How to Form a Content Marketing Strategy

Your content strategy is more than an editorial calendar. It’s a specific plan to effectively direct your messaging to consumers.

 At its heart, your content strategy is your “why.” Why are you creating this content? Who is it intended for? How are your services helping in a way no one else can? Digital marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day, so it’s critical to have a strategic content development plan in place to ensure your content is reaching its intended audience.

Research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that marketers with a documented content marketing strategy are more effective than those without a written strategy; however, around 63 percent of businesses still don’t have their content plan in writing. If you fall into this category, it’s time to make a change. 

Here are five tips on how to create a content strategy that will increase the impact of your messaging and help establish your organization as a thought leader.

1) Identify goals for your content marketing strategy

Start by simply defining the purpose of your content and what you hope to accomplish with it. Set specific written goals for what you would like your content to do to help your organization, like increasing brand awareness, audience engagement, driving traffic to your website, or generating new leads.

These goals will influence the type and style of messaging you create and which channels your content is shared on. In a research study on goals, Dr. Gail Matthews of Dominican University and her team discovered that those who write down their goals, review them regularly, and share them with friends and colleagues are 33 percent more successful than individuals who made goals but never took further action.

2) Establish metrics to measure effectiveness

Once your goals are in place, you’ll need to create key performance indicators, or KPIs, to track progress. KPIs help you determine the level of engagement and response to your content in the platforms where it’s shared, which, in turn, indicates what adjustments to make.

These measurements can also establish the return on investment (ROI) for your company, in terms of revenue, growth, or new business leads. If you’re not getting the returns you’re searching for with created content, it might be time to adjust your strategy.

3) Create buyer personas to personalize messaging

A powerful tool for any form of marketing is to create buyer personas that represent your target customer. This applies to content strategy, too. These fictional characters can become a guiding light to curate valuable, targeted content.

Be specific by including name, title, age, income level, values, spending habits, and location. Carefully consider this person’s challenges and pain points and how your product or service can alleviate them as well as what objections you might encounter.

These buyer personas help you understand your audience’s behavior. You can also use brand monitoring tools to help recognize relevance, growth, and topics associated with your industry. Together, these tools help you predict how your audience will react to content you share about products or services.

4) Extract value by repurposing content marketing

Once content is created, there’s no reason it can’t be reused. Maximize existing content by revisiting it from time to time to make adjustments. Update, remove, or add sections of your content, or change your lead. To increase searchability, you can also modify existing keywords or include new keywords which all help attract targeted users and convert this traffic into sales.

This is a useful tactic because you’re maintaining the relevance of the content marketing you have already created for both new and existing customers without reinventing the wheel.

5) Optimize content for the desired channel

It’s likely your strategy will include cross-posting content on several different digital media channels. To be most applicable, your content needs to be optimized. Each social network has its own measurements and factors for determining success that are increasingly differentiated. Make sure that you’re cross-posting because it’s the best fit, not just because it’s convenient.

Performing social analytics can reveal topics your prospects are sharing and commenting on as well as what other brands and businesses they’re interested in. According to Social Media Examiner, most customers require six to eight touch points with a business before they feel ready to buy. Sharing high-quality and useful content optimized to the platform where it’s posted is a great way to nurture and educate your target market over an extended period of their buying journey.

Set yourself up for content marketing success

By understanding your market, what your prospective customer needs are, and what they care about, you’ll be able to deliver impactful content to your customers who will respond with their business and loyalty.

Looking for help executing your content strategy? Comma Copywriters offers a variety of wordsmithing services to meet your needs. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation today.