There are many challenges to consider when planning great content. Generating interesting topics, scheduling when you will publish, figuring out how to promote to the proper audience… tackling all these things at once can make you want to pull out your hair. But content marketing does not have to be stressful. By creating a detailed strategy, you can focus on several important aspects of content marketing, one at a time, so you know how to approach these challenges when they come along.
Your strategy is like a blueprint for success. The Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks report found that 60 percent of B2B companies that had a written strategy rated their content marketing to be highly effective, compared with 32 percent of those who hadn’t planned out or documented their strategy.
Are you ready to start your content marketing blueprint?
Forbes recommends considering the who-what-how of your content marketing goals. Once you’ve answered these questions, you will have a clearer idea of how to tackle your project. Here are some things to consider when planning your content marketing strategy. And grab a pen– those stats suggest you’ll want to be writing all this down!
Who’s Reading It?
You’ll want to identify your audience first. Are you writing for entertainment lawyers or high school English teachers? Having a clear idea of your audience will help you create content that is relevant and useful to your readers.
This goes further than just figuring out hot-button topics for a given crowd. Think about the specifics of your audience. How might they approach things differently? Different audiences may have different fears or diverse experiences. How would these factors affect their interpretation of your content?
For example, you might write an article about how to approach new customers, but the advice might be different depending on if you are talking to bombastic car salesmen or nervous start-up owners. Knowing your audience will help you figure out how to approach content creation.
What’s Your Goal?
Sure, your goal should be to create quality content. But the more specific you are with your goal, the easier time you will have brainstorming new content. Do you want articles that will educate readers about specific subjects or inspire them to buy your product? Are you trying to create awareness about your brand, or foster connections with industry influencers? Your content will change based on your approach.
For example, we want our Media Shower blog to educate readers about content marketing. This is why we have campaigns like our content marketing academy.
Depending on our goal, we look at different ways to create content.
Figure out what you want your content to accomplish, and then create content that will reach those goals.
How is This Going to Get Done?
You might know your audience and your goals, but you still need to get the content made. Decide if you want to use a team from within, or hire an outside content marketing company (like Media Shower) to create content for you. Maybe certain writers on your team are good with some topics but not others.
Figure out other important details, such as how often you will be publishing content. Create a content marketing map, which details the next several weeks or even months of content. Identify short-term and long-term goals and set steps to meet them.
It does no good to have a bunch of ideas and no way to put them into action. Plan out who will be helping you create content and how.
Now that you know your strategy, you can relax a bit!
Once you have a strategy, creating content is as simple as following the steps you laid out in that plan. And remember, it’s important to be flexible with the plan. You can track how well certain pieces perform, or figure out which writers work best for your project. Once you’ve seen how the plan is working, adapt it as needed. There is not one permanent strategy…after all, you made the strategy yourself!
Want Media Shower to help you come up with your content marketing strategy? Sign up for a free trial today!