How To Create A Content Marketing Strategy

You have a business or product, and you need more sales, leads, clicks, whatever. Even on the most basic level, a content marketing strategy provides a roadmap to get you to your destination.

Because there’s so much information to cover, we’re going to omit the fluff of an intro paragraph and dive headfirst into what a content marketing strategy is and how to create one.

What Is Content Marketing?

You know you need content marketing, but you aren’t sure of its meaning. Dictionary.com’s definition is: ​​

con·tent mar·ket·ing

noun

A type of marketing that involves creating and sharing online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

And that sums it up. But, there’s so much more involved, which we’re going to cover here.

Start at the Beginning

Whether you’re creating a content marketing strategy on your own or hiring a content marketing specialist, you need to start by outlining the process. Because there are many moving pieces, an outline will keep you focused and accountable.

No, content marketing isn’t that difficult. But, there are definitely steps you need to follow for your content marketing to run effectively and impactfully.

Before you even begin, you need to be able to answer a few questions to determine your goals and objectives:

• Why?- You should understand why you need content marketing, not just because your friend’s brother’s best friend, who owns a business, said so. You need to know what your goals are!

• Who?- Do you know your target audience? They are your potential clients/customers. Deeper than that, you should also know what they’re talking about online, where they hang out, and their needs and wants.

• How?- Before beginning your strategy, look at what your competition is doing. What is working for them? What do you like or dislike about their efforts? Also, look at your content. What’s working, what needs changing?

• What?- Think about what you’re trying to achieve and the end game of your content marketing efforts. That will help frame your messaging.

What Makes You Unique?

What makes your organization or product unique? How does it stand out from your competition? Pinpointing your key brand differentiators helps hone your messaging and gain a competitive advantage. Your key brand differentiators or unique selling proposition (USP) are what hooks your potential client or customer.

Think about the following:

• What is one thing that stands out from everyone else?

• What are the key attributes?

• Do you make or deliver your products differently than competitors?

• Are your customers different from the competitors?

To come up with your own USP, fill in the blanks:

Our (product/service) is the only (blank) that (blanks).

Where Are Your People?

You have this product or service, but who needs it? And, where are they hanging out? Your target audience will be that group of people. And you can find them in a few different ways.

1. Look at the audience you already have

2. Conduct client and industry interviews

3. Peek at your competitor’s audience

4. Know precisely who you ARE NOT targeting

There are more ways, but let’s not overcomplicate things. Once you have an idea of who you’re going to be going after, create a customer persona. Have fun with it. Personally, because I enjoy writing fiction, I turn my customer persona’s into short stories.

Include these facts when creating your customer persona:

• Age

• Gender

• Hobbies

• Education

• Career/title

• Marital status

• Interests

When you have your fictitious customer created, you’re in their head, and you’ll have an idea of how to speak their language.

Who Are Your Competitors?

Knowing your competitors, what they are and are not doing, and where they’re hanging out is essential in creating your content marketing strategy.

• It helps to identify your content gaps

• Can help position your product or service

• Can effectively inform your sales and marketing path

Pick out three to five competitors (a combo of direct and indirect) in your industry. Then, answer the following questions:

• What are the products they offer?

• What is their sales approach?

• Pricing and perks?

• Competitive shipping costs, if applicable

• How are the products/services being marketed?

• What platforms are they using?

• How engaged is their audience?

• What can you do better than them?

Take A Look At Yourself

Now that you know a bit about your audience and your competitors, it’s time to look at what you’ve already got going on in your content library.

It’s called a content audit. And remember, don’t be afraid to kill your darlings. It’s a thing in writing. If it’s bad, get rid of it. If it’s ok, edit it and make it better. If you don’t have it, write it (or have it written for you).

1. Gather all your content. Or, look at it through Google Analytics (which is about to change to G4…article coming soon)

2. Put all that content onto a spreadsheet, and organize it by category. This step will make it so much easier in the long run.

3. Notice what has been performing great, what hasn’t been doing so well, and what is missing.

4. Start making improvements.

Create a content calendar to throw in article topics and ideas. Personally, I use Trello. Or, I’ll make my own using Google Sheets.

Start writing and publishing. But, don’t forget to target keywords relevant to your goals. Without keyword stuffing because you don’t want to piss off Google.

The Anatomy Of A Content Marketing Strategy: A Little Checklist

Yes, we already talked about some of this. But, it’s good to have the components of a content marketing strategy all in one place with a little checkbox next to it!

• What are your goals and objectives?

• Identify your key differentiators.

• Know your target audience

• Who are your competitors?

• Perform keyword and topic research

• Look at the content you already have

• What hot topics are you missing?

• Create a content calendar: don’t just include the article ideas; jot down where you’re going to share the content and how it will be shared–image, video, etc.

• Write and promote content.

If all of this seems overwhelming, or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We're a contact us form away.