How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide
Whether you are a newbie in content marketing or you have been using this approach for some time, it is always good to revisit your strategic plan. You have to make sure that it is strong, up to date and innovative. Remember the level of competition is always on the rise. The first step to winning over the competition is having a smart and solid content marketing strategy in place. This article will give you some tips on how to develop a content strategy. However, we need to begin by understanding what content strategy entails.
What is Content Strategy
content strategy is the act of managing any tangible media that you create and own. It can be downloadable, visual, or written among others. It is a marketing plan that demonstrates the expertise that you bring to the industry and who you are. Creation of content has a critical role to play to the growth of your brand. However, you have to plan for it well. As you create the content, you need to think about;
- Who are you creating this content for?
- The problem that this content will solve among the target audience
- What makes you unique
- The content format that you will be focusing on
- The channel where you will publish it
- How you will manage the creation and publication of the content
Modern-day content management strategies manage content from the point of view of the topic. Preparing a content calendar around your topics will help you to visualize the message of your brand and become an authority in the niche over time.
Why Marketers Should Have a Content Marketing Strategy
Content strategy helps enterprises to plan and prepare cost-effective and reliable website traffic sources and new leads. The best content strategy will generate for you new leads over a long period. These are the main reasons why you need a content strategy as a marketer.
The Process of Creating a Content Strategy
Define Your Goals
You need to understand the objectives of creating a content plan. Know your goals before you start planning if you would like to have an easy time in determining the best content strategy.
Carry Out Persona Research
You need to determine the target audience of your content strategy if you want your plan to succeed. This step is critical to anyone who is new to content strategy. Once you know your audience, you will be able to produce more valuable and relevant content that these people can read and convert. For more experienced marketers, your target may keep on changing over time. Research will tell you whether you need to change your target audience or stick to the past.
Running a Content Audit
Most individuals begin with blog posts but you can venture out and start to produce other pieces of content. For instance, you can create an e-book that brings together all your previous posts in a single guide. There are different types of content and you need to choose one that will work best for your target audience.
Choose the Content Management System
You need a system that will help you to manage your content. Some of the most important sections of content creation management include the creation, publication, and analytics. A tool like HubSpot allows you to plan, publish, and even measure your results from a single place. The other good content management system is the WordPress website that is hosted on the WP Engine.
Brainstorm Content Ideas
At this point, you have to begin to come up with ideas for the upcoming project. Some of the tools that can help you here include Website Grader from HubSpot, blog about, Blog Ideas Generator by HubSpot, Feedly, Blog Post Headline Analyzer, and BuzzSumo. You need to understand how each of these tools works and use them to get the best blog ideas. You can choose any of them depending on your industry and target audience.
Determine the Kind of Content You Will be Creating
There are several options in the market when it comes to the kind of content that you can create. You need to look at the popular formats of content that marketers are creating and templates and tools to get started. The most common types of content marketing include social media, podcasts, videos, infographics, templates, case studies, eBooks, blog posts. You need to choose one depending on where you can find your audience. You cannot rely on old strategies and expect to report a high rate of success in content strategy.
Publishing and Managing Your Content
Your marketing plan has to go beyond the kind of content that you will be creating. You also need to think about how you will organize your content. The editorial calendar will help you to stay on the right track when it comes to a publishing diverse and well-balanced content library for your site. You also need to develop a social media content calendar for promoting and managing your content on the other sites.
You should always think about evergreen ideas. An idea that you published several months ago should still be relevant today. However, you should not ignore timely topics. They may not form most of the content in your editorial calendar but will help you in generating spikes of traffic.
Some people think of including the most important holidays but you should not limit yourself to these critical marketing dates. If you discover that some industry-specific holidays are appealing to your target audience, it is a worthwhile move to publish content on your social media or blog. Therefore, you need to keep a close eye on these holidays as you plan for your content.
The development of content strategy is a long process that needs a lot of time and dedication. However, the process will yield fruits as long as you know how to develop the right content strategy. It will take you a lot of creativity, organization, and time to develop and grow a successful content marketing strategy. It ranges from building the right foundation of the content marketing plan to the addition of tools that will help you to manage your data in the best way possible. You content strategy for the whole year will not be a challenge as long as you follow all the above steps.
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