Creating an effective Content Marketing Strategy is vital for any business to grow. An appropriate content marketing strategy helps in generating an engaging content.
Following are the crucial steps to develop an effective content marketing strategy :
1. Defining the Content Marketing Purpose Define your content marketing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Based) goals as per your business's needs. It will help you designing to-the-point content, which would, in turn, grow engagement on your site.
2. Content Marketing AuditingGo through the following process to audit the content for any kind of site :
- a. Find out the already available content through any of the tools available on the internet. It will help you to monitor the missed tags, and also the web-pages that propose content as per your requirements.
- b. Manage the content in Excel sheets by categorizing according to date, tone, length, features, and relevance.
- c. Monitor the key metrics that explain about exit rates, social shares, conversions, time spent on the site, and bounce rates. Information regarding any of these can be seen in Google Analytics.
- d. Gaps must be analyzed by forming pivot tables that indicate which topic is trending or new or old, which content is engaging or not, and much more. If more of the content is required to be added to make the existing more meaningful, then do it. Content Ideation can also be practiced to develop more content.
- e. Discuss the exact purpose with the SEO team, and frame a documented content marketing plan altogether.
- f. Don't forget to prioritize the events as well as projects according to their importance.
3. Recognize & Maintain the Elements of Content Marketing (3 W+H)Elements of content marketing primarily involve buyer's journey, buyer's persona, Website content type, and the associated channels. These elements are denoted as "3W+H", and are Who, Where What and How.
Who: Buyer's persona that includes demographics, challenges, background, identifiers, and goals.
Where: Buyer's journey in which the stage is analyzed to which the buyer belongs.
These stages are:
- Awareness Stage
- Consideration Stage
- Decision Stage
What: Categories of content in the content marketing funnel.
In this element, the buyer's problem is being understood, and then the content is developed in such a way that it may help the buyer.
How: Content Marketing Promotions or Distribution Channels.
It involves the promotions of social media channels, forums, and other distribution channels.
4. Measuring & MonitoringEventually, it is vital to measure and monitor the results gained by implementing Content Marketing strategies.