Great content marketing doesn't happen overnight. The separation of idea generation and content production is important to note. Content marketing strategy takes your ideas and marries them to the action of content production to achieve a goal for the business. In this blog post we'll look at the importance of setting goals and understanding your audience, organizing your content plans for your marketing channels, and the steps of an example content marketing strategy campaign.
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
Have you ever heard the phrase 'Don't boil the ocean'? That applies to marketing. When you have a great idea for a marketing campaign you might want to push it up the production line and get it out to your audience ASAP. In most cases, however, a bit of preplanning can help that brilliant idea perform significantly better than it might if it were rushed. And considering the performance of that idea can shape future decisions and budget spend. So don't boil the ocean, start with a tea cup.
Setting Goals & Understanding Your Audience:
As part of your overall business plan, you likely have goals. Prioritizing goals in your content marketing strategy means that you are best spending your resources, whether that's time or money, to grow the business. Growth is good!
Photo by Yosef Futsum on Unsplash
When writing a content strategy it can be best to start your work from a single, specific goal. Some examples might be:
Grow your email subscriber list
Improve engagement on your social media platforms
Increase conversions on your ecommerce website
How can your ideas support these goals? Choose one goal -- in this example we'll grow your email subscriber list -- and break down what your audience needs to see from you and your content to make that happen. What are they currently not seeing? What would encourage them to take action? When you choose a goal, or a problem, and work to branch out all the ways that your multiple channels can feed into the solution you will start to feel less overwhelmed and your content marketing strategy will start to take shape. One goal at a time.
Organize Content Plans for Each Channel:
At any given moment your business may have 3-5 'active' marketing channels from: organic social media, paid ads, email / sms marketing etc. And yes, your website is also a marketing channel! Regularly auditing your marketing channels for performance and overall opportunity should be part of your standard marketing practice. Being consistent in your messaging across all channels is also important.
If your desk looks like the below or your brain feels like the below, that's normal! But it can be helped. How? By creating a content plan for each channel that 'speaks' to the other channels and producing high quality content from your ideas.
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash
That's easier said than done, right? Starting with your workflow look at your content planning 3+ months at a time. Start even one week at a time. Your channels should speak to one another. If your goal is to drive email subscriber growth, you might:
Communicate on social media a special offering (promotion or 'free gift') to encourage visits to your website.
A lead collection form (pop up) on your website with clear directions about how to subscribe to your email list.
Paid ads promoting your special offering to new audiences.
This is a content marketing plan not a strategy. Each of those points is its own strategy with its own steps. Once you design a plan, you can start on the strategy pieces.
Strategy:
A strategy born from a content plan created with a goal in mind is the strongest move you can make in marketing your business.
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
For example, let's take the point above to create an incentive on your social media to drive traffic organically to your website from your existing audience. That in strategy steps looks like:
Making sure that your website has the special offer set up
This is where your channels should speak to one another! You can't reach your goal (increased subscriber growth) if the form to capture the interest of new followers isn't set up before you advertise the offer.
Planning a post which references your special offer for email sign up
Deciding when this post will promote the special offer means that you have set a 'launch' date for your special offer and your social media is part of that strategy to drive traffic.
Producing the dynamic content for that post
Looking at your space online and considering what type of content your audience will engage with best.
This content can be repurposed for paid ads.
Publishing the post.
While this may seem daunting there are steps you can take as an organization such as calendaring and regular communication between team members across departments that can help make sure that your content marketing strategy is in the best shape to drive results.
Summary:
In short, your content strategy should start with a goal before you break it into a plan which will become strategic steps to take to reach that goal. Prioritizing organization across marketing channels so they best communicate can help make and save money.
Get in Touch.
Have a question about how to create a content marketing strategy for your business? Write to Liz@litirmarketing.com today for help.
Comments