How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy That Works
Content marketing is a powerful tool for attracting new customers, building brand awareness, and establishing yourself as an industry leader. However, simply creating content isn't enough. To truly succeed, you need a well-defined content marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your target audience. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to create a content marketing strategy that works.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues.
1. Defining Your Target Audience and Buyer Personas
Before you start creating content, you need to understand who you're creating it for. Defining your target audience and developing detailed buyer personas is crucial for ensuring your content resonates with the right people.
Identifying Your Target Audience
Start by identifying the broad characteristics of your ideal customer. Consider factors like:
Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, education, occupation
Psychographics: Interests, values, lifestyle, attitudes
Industry: What industry are they in? What is their company size?
Job Title: What is their role and responsibilities?
Pain Points: What challenges are they facing? What problems are they trying to solve?
Creating Buyer Personas
Once you have a general understanding of your target audience, create detailed buyer personas. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on research and data about your existing and prospective customers.
For each persona, include:
Name: Give your persona a name to make them feel more real.
Background: Describe their professional and personal background.
Demographics: Include relevant demographic information.
Goals: What are they trying to achieve?
Challenges: What are their biggest obstacles?
Motivations: What drives their decisions?
Preferred Channels: Where do they spend their time online?
Example: Marketing Manager, Sarah, 35, responsible for lead generation, struggles with low website traffic, motivated by increasing ROI, spends time on LinkedIn and industry blogs.
Understanding your audience allows you to create content that speaks directly to their needs and interests. This will improve engagement and increase the likelihood of them becoming customers. 57 can help you refine your target audience and develop effective buyer personas.
2. Conducting Content Audits and Gap Analysis
Before you start creating new content, it's important to assess what you already have and identify any gaps in your content library. This involves conducting a content audit and gap analysis.
Content Audit
A content audit is a comprehensive review of all your existing content. This includes blog posts, articles, website pages, social media posts, videos, and any other type of content you've created. The goal of a content audit is to:
Identify what content you have: Create a spreadsheet or document listing all your content assets.
Assess the performance of your content: Track metrics like page views, social shares, engagement, and conversions.
Evaluate the quality of your content: Is it accurate, up-to-date, and well-written?
Determine the relevance of your content: Does it still align with your target audience and business goals?
Gap Analysis
Once you've completed your content audit, you can conduct a gap analysis to identify areas where you need to create new content. This involves comparing your existing content to your target audience's needs and interests.
Consider the following questions:
What topics are missing from your content library?
Are there any keywords or search terms that you're not targeting?
Are there any stages of the buyer's journey that you're not addressing?
Are there any content formats that you're not using?
By identifying these gaps, you can create a content plan that addresses your audience's needs and fills any holes in your content strategy. Our services include content audits and gap analysis to help you optimise your content efforts.
3. Developing a Content Calendar and Editorial Guidelines
A content calendar is a schedule that outlines when and where you will publish your content. Editorial guidelines are a set of rules and standards that ensure your content is consistent in terms of tone, style, and quality.
Content Calendar
A content calendar helps you stay organised, consistent, and on track with your content marketing goals. Your content calendar should include:
Content Title: The title of your content piece.
Content Type: (e.g., blog post, video, infographic)
Target Keyword: The primary keyword you're targeting.
Target Audience: The buyer persona you're targeting.
Publish Date: The date you plan to publish the content.
Channel: Where you will publish the content (e.g., blog, social media).
Author: The person responsible for creating the content.
Status: The current status of the content (e.g., draft, in review, published).
Editorial Guidelines
Editorial guidelines ensure that all your content is consistent and high-quality. Your editorial guidelines should cover:
Tone of Voice: How should your content sound? (e.g., professional, friendly, authoritative)
Style Guide: What style guide should your writers follow? (e.g., AP Style, Chicago Manual of Style)
Grammar and Spelling: What are your standards for grammar and spelling?
Image Guidelines: What types of images should you use? What are your image size requirements?
SEO Guidelines: How should your content be optimised for search engines?
By creating a content calendar and editorial guidelines, you can ensure that your content is consistent, high-quality, and aligned with your brand. If you have frequently asked questions about content calendars or editorial guidelines, we are happy to help.
4. Creating High-Quality and Engaging Content
The heart of any successful content marketing strategy is the content itself. To attract and retain your target audience, you need to create high-quality and engaging content that provides value and addresses their needs.
Types of Content
There are many different types of content you can create, including:
Blog Posts: Share your expertise and provide valuable insights on relevant topics.
Articles: Offer in-depth analysis and thought leadership on industry trends.
Videos: Create engaging video content that educates, entertains, or inspires.
Infographics: Visualise data and information in an easy-to-understand format.
Ebooks: Provide comprehensive guides on specific topics.
Case Studies: Showcase your success stories and demonstrate the value of your products or services.
Podcasts: Share your insights and interview industry experts.
Social Media Posts: Engage with your audience and share your content on social media.
Content Creation Best Practices
Focus on providing value: Your content should be informative, helpful, and relevant to your target audience.
Write clear and concise content: Use simple language and avoid jargon.
Use visuals: Images, videos, and infographics can help break up text and make your content more engaging.
Optimise for search engines: Use relevant keywords and optimise your content for search engines.
Promote your content: Share your content on social media, email, and other channels.
Creating high-quality and engaging content takes time and effort, but it's essential for building a successful content marketing strategy. Learn more about 57 and how we can help you create compelling content.
5. Promoting and Distributing Your Content Effectively
Creating great content is only half the battle. You also need to promote and distribute your content effectively to reach your target audience. Without proper promotion, even the best content can go unnoticed.
Content Promotion Channels
Social Media: Share your content on relevant social media platforms and engage with your audience.
Email Marketing: Send email newsletters to your subscribers with links to your latest content.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Optimise your content for search engines to improve your organic search rankings.
Paid Advertising: Use paid advertising to reach a wider audience on social media and search engines.
Influencer Marketing: Partner with influencers in your industry to promote your content to their followers.
Guest Blogging: Publish guest posts on other websites in your industry to reach a new audience.
Content Syndication: Republish your content on other websites to increase its reach.
Measuring Your Results
It's important to track your content marketing results to see what's working and what's not. Key metrics to track include:
Website Traffic: How much traffic is your content driving to your website?
Engagement: How are people engaging with your content (e.g., likes, shares, comments)?
Leads: How many leads are you generating from your content?
Sales: How many sales are you generating from your content?
By tracking these metrics, you can identify areas where you need to improve your content marketing strategy and optimise your efforts for maximum impact.
By following these steps, you can create a content marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals, engages your target audience, and drives results. Remember to be patient, consistent, and always focus on providing value to your audience.