What did you do the last time you wanted to know how to do something? When a product you bought didn’t come with instructions, where did you go? How often is your solution to just “Google it”?
Chances are the blog page you landed on, or the handy how-to guide that explained what you needed to do is part of a content marketing strategy.
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to get people to your website, engaging with your business and improving your search engine optimisation. There’s a lot more to content marketing than just writing, so here some steps to help you create a content marketing strategy.
What are your content marketing goals?
Lille any marketing plan, you need to be able to test and measure to make sure your content marketing strategy is working.
Is your aim to increase your website rankings? Do you want to attract more people to your website? Do you want to educate potential customers about one of your products or a service you provide? Do you want to drive sales, conversions, or contact through your website?
Having a clearly defined goals will help you measure your success, as well as shaping what kind of content you need to create and why you’re creating it.
Who is your content for?
Have a clear picture of your ideal customer in mind. How old are they? Where are they? What are they interested in and what hobbies do they have?
Knowing who your ideal customer is will shape the kind of content you create and how you communicate with that person. It’s a good idea to write everything down, and even find a photo of a person who represents what your ideal customer looks like.
What’s your tone of voice and what kind of language will you use?
For example, if you’re creating a how-to guide you need to define what base level of understanding your readers will already have. If they’re already experts, use more complicated language. Talking in simple terms when they’re trying to do something technical might put them off. Equally, using technical language when you’re trying to reach beginners won’t help them understand what you’re trying to do.
Choosing the right kind of content
Think back to your ideal customer. What do they like? What would be most useful for them?
Your content marketing strategy can produce a series of the same kind of content, but an even better content marketing strategy will provide different types of content.
Ask yourself, what is going to resonate with my target audience and help me achieve my goals?
For example, your content marketing plan could include:
- Short blogs
- Long form articles
- How-to guides
- Checklists
- Interviews
- Case studies
- Surveys
- Videos
- Company updates
- Industry news
- Downloadable e-books
Creating different pieces of content on the same topic will make sure there is a range of information available that will appeal to a wider audience.
Create a content marketing schedule
A solid marketing plan needs a good schedule. What content will you release when? People will come to your website or social media pages looking for the next update if they know when it’s being released.
For example, are you uploading videos to YouTube, posting infographics to Instagram, updating the blog on your website or writing Facebook posts?
Is your audience different on each platform or are they the same across a range of platforms?
A content calendar will tell you what needs to be posted where, and when. Writing out your content calendar on a physical calendar may be a good place to start? The key to content marketing is quality over quantity. If you know it takes you a while to write a blog article, don’t push for one every week. It’s better to regularly release one well-written article every month, than push for a hastily written blog each week that becomes unsustainable after a month or two.
Analyse the results, rinse and repeat
Content marketing can be a long-term strategy. Take some time to see what posts performed well, and make changes to your content marketing strategy accordingly. In this case, it’s much better to make changes based on long-term trends instead of tweaking every week.
How well a piece of content performs is influenced by a number of factors. What day and time did you post it? Where was it posted? What headings and keywords did you use?
Content marketing can become a strong, cost effective tool that drives results and improves your website’s SEO, but only if you take it seriously. Writing quick updates in the hope you get fast results is a surefire way to not achieve anything. By following the plan, making changes, and spending time producing quality content, you can start to notice results in a couple of months.
Not sure where to start with your content marketing strategy? We’re here to help. Our professional website copywriters can help you create quality content that gets results.
Contact us today to see how we can write unique, quality content for your website.