Fresh, relevant, compelling content is central to all online marketing activities. To be successful online, businesses must commit to becoming content developing organizations.
As more consumers and buyers rely on online sources to make purchasing decisions, organizations that consistently disseminate valuable and interesting content will gain a competitive advantage.
Set Goals
The first step in any content marketing strategy is to set goals.
Goals can include:
- Increasing Website Traffic
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Increasing Brand Awareness and Visibility
- Driving Inbound Leads
- Creating Online Authority
- Securing Inbound Links
- Educating Prospects
- Increasing Conversion Rates
- Developing Industry Credibility
- Optimizing Relationships with Existing Customers
Questions to Ask When Developing Content
Once objectives are set, the next step is to gain a clear, in-depth understanding of the target audience, demographics, and/or market.
Questions to ask:
- Who are you targeting?
- What are their particular areas of interest and hot buttons?
- What connects an organization with the target audience (e.g. core values)?
- Who are prospects interacting with? Where are they interacting?
- What information are prospects looking for?
- How educated is the typical prospect on the subject matter?
Test
Once you establish your goals and get an understanding of the target audience, content development and distribution can begin in earnest. However, it makes good business sense to test approaches before making a concerted commitment to a content marketing strategy.
Content elements that can be tested include:
- Topics and subject matter
- Headlines and subject lines (click here to learn how to write killer headlines)
- Offers and calls to action
- Tone (voice)
- Content formats
- Frequency of content distribution
- Distribution channels
Build a Content Calendar
The next step to effectively execute a content marketing strategy, you must develop a content calendar.
A content calendar is necessary for “operationalizing” the content marketing strategy. It details the content that will be developed and distributed over a specified period of time – usually from three to twelve months.
The content calendar includes information (by target market or SEO focus) related to content topics, formats, frequency, distribution channels, and target distribution dates.
Analyze Your Efforts and Refine Your Content
Finally, you must constantly analyze and refine your content activities.
On-going analysis can be based on feedback secured through:
- Surveys
- Social media metrics such as “Likes” and “retweets”
- Website traffic
- Bounce rates
- Conversions
- Search engine rankings
- Inbound links
The insight gleaned from the analysis should be used to refine the content strategy, which is then reflected in the content calendar.
The Bottom Line
You must make a strategic commitment to consistent, value-based content development and distribution – it is your online currency.
Without content, you will have nothing to offer prospects, current customers, influencers, or search engines who are looking for insight about what you do. This makes it virtually impossible to leverage the tremendous business development opportunities offered by online marketing.
Don’t miss out on this promise – figure out what it will take to make yourself a content publishing organization.
>> Core Online Marketing can be your organization’s content developing machine! We write blogs, create content strategies, and distribute content on your behalf. Contact us today.
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