Building a successful content marketing strategy
How To Create An Effective Content Marketing Strategy Plan
Making a content marketing plan is an important part of establishing your online presence. Since most of your audience likely spends a large sum of their time on their phones or computers, appealing to them with good content is a great way to stand out among your competitors. If you don’t have a content marketing strategy template, your business might just get left behind. In fact, did you know that only 40% of B2B marketers actually have a content marketing strategy template? Don’t be part of that 40%!
To get started, here are some tips for creating an effective content marketing strategy.
Set a list of KPIs and objectives for a content marketing plan
Having a clear goal sets the tone for the whole content marketing plan. It also helps generate more content marketing ideas and provides direction for your strategy. To get started, answer the ‘what’s’ and the ‘why’s’. What are your goals and why are you doing this? Do you want more sales for your product? Do you want an increase in followers? Whatever it may be, it will help inform your methods from that point on.
Narrow down your audience’s persona
Determining the audience persona of the target market is key to understanding how to appeal to them. List down their age, gender, location, profession, economic bracket, income, and more. Put in their pain points as well as their user journey. It might seem too specific, but having all this information can help narrow down on what content they want to see and what will be most helpful to them.
Review past content and see what can be improved
In order to create effective new content, you need to look at your old content marketing plan (or if none, just the old content in general). See what worked and what didn’t based on analytics and performance. Keep the ones that landed and improve on that, while removing the content that wasn’t as engaging.
Craft content pillars so you never run out of content marketing ideas
Another way to ensure you don’t run out of content marketing ideas is to set up pillars for the types of content that will be posted. For example, you may have an informative pillar (for hard-sell posts about your service), lifestyle pillar (how your product can be used in everyday life), engaging pillar (posts that encourage audience participation), etc. If you’re still at a loss on what pillars to use, try checking your competitors’ pages for inspiration.
Determine the right channels
The right channels to be used in a content marketing plan are based on two things: 1) where your target audience lives and 2) the type of content formats that will be used. For example, if you’re a B2B company planning on posting links to long form articles from the company website, LinkedIn is where you should post. If virality through trending short-form content is your thing, Twitter or TikTok are great avenues. But always be sure to do research first so you can plan your calendar next.
Make a content calendar
One tip to follow for effective and smooth content marketing? Make a content calendar. Having this lays out all the content you’ll be creating and posting across several platforms. It also helps you plan out everything in advance so that last-minute changes are minimal.
Create engaging and visually-appealing content
Now that your calendar is set and ready, it’s time to actually create the content in your marketing strategy. Partner with a great graphic designer and create high-quality, relevant, and eye-catching content. Remember, the posts you publish are part of your brand’s identity, so it has to look good and resonate with the market.
Leverage the power of ads
These days, relying on organic reach and impressions isn’t enough, especially with so many similar brands and competitors promoting their content online. Using ads such as sponsored posts on social media or search marketing ads can help get the relevant eyes on your content for better conversions.
Be open for adjustments and improvement
Creating a content marketing strategy is not a linear process. Based on the results, you’ll be going back on certain content and optimising for better performance. Always check how your content is doing and leave some room for some changes along the way. That way, you can adjust what your strategy is based on your most effective content.
Interested in creating an effective content marketing plan? Connect with our digital marketing experts at No Standing!
