might start lagging behind on these dates.
- Category (Optional): If you write on more than one category on your website, this might be a good thing to have.
- Priority: Make sure to have this in place so you understand what to focus on.
Lastly, when creating content, keep in mind the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). Incorporate relevant keywords into your content to improve your search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic. You can take your content calendars up a notch by even writing down the focus keywords in one of the columns.
3. Content Distribution
We’ve covered 2 of the main points when it comes to Content Marketing – A target audience & content creation. Now it’s time to fit the third piece in there which is all about ‘Content Distribution’.
Once you’ve created quality content, the next step is to distribute it to your target audience. There are many ways to distribute your content, including social media, email marketing, and influencer marketing.
However, this is a place where too many businesses falter by doing too much!
Here’s my advice – If you’re starting out, it will be best to focus on 1-2 Channels max. In my case, I’m only using this website to share my knowledge. However, I do plan on expanding to Social Media when the time is right. There are many options available when it comes to content distribution and that is what makes this step a bit challenging.
- You have social media to post content on. And there are LITERALLY DOZENS of social media platforms out there.
- You also have websites to blog on.
- And then you have certain platform-specific content for example – Short-form videos on Tik Tok, catchy graphical posts on Instagram, and then slightly more formal posts on LinkedIn.
Pretty confusing right?
Here’s what you are going to do. With the research from the very first step when you created user personas, you’re going to narrow down where your target audience likes to hang out. Categorize that audience by the channels they frequent the most. Whichever channel comes on top should be your priority for now! Trust me – you don’t need to have a blog if you audience doesn’t like to read. And vice versa.
Conclusion
Creating a content marketing strategy that drives results is crucial for businesses of all sizes. By defining your target audience, creating quality content, and distributing it effectively, you can attract and engage your audience and ultimately drive profitable customer action. With the rise of video marketing, businesses can leverage this powerful tool to tell their brand’s story and connect with their audience in a more engaging way. By incorporating video into your content marketing strategy, you can stand out from the competition and capture your audience’s attention.
Remember, creating a successful content marketing strategy takes time and effort. By following the steps outlined in this article and staying committed to your strategy, you can drive real results for your business. Don’t forget to track your progress and adjust your strategy as needed to ensure continued success. With the right content strategy in place, your business can reach new heights and achieve your marketing goals.