Great content is the best way to reach the right people. Whether you’re just starting out or have an existing business, it’s never too late to look at your content strategy and make it more efficient.
Your business needs a content strategy to define your marketing goals and help you reach them. A distinct strategy for your content marketing will help you work more effectively, providing defined tasks for creating and publishing content, defining goals, and monitoring your business’ progress.
What is a content strategy?
A content strategy identifies what type of media your business needs to use in order to reach your target market. It details a plan for creating and distributing your content. It is a key element of your overall marketing strategy since content is what allows you to create and reinforce your brand’s voice and identity so you can communicate with your audience.
All the content you share should have a purpose defined by your business goals.
Create brand awareness
A content strategy helps create brand awareness. Your potential customers need to know who you are. Brand awareness often happens best on social channels so a part of your marketing strategy should focus on creating a social media calendar.
Drive traffic to your website
You want to drive traffic to your website. This is where they can find more information about your business. Well-written blogs that are posted regularly will gain you followers. If you’re sharing great content, readers will return to read more.
Types of content marketing
Social media posts – Where can you reach your target audience? Know which social media channels they are on and post to those channels. Be sure your content has images. Video is also a very effective way to reach your audience.
Blogs – Blogs are a great way for you to show your audience that you are an expert in your industry. Blogs can be articles about what’s happening in your industry, details about your services, how to use your product or even case studies.
Videos – Videos allow you to speak directly to your audience. Whether tutorial or promotional, video content is very engaging and sharable. You can use video to demonstrate how to use your product, highlight case studies, or even introduce your staff.
Podcasts – Podcasts are extremely popular. A podcast can cover a wide range of topics so be sure to focus on a topic that will appeal to your audience. A podcast will also help establish you as an expert in your industry.
E-books - An e-book is a detailed piece of written content, working as a multiple-page marketing asset for your business. Like blogs, e-books give extra value to your clients by providing them with useful information, helpful tips, guides, or insights into your industry.
Case studies – Share a success story of a past customer in a case study. Write about how your client benefited from your product or service. A case study helps potential customers better understand your brand while establishing trust. Case studies can be used as a blog and on social media. A video interview of your customer is also a great way to create a case study.
Email marketing – Email marketing is a great way to reach out to current and potential customers. Share the right content to the right audience. Email marketing is generally used to update customers, increase awareness and deliver content.
Create your content strategy
Before you start writing your content, build your content plan.
You need to know your goals. Do you want to create brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, convert leads, or do you have other business goals?
Get to know your audience so you can create and share content that will create engagement with your target audience.
Look at what your competition is doing. Research their social media to see what posts are getting the most engagement. If their audience is also your audience, you need to create similar content. Don’t steal their content! Original content is best.
When you researched who your audience is, you learned which social media channels they use. Start by using one or two channels that seem promising.
Put your content strategy into action by creating a content calendar. Creating an editorial calendar will help you plan out your content for important events, like holidays, product launches, or specific deadlines. It also helps you stay consistent with how and when you’re putting out content.
Take a look at your analytics to see if your effort is paying off. Look at how people are interacting with your social media content and at questions or comments your followers leave. Your followers will tell you what they like and don’t like. Pay attention.