In order to support their company’s business and financial goals, marketers need to make sure that every penny spent by their company on marketing is all worth it by proving its ROI, and there is no better way to prove ROI than conducting a winning content marketing strategy.
Though it may seem overwhelming at first, creating a content marketing strategy is just the same as making a blueprint for your content marketing goals, journeys, and expectations. Remember, content marketing strategy is the most fundamental requirement for your company to succeed in the digital world.
Here are the 5 steps to create a great content marketing strategy.
- Define your business objectives
Before creating any kind of content marketing strategy, the first thing you should be doing is defining your business objectives or goals. Try not to get caught up in asking yourself the “what”, “how”, and “where” of your content marketing, but rather focus on the “why”. Why are you doing content marketing? Do you want it to help you generate leads, improve customer experience, or raise brand awareness?
After you have figured out what your content marketing goals are, use them as your guidance and document them properly. There’s nothing worse than losing sight of your initial goal halfway to the finish line.
- Discover your uniqueness
More and more content is being published every day, and you definitely do not want to be just another brand who contributes to adding yet another pile of similar content that everyone has already seen somewhere before. Discover what sets you apart from others by creating a content marketing program that really reflects the heart and soul of your brand.
Taking notes from your top competitors’ campaigns can also help you steer clear from the possibility of producing content that is too identical.
- Identify your audience
Relevancy is the magic that creates a great connection between brands and their audiences. Identify who your top audiences are and focus on creating contents that are most relevant to them. One of the most effective ways to identify your audience is by creating buyer personas or a generalized profile for each customer type you are targeting. Doing so will help you craft the exact content that they would want to see and interact with.
- Find the best channels to promote your content
Although multichannel marketing seems to be the best way to widely promote your content, it won’t work if your targeted audience is not there to see it. Find platforms that are the most popular among your targeted audience and make sure that your next content strategy includes these platforms as key channels.
That way, your content will most likely reach the right audience, resulting in better engagement.
- Measure your content marketing strategy
Content marketing strategies only work when they are measurable. Always track your content to see if it is really giving you the results you were hoping for by using these 4 metrics as a guidance: consumption, sharing, lead generation, and sales.
There are currently a wide range of social media tools and software you can use to measure your content performance. So, just make sure that you choose that one which suits your company’s needs best.