Whether you’re starting a small business or you already manage a large company, having a content marketing plan is key in today’s digital age. Content marketing is a strategic approach that focuses on providing consistent, relevant content to a preferred audience. Ultimately, this plan drives consumer interaction and attracts more customers to your brand. To help you achieve this, here are our top ten tips for your content marketing plan.
Do Your Homework
Before diving into content marketing, it’s essential to analyze your company, its products or services, and the industry itself. You want to know what interests your target audience in order to provide valuable content they’ll enjoy. Once you’ve tapped into this buyer persona and catered your content marketing plan to your target audience, you’ll see greater conversions in the long run.
Establish Your Objectives
Why are you creating this content marketing plan? What’s the driving force behind it? You know you want to attract more customers, but getting more specific about your goal can help you determine the best marketing strategy. For example, you may want to generate more sales, increase brand awareness, improve customer retention, or simply drive more traffic to your website. Each of these objectives requires a specific strategy, so know your objective early on.
Search for Content Ideas
Once you’ve determined your goals, you can search for ideas on how to proceed with your content marketing strategy. This brainstorming stage helps you see what others are doing to make their websites more SEO-friendly and improve their social media outreach. You should see how other companies present their blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts, noting what’s effective about each strategy.
Determine the Content’s Categories and Subcategories
There’s more to a content marketing plan than uploading a new blog post every week. It’s important to set the categories and subcategories for your content so you can cover all your bases. For instance, under the “social media” category, you should generate a list of social media platforms on which you plan to publish content.
Use an Editorial Calendar
The most engaging content marketing plan sticks to a set schedule. Using an editorial calendar can help you keep up with publication dates and motivate you to meet deadlines. This strategy can also help you avoid procrastination and stay focused. Just be sure to schedule content publication at regular intervals to keep your audience engaged.
Determine Who Will Create the Content
Think about how you’ll create content for your brand. Do you plan to write the blogs posts yourself? Have you hired an in-house content creation team? Would you rather use freelancers? Or do you need to hire a third-party web content company? There are pros and cons of each choice, so weigh your options carefully.
Create Quality Content
Whether you’re creating your own content or hiring someone else to do it for you, focus on publishing only high-quality content. Know your standards and adhere to them, asking for revisions when necessary.
Make Recommendations
It may seem counterintuitive to recommend other websites and blogs when you’re trying to advertise your own brand, but audiences respond to these helpful recommendations. You can even network with other companies for mutual recommendations to reach a wider audience.
Personalize Your Content
Churning out content at regular intervals won’t cut it if your content isn’t original. Instead, personalize your posts. Customize the same content for different social media channels, maintain your brand voice, and respond to your audience.
Implement Keywords for SEO
The right keywords will help you obtain a good SEO position, but use them wisely. Avoid keyword stuffing and implement them into your content naturally.
