Google still views content as king. Experts believe that up to 64% or more of businesses still do not have a content marketing strategy in place. Without a content creation strategy, all of your marketing efforts might end up going to waste.
Content is any information that is useful and that conveys a story. The goal of content is to solicit an emotion or some type of engagement. Marketers can deliver content live, usually through text and images, via video, audio, or through live presentations. If your company is thinking about using a content marketing strategy, here is a list of them that can put your business on the map.
1. Set Your Company Goals and Mission
The most important first step is to solidify your mission statement and goals. They can remain flexible, but it is necessary to create a road map so you can focus on the important things. Know your target audience, the content they will respond to, and the benefits they can experience. Content strategy goals can lead to improved revenue, increased traffic, SEO success, a reduction in marketing costs, and effective branding efforts.
2. Establish Your KPIs
The next step is to establish a list of key performance indicators. KPIs enable you to know when you have achieved your goals. Think of KPIs as milestones that you can check off along the way. They can exist in the form of traffic, SEO incentives, revenue, sales, signups, leads, or any other metric you deem valuable.
3. Know Your Audience
Get to know your audience like the back of your hand. This is a must if you are to create a successful content marketing strategy. Collect the right demographic data. Who are your email and social media followers? Use a combination of web analytics that provides information about your subscriber base. Use tools that can help to analyze your social media footprint. Collect data on age, education, gender, and income. Find out more about the interests of your target audience. Get critical feedback and create your buyer personas. This can lead to creating content your audience will respond to, share, and care about.
4. Update Old Content
Take a closer look at the content you may already have online, such as podcasts, videos, and social media assets that you can repurpose. Does your existing content help you reach your goals? If not, refresh content wherever you have written it. You can also conduct an audit to ensure you optimize everything for search engines. Even content that ranks well may have room for improvement.
5. Invest in Social Media Channels
As part of your content marketing plan, you will also need to figure out the best channels for your content. As time goes by, you will be able to figure out where your audience hangs out. You can also learn where your presence currently shows strong social activity.
6. Do Different Types of Content
What type of content can best reach your audience? What content are they willing to share?
Blogs should be a staple on your overall content creation strategy. Blogs should encourage some form of action or serve to educate. Visitors have a tendency to remain longer on pages that inform. They should also be shareable.
Creating a story is also a good approach. It should pique people’s interest, arouse curiosity, and bring satisfaction.
Podcasts and videos are also becoming more popular every day. Include a complete range of article types.
7. Create a Content Production and Distributing Schedule
What are your resources, and how can you better allocate them for your content strategies? Who oversees producing and maintaining your content? Are you short of the physical, digital, or human tools you need to get the job done? Do you know when and where to publish your content for maximum results? To be able to manage all of these subtasks, you have to create a content production schedule.
Distributing and marketing your content depends on how well you know your base. There are software tools that will allow you to tackle both social media and the nuances of email marketing. If you have a connection to any influencers, have them spread your content even wider. Just remember to do all of this on a consistent schedule.
8. Assess Your Strategy
The final stage of creating a great content strategy is to assess your success. What works? What needs improving? Google Analytics is the perfect tool to gain insights into how well your content performs. You can also track content through the use of Google Alerts and Mention. These are great tools for gaining insight into where and how content finds its way around the Internet.
Of course, you have complete freedom to choose your analytical tools, or you can rely on the services of a competent digital marketing agency to get your marketing strategies on track.
Here are some additional facts that you may find useful and can excite you to develop content strategies that will help grow your business:
- Content marketing is a lot cheaper than outbound marketing. Outbound marketing can include such things as trade shows, cold calling, and seminars. Marketers can save up to 62% on marketing costs. Marketers can also expect to generate up to three times as many leads.
- Up to 90% of marketers use content production as a part of their startup marketing strategies. Conversion rates are as much as six times higher than traditional marketing when marketers employ effective content strategies.
- Millions of people use some type of ad blocking to avoid seeing paid advertisements, so why not capture these people with amazing content instead?
Is Content Still King?
Google answers this question by stating, “Create good content.” Google’s goal is to create the best possible user experiences. Google’s algorithm looks to see if content exhibits expertise, authority, and trust. Does the content convey the truth? Are pages spammy, or is the content consistent? Does the writer show an air of authority? Does he or she appear to be qualified to write on the topic?
Yes. Content is still king. Take the time to develop a content strategy that will work. If your company has the staff to tackle the job, start right away. If not, then partner with the digital marketing professionals who can get the job done.
If you don’t have a proper content strategy, your business will not grow online. Advanced Digital Media Services offers writing and content marketing services. With the help of our SEO professionals, you can develop a strategy that will produce results for you!
