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The digital era has declared content the king, and we cannot deny it. However, you need a strong content marketing strategy for your content to stand out. Whether you are marketing a few blogs or running a huge digital marketing campaign, a content strategy will help you execute your plan in the most effective and efficient manner.
Some of the most well-known forms of content that B2B and B2C businesses use are blog posts, emails, newsletters, social media posts, podcasts, ebooks, and videos. Today, we will discuss what content marketing is, a step-by-step guide to creating an effective content marketing strategy, and what tools you would need for marketing content.
Let us start looking at the different strategies of content marketing and how to get started.
How to get started?
Before you plan to market your valuable content, it is necessary to perform some backend work. Let us check out the details on how to get started on developing a strategic content marketing strategy.
i) Define target audience
The first step is to define your target audience and understand their behavior patterns. It is suggested that you niche your target group for better results. Further, you can conduct market research by surveying your existing customers, researching industry trends, identifying who your target is, and staying on the edge with your competitors. With the collected data and information, you can create a buyer’s persona, which will further help your team identify the ideal customer for your startup.
ii) Setting Clear Goals and Objectives
Defining your content marketing goals will help you define what you want to achieve in the long term and break it down into an easy and realistic plan of action. If you wish to skyrocket your brand awareness and attract hoards of loyal customers running towards your brand, then you must become the ruler of click-through rates. That is, you know exactly what your audience wants! Next, you must ensure that your goals are SMART. Yes, SMART is real, as it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Remember, specification is the key!
How to Develop a Content Strategy?
Now that the groundwork is done, let us get our hands dirty and start developing (in fact, acing) a highly functional content marketing strategy.
A. Defining your brand voice and tone
Choosing your brand's voice and tone is like choosing the most suitable alter ego. For instance, whether you want your brand to sound witty and sarcastic or sophisticated and professional. Whatever you choose, it has to have a consistent flow that will reflect in all forms of content, such as blogs, social media posts, newsletters, podcasts, or YouTube videos.
B. Determining content types and formats
Once you’ve discovered your brand’s voice and tone, it’s time to determine the content types and formats that you would like to add to your marketing strategy. These trustworthy sidekicks will always have your back and help you deliver your message in the most effective way. The strategy can include the following content types and formats:
Blog posts
Videos
Podcasts
Infographics
Social media posts
Newsletters
Case studies
Every form of content that you plan, create, and distribute should be concise, clear, compelling, and credible to ensure the best results.
C. Establishing content pillars and themes
This one might sound tricky, but allow us to simplify it! Imagine that you are getting ready to perform a stand-up routine. The first thing that you need is a good content structure and a strong pillar or theme that will be the backbone of your comedic performance. These pillars will cover the major topics that you need to focus on for a harmonious flow.
You can set your content pillars on the basis of four goals, such as Promotional, Entertainment, Educational and Engagement. Now, whichever pillar or theme you pick, you must bring up relevant topics for it. Furthermore, create high-quality content on the interactive pillars to maintain the consistency of the content marketing strategy’s performance.
D. Creating an editorial calendar
With consistent themes, you also need time targets to fulfill the deliverables. As per Hubspot, “A social media calendar is a rundown of your upcoming posts organized by date and time. A social media calendar can be a spreadsheet, digital calendar, or interactive dashboard.” Additionally, there are many scheduling tools, such as Hootsuite, StoryChief, and Zerys, that are perfect for those who want to stay organized and on time with posting.
Now that we know how to develop a content marketing strategy, let us understand how to implement it in the best way possible.
How to Implement the Content Strategy?
Once the content for marketing plan are structured, you need a plan to implement it and this is your chance to explore how to do it:
A. Creating High-Quality Content
If you are wondering what we mean by high-quality content, then just stick to being original. Authenticity will help you attract your target audience in the easiest way possible. You can do this by adding your experiences, data, research, and opinions to your content. This improves trust and credibility among customers.
B. Promoting Your Content
Your content marketing strategy will include a content distribution plan to help you structure the promotion of your content. It is always advised to grow your owned media channels and leverage other channels to drive traffic to your platform. Take a quick look at the types of content distribution channels:
i) Owned Media Channels
Blogs
Landing pages
Social media handles
Newsletters
ii) Paid Media Channels
Social media ads
PPC
Influencer campaigns
Sponsored content
iii) Earned Channels
Shares
Mentions/ tags
Reviews
Guest posts
C. Measuring and Analyzing Results
Measuring and analyzing results is a crucial step in any content marketing strategy. It allows businesses to gain insights into the effectiveness of their content and make data-driven decisions for improvement. By tracking key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and engagement levels, businesses can understand how their content is performing and identify areas for optimization. To help you effectively measure and analyze your content marketing results, we have created a free guide for analytics that includes useful tools and techniques.
D. Optimizing and Iterating
Optimizing and iterating are essential elements of a successful content marketing strategy. By continuously analyzing and refining your approach, you can maximize the impact of your content and drive better results. This involves regularly monitoring key metrics such as engagement, conversion rates, and audience feedback to identify areas for improvement.
Conclusion
Creating a successful content marketing strategy requires careful planning, research, and execution. Remember to regularly measure the effectiveness of your strategy through analytics and feedback from your audience.
26Tech offers you help from an experienced content strategist who excels at helping startups create effective strategies to reach their target audience. Through their expertise and experience, they have successfully assisted numerous companies in achieving their content marketing goals.
Book a 30-minute call today.