Want to get a leg up on the competition? A solid, smart content marketing strategy is your first step.
It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or if you’ve been using the same approach for a while. A content marketing strategy plan should be on-point, innovative, and strong. But just how do you go about creating a content marketing strategy that sets you apart from every other brand trying to do the same thing?
As time and audiences change and technologies evolve, keeping up with the latest trends isn’t easy. Yet keep up you must if you want to build a bigger audience, increase revenue, and lower costs.
The “Right” Content Marketing Strategy for Your Goals
Any on or offline activities that help your business move closer to its short and long-term strategic goals are part of your content marketing strategy. Figuring out which approach is best for your brand starts with understanding its “why.” In other words, it’s important to differentiate your content marketing strategy from the content itself.
That’s because a content marketing strategy is much more than creating, distributing, and sharing content. A strategic approach is needed, one that analyzes the various ways your content marketing can be used across the buyer’s journey, the customer lifecycle, and other customer experience touchpoints. The key questions your content marketing strategy should address include:
- What are the content needs and preferencesof your target audience, or buyer personas?
- Which of your marketing and other organizational goals can be realized or improved by a better use of content marketing?
- Which KPIs and content marketing metrics will you use to gauge success?
You also want to look at current trends in your as industry well as where things are headed, all while determining how much you’re able and willing to invest.
Creating a Content Marketing Strategy That Works
Every brand has limited resources to devote to a content marketing strategy. The good news is it doesn’t have to be a complicated or exhausting process. If your strategy incorporates these 3 core aspects, you’ll be ready to meet your audience’s needs, desires, and preferences.
- A well-defined purpose. This is the “why” we talked about. Harnessing the power of great content to increase ROI means being clear on how content marketing fits in with your brand’s broader marketing plans and how it will grow your business and drive sales. A content marketing mission statementhelps you narrow your focus.
- A story to tell. You’ll need to characterize your content marketing in terms of what ideas you want to communicate and how your solutions differ from those of your competitors. Covering everything from your reason for being to your brand mission, a well-defined story lets you connect with your audience in an honest and engaging way.
- A comprehensive editorial calendar. If you want your content to deliver you need to manage the entire life cycle of your content marketing program. That means creating an editorial calendar that has a well-thought-out, proactive plan for integrating your content into that compelling story for your audience. Keep in mind, an editorial calendar is about much more than assigning specific content release dates. Rather it takes your buyer personas, engagement cycle, and delivery channels, and combines them to produce a content map that helps you reach your goals.
The artist Pablo Picasso once said “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” Good advice for making your content strategy a masterpiece as well!