Most marketers begin creating content marketing without first creating a written marketing strategy. The process of creating a marketing strategy can seem overwhelming. In fact, many marketers create three-inch binders at the beginning of every year, and then rarely use them. Instead, try a simpler approach: write a one-page content marketing strategy.
Identifying your target audience
Identifying your target audience is critical in creating successful content. This means choosing topics that your target audience will find useful, as well as figuring out the best channels to reach them. Whether it’s through forums, social media, emails, or other online channels, identifying your target audience can help you create highly valuable content. It will also increase your chances of generating more shares, connections, and customers.
If you’re not sure how to identify your target audience, consider analyzing competitor data. This can inform your content strategy and content plan. For example, you can see what your competitors’ customers are saying about your industry. You can also analyze customer feedback to better understand the needs of your target audience.
Developing a marketing calendar
Developing a content marketing calendar is a good way to streamline your content creation and blog management. Content marketing is a great way to get your website indexed in search engines and improve your SEO. The more relevant your content is to your target audience, the better. To ensure your content will be relevant, do some keyword research to determine what your customers are searching for. Once you’ve identified your target audience’s needs and wants, develop a content marketing calendar around those needs and wants.
A content calendar should include what content you want to publish and when. You can link a content calendar to a project management tool such as Basecamp, Asana, or Trello. In addition, your content calendar should include promotional items, which are the ways you plan to promote your content. These can include Facebook sharing, podcast interviews, Reddit AMAs, or newsletters to your subscribers.
Tracking actionable metrics in a content marketing strategy
If you want to know what kind of content is working best for your business, you need to track actionable metrics. The number of visitors to your website, conversion rate, and revenue are all examples of actionable metrics that will help you determine the success of your content marketing strategy. Moreover, tracking these metrics can give you insight into your customers’ buying behavior.
Your business’s goals will dictate which metrics to track, and you should focus on those that are most beneficial for your content marketing strategy. For example, you may focus on brand awareness, authority building, and increasing conversions. Those goals should be highlighted in the content metrics. Depending on your goals, you should also track industry benchmarks to determine the success of your content marketing strategy.
Identifying your keywords and phrases
One of the best ways to generate traffic to a website or blog is by identifying your keywords and phrases and strategically placing them throughout the content. This will improve the SEO of your content and increase its chances of being ranked higher and generating more leads and sales. Without keywords, your content will languish in the lower pages of Google and won’t get seen – even if the content is of high quality.
When writing a content marketing strategy, you should always focus on customer-centricity. This will ensure that your content is relevant to the needs of your target audience. You can identify your target audience’s needs by collecting information from social media, phone calls, and surveys. You can also utilize keyword tools to identify the best keywords and phrases to use. This article is written by Aarif khan – he is a content writer and seo freelancer in Mumbai. Feel free to follow him on twitter and linkedin.