How To Create Effective And Simple Content Marketing Strategies

Source: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1432888498266-38ffec3eaf0a?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1053&q=80

A majority of advanced businesses today use content marketing to some extent. But how successful are they? According to DMA, the biggest challenge for content marketing is the lack of strategy while only 9% of content marketers rate their strategy as excellent.

Such statistics only illustrate the key problem when it comes to content marketing: the lack of planning. Luckily, it is an easy challenge to overcome, so here’s how to create effective and simple content marketing strategies.

#1 Analyze Your Current Content Marketing Efforts

First and foremost, you need to analyze your current content marketing efforts – if there are any, that is. If you are already using content marketing to some extent, you need to make a summary of everything you are currently doing (content formats you work with, your content quality requirements, etc.) and what are the results you are getting from your efforts.

Of course, this step is only necessary if you do have any current content marketing activity. However, there is a chance that you do dabble in content marketing without even realizing it. Does your company have a website that you have filled with content (but that is the only thing you did online to promote your brand)? The content you created for your website can already count as content marketing.

#2 Define Your Values, Goals, Mission, and KPIs

Once you have analyzed your current content marketing activity, you will need to define your values, goals, mission, and KPIs. Here are some things to consider about each of these:

• Values: What are your brand values? What does your brand stand for? Which causes does your brand support and how?
• Goals: What goals do you want to pursue with your digital marketing? What goals do you want to pursue specifically with your content marketing? What kind of deadlines do you want to set for these goals?
• Mission: What is your brand mission? Why does this mission have to matter to your target audience? How can you deliver the essence of this mission in a single message to your audience?
• KPIs: What will your KPIs or key performance indicators be? Are these KPIs truly appropriate for the goals you have set?

#3 Research and Segment Your Target Audience

Here’s the thing. You may be tempted to use your current information on your target audience, your customers. However, a much better approach would be to research and segment your target audience specifically for content marketing. This is necessary because some of the people you wouldn’t expect to be your potential customers could actually turn out to be such.

Start with the basics and work up your knowledge base to more complex characteristics of your target audience such as their personal interests and consumer behavior. Using the information you collect, create segments of your audience and build up your reader/viewer profiles on them.

#4 Research the Market and Your Competitors

After researching your target audience, make sure to research the market and your competitors. If you know what the market is like and what your competitors are doing in terms of content marketing, it will be much easier to understand how you can make your content marketing strategy work.

A good way to approach this step is by hiring specialists from the writing service reviews rated by students who already know how to do appropriate research in this format. This way, you will be sure that the information you get about the market and your competitors is accurate and up to date.

#5 Determine Your Channels and Content Types

Now that you have collected all kinds of information, you can truly start working on your content marketing strategy by using this very data. Your next step is to determine your channels and content types. Depending on which of these you choose, your content marketing strategy could go in one direction or in a completely different one.

Your channels are pretty much the places where you will be publishing your content. This can be anything from your own website to social media to emails. Likewise, the types or formats of content you choose to work with will determine how the process of content creation will go for you. Moreover, the channels you choose can help you determine the types of content you will be working with.

#6 Evaluate Your Current and Potential Resources

Perhaps one of the biggest setbacks your content marketing strategy can have is the lack of appropriate resources for its execution. This is why you need to evaluate your current and potential resources as soon as possible so that you get a clear idea about your own capabilities and the options you have for using different content marketing techniques.

The good news is that you don’t need that many resources for effective content marketing. A single person could be doing the job if you have a small business, and as your company grows, you can expand your content marketing department and hire more people. The same goes for the size of your content marketing budget and the tools you use for content creation and distribution.

#7 Establish Content Quality Requirements

Speaking of content creation, one of the biggest mistakes you could make is not having a clear set of content quality requirements for all the content you create. Remember that quality should always come before quantity and you should never rely on the amount of content you create to trump its poor quality.

In addition to establishing quality requirements, it’s a good idea to have a set of guidelines for the exact format or templates you use for each type of content you work with. For instance, you might want all your social media posts to have at least two images or a single video and a caption which features a particular set of hashtags.

#8 Plan Out Your Content Posting Schedule

Another thing you should definitely take the time to plan out beforehand is your content posting schedule. You can’t just publish content immediately when it’s ready. Instead, you need to send it out via the right channels at the times when it is most likely to reach your target audience and actively engage your readers/viewers.

As experts from the best websites reviews service site put it, “A good posting schedule not only helps you stay organized but also allows you to synchronize the content you post on different platforms or distribute via different channels. This way, you will be yielding even better results from every piece you publish.”

#9 Start Creating and Distributing Content

This step is quite self-explanatory. Once your content marketing strategy is ready, you can start using it. Create your content following all of the guidelines you set up and then publish it according to the posting schedule you made. This way, you will be sure that everything is going according to the strategy you have created.

#10 Track Performance and Improve Your Strategy

And once you know that everything is going according to your strategy, you will notice that some things don’t add up. This is completely normal. By tracking your content’s performance, you will see which parts need to be changed and improved. By working on the issues you encounter along the way, you will be able to improve your strategy and gradually get it to better standards and better results.

Final Thoughts

Source: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1607703703520-bb638e84caf2?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1050&q=80

All in all, creating an effective and successful content marketing strategy is both possible and necessary if you want to successfully market your business. Always keep in mind that your audience is key, and all your choices must be made for its benefit. Use the tips in this article to help you set up your own content marketing strategy and start applying it to successfully promote your brand online.