Research has shown that customers love engaging content, rather than being bombarded with ads! That is why as a business, you should invest in great content as part of your marketing and communication efforts. Well, you need a content marketing strategy to create the right content for the right audience and disseminate it at the right time. It is a plan that can help you give your business reap a lot in sales! Here is a step-by-step guide on how to create a killer content marketing strategy.

Define the mission of marketing

For starters, what do you want to achieve with content marketing? What specific goals do you want to score? A good content marketing strategy should incorporate specific goals that you want to achieve. You do not want to spend money and time creating content without focus. Some of the goals that you can work towards include:

Creating your brand awareness: Content marketing allows you to take your brand closer to the customers. While developing a good strategy, you should ensure brand awareness is one of the top goals you hope to achieve.
Increase traffic to your site: Getting more people to visit your website and social media pages will increase the conversion rate. You can design a content marketing strategy that will help increase traffic.
Retain existing client base: This is a definite goal that you might want to achieve through your stream of content.

Once you define the specific mission and goals of your content, the next thing is to determine a way to measure the effectiveness of your strategy.

Determine key performance indicators

Key performance indicators are a crucial part of your marketing efforts. You need to know if your business strategy is working or if you should make adjustments. Some of the content marketing key performance indicators include:

The rate of consumption of your content: This may be measured using the number of views your business page gets. The average amount of time that page visitors spend on your business page, as well as the number of new or unique visitors.
The number of sales: The sales can be revenue influenced or pipeline generated. An increase in sales is a clear sign that your content is effective.
The audience engagement: the number of comments you get, questions, or session duration on your page is a good indicator of measuring the effectiveness of your marketing content.

The number of shares that your marketing content gets on social media and other platforms will indicate to you the reception by the audience.

You don’t need all key performance indicators. The ones ideal in your content marketing strategy will depend on your business type and the kind of content you will create. Hence, your strategy should reflect the cohesion between your content and the key performance indicators.

Define your audience

Your business is built to serve the needs of customers. However, the services you offer or the products you create are not of the essence to everyone. You also do not need to spend time and resources on the wrong audience. That is why defining your target audience is a crucial part of your content marketing strategy.

To create a buyer persona, you need:

The demographic information of your target audience. Different demographics respond to content differently. Is your content aimed at youth who just left school? Are your target audience business executives who make crucial boardroom decisions? Understanding audience demographics is useful in content marketing for small business. It will guide you in determining the kind of content to create to communicate about your brand, product, or service effectively.
Which platform do they use often? Some people love Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. For the content you are creating, ensure that you know the platform that your audience uses. If it is Instagram, for example, your content should include images and videos for better results.
You should also get to know the manner in which your audience consumes content. This will make you understand the manner of delivery. For example, there are those who watch videos during weekends. Hence, sharing videos on weekends will be more effective.

Creating a buyer persona will help you understand your audience and the kind of content they consume.

Assess your current content

It is crucial to understand if your current content fits the bill. There is no need to spend resources and time to create some more content, whereas the current content could still generate more sales for you. So, how do you successfully conduct an audit of your current content?

Well, the content that works best for your business has great engagement with the audience. If it is videos, they have a high number of views, shares, and comments. Besides, you might want to consider the content that remained relevant for a long time. Conducting regular content audits will inform you of the points to improve on and the areas you need to rework for better results.

Figure out distribution channels

Having great marketing content is all good, but distributing it through the right channel is more important. The channel on which you use to distribute your content will make or even possibly break your business. For example, Facebook or Twitter is a great platform to share social media content with your audience. We have seen creative business videos go viral on social media! Again, pick a fitting platform and match it with the right content.

Put simply, after defining your client and identifying the platform on which they are, you can create content that aligns with that platform for better conversion and increased sales.

Allocate resources

Thus far, you have defined your audience, the platform for the distribution of your content. Now it is time to allocate the resources for the content production process. This involves deciding who plays what role. For example, you could have your graphics team, videography, photography, and editing teams together. Allocate each team who will be involved in creating content for effective work to be done. Get the right tools and resources needed for the work to be done.

Develop a content calendar

A content calendar will help you keep your content creation process organized. For every department involved in the process, you can define the timelines when each is required. Additionally, you will have a chance to spot any gaps in the content so you can develop the required content. Then create the content that is required to market your business.

Final remarks

Content marketing strategy is crucial for the success of your business. It defines the stages that you follow in the production of content that works for your business. It also helps you define your audience for better marketing communication and increased sales. Execute it right and you are bound to grow your customer base.