Having a documented content marketing strategy is critical to the success of your overall digital marketing efforts. After all, your content will help you attract and engage your target audience, drive traffic to your website, and build relationships with your customers.
Content Marketing Strategy - Why Is It Important?
Before diving into content marketing details, let’s first answer the question: what is a content marketing strategy?
A content marketing strategy is a plan for how you will create and distribute valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain your target audience. This strategy will help you align your content with your business goals and keep you from creating random pieces of content that serve no purpose.
Why Do You Need One?
Having a documented content marketing strategy is important for several reasons:
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It will help you save time and money by preventing you from creating content that doesn’t align with your business goals.
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It will keep you from wasting time and resources on creating content that your target audience doesn’t want or need.
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It will help you create a consistent brand voice and message.
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It will help you measure your content marketing success.
What If You Don’t Have a Content Marketing Strategy?
If you don’t have a content marketing strategy, you'll most likely have a scattered approach to content creation, wasting time and money. Not to mention, it will be difficult to measure your success and ROI without a social media marketing strategy.
Creating a content marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve broken it down into five simple steps that you can follow.
But what should your content marketing strategy include? Here are five essential elements:
1. Set S.M.A.R.T Goals
The first step in creating an effective content marketing strategy is to set clear and achievable goals. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (S.M.A.R.T.).
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Specific: Your goals should be clearly defined and focused.
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Measurable: You should be able to track progress and measure success.
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Attainable: Your goals should be achievable and realistic.
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Relevant: Your goals should be aligned with your overall business objectives.
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Time-bound: Your goals should have a specific timeframe for completion.
Without these defined objectives, it will be difficult to measure the success of your content marketing campaigns and adjust your strategy as needed. Moreover, your goals will help keep you and your team focused on creating truly valuable content for your target audience.
2. Know Your Target Audience
Before creating content that resonates with your audience, you must understand who they are. What are their demographics? What are their interests? What are their needs and pain points?
For example, if you’re targeting millennial moms, your content should focus on parenting hacks, budget-friendly family activities, and working-from-home tips.
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3. Conduct a Content Audit
If you already have a website or blog, chances are you have a lot of existing content. Before creating new content, you must first assess what you already have. This is known as conducting a content audit.
A content audit will help you determine which pieces of content are performing well and which need to be updated or removed. To conduct a content audit:
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Make a list of all the pages on your website or blog.
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For each page, note the title, URL, date published, and word count.
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Assign each page a score from 1-5 based on how well it performs in traffic and engagement.
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Based on the scores, you can determine which content needs to be updated or created.
4. Curate an Editorial Calendar
Once you plan for the types of content you want to create, it’s time to start organizing your ideas into an editorial calendar. This will help ensure that your content is consistent and timely.
To create an editorial calendar:
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Brainstorm a list of topics you want to write about.
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Research key dates or events that are related to your industry (e.g., trade shows, conferences, etc.).
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Decide on the format of each piece of content (e.g., blog post, whitepaper, infographic, video, etc.).
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Assign a due date for each piece of content.
5. Promote Your Content
Creating great content is only half the battle – you also need to promote it so that your target audience can find it. There are several ways to do this, including:
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Social media: Share your content on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Email marketing: Include links to your latest blog post or video in your email signature and newsletters.
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Guest blogging: Reach out to other bloggers or website owners in your industry and offer to write a guest post for their site.
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Paid advertising: Invest in paid advertising like Google AdWords or Facebook Ads to reach a wider audience.
Moreover, you can also increase the reach of your content by optimizing it for search engines (SEO). This involves using relevant keywords throughout your website and blog so that your content appears higher in search results.
The Bottom Line
Content marketing is a powerful way to reach and engage your target audience. You can build trust and credibility with potential and current customers by creating high-quality, valuable content.
To be successful with content marketing, however, you must have a clear strategy. This means setting defined objectives, knowing your target audience, conducting a content audit, curating an editorial calendar, and promoting your content effectively.
By following these tips, you’ll be well on creating a successful content marketing campaign that generates results for your business.
