Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing relevant and valuable business content. Its primary goal is to grow and retain your audience.
A well-designed content strategy is an excellent way to give your brand the boost it needs. It can make your business take the spotlight when consumers decide to make a purchase. First, what is a content strategy?
A content strategy refers to the creation and distribution of content to reach more people. Some examples of content used in content marketing include blog posts, emails, social media posts, podcasts, videos, newsletters, and videos.
Having a content strategy in place can help boost visibility, increase leads, and gain authority. The more you post, the more audience you can reach. This may translate to sales IF your strategy hits the mark. So, how can you build an effective content strategy? Read on to learn more.
What Is The Role Of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) In Content Marketing?
SEO is at the heart of an effective content marketing strategy. Its goal is to help you rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs), attracting organic traffic to your site.
For successful SEO, your content must be keyword optimized, relevant to your target audience, and high-quality. If it fails to meet any of these, it won’t be able to rank up in the SERP, let alone attract potential customers.
If you need help, consider evaluating your website, strategizing your content, planning your updates, and implementing your phases with the help of an SEO specialist. Hiring an expert can help you achieve your goals in a shorter period.
How To Develop An Effective Content Marketing Strategy?
Coming up with an effective content strategy doesn’t happen out of the blue. Here’s a step-by-step guide to building a results-driven content marketing strategy:
Define Your Goal
Before you dive further into the process, ask yourself. What do you want to achieve with a content marketing strategy? Why do you want to create and distribute content? Are you producing content to generate leads, boost brand awareness, improve SEO rankings, convert audience, retain existing customers, or anything else?
Knowing your goals beforehand will help you determine what’s best for your content strategy. It’ll also help you verify whether a content strategy is the most effective way to achieve your goals. Content isn’t always the best solution for every situation.
For instance, content marketing might not help convert those at the bottom part of your sales funnel. Yet it could be the other way around when encouraging users to visit your platform.
Research Buyer Persona
To build an effective plan, you need to define the target audience of your content. This is called buyer persona and is especially essential for startups and those new to content marketing.
If you have experience with content marketing, your goals may have changed. Do you want to retain previous targets? Or do you want to expand your current market? Revisiting your buyer persona regularly can help you grow your audience.
Audit Content
If you’ve produced various content before, it’s important to run an audit to separate those that perform well from those that don’t. Then, use the information you’ve gathered to plan your next step.
Choose A Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is an all-in-one platform that allows you to create, publish, and analyze content results. Choose a CMS that suits your needs. Consider the problems you want to solve with the help of a CMS. Some are useful for blogging, while others are designed to address ecommerce needs and so on.
Figure Out The Type Of Content To Create
Once you’ve chosen a CMS, it’s time to figure out which kind of content you’d want to produce. Options include blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, emails, visual content, eBooks, and lead magnets.
Blog posts are arguably the most common type of content you can produce. Ideally, your goal should be at least 1000 words—2,000 would be better. Nonetheless, experiment with your audience first to determine whether they prefer shorter or longer reads.
Brainstorm Content Ideas
Now, it’s time to think of what to produce. Go to your search engine and look for topics people often talk about these days—of course, they have to be relevant to your brand. This will give you an idea of which content would sound appealing to your target audience.
Publish And Manage Content
Once you’re done creating content, it’s time to distribute it by publishing it on your platform. All you need to do is keep the content running consistently. Plus, you can use an editorial calendar to organize and manage your content on different sites.
Final Thoughts
Building an effective content strategy is essential for businesses that want to establish authority, improve brand visibility, and grow audience reach. To develop a result-driven content marketing strategy, follow the step-by-step guide above. Finally, you can work with a content specialist to help determine the content that aligns perfectly with your brand.
