HOW TO CREATE AND WORK WITH CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Three important topics shall be discussed in this article;
A) 9 steps to map out a winning content marketing plan
B) HOW TO CREATE GREAT CONTENT FOR YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
C) Reasons Why Your Business Needs Content Marketing
Before now I used to struggle to get results from my content despite tagged content creator.
That sounds weird but true, and I know a lot of other people are going through the same thing.
Content marketing helps your business to reach those who need your products.
As a business person, you might be pondering over how to reach those who need your service.
With an effective content marketing strategy, you can easily spot the challenges of your audience, and how to tailor your solution to meet their needs.
You will agree with me that when people see what they want and you give them what they need consistently they will always come to you.
Content marketing gives users detailed information about your brand. It ultimately leads to sales
Content creation to some extent is not a hassle but creating the right content that moves your business from point zero to hero is.
In this age and time when content marketing is the best form of marketing KNOWING WHAT TO POST IS IMPORTANT BUT POSTING WHAT IS RELEVANT TO YOUR AUDIENCE AND YOUR BUSINESS IS MOST IMPORTANT.
HOW TO CREATE AND WORK WITH CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
So what changed the story for me? Simple! I started working with a content marketing plan and today I want to share with you how you can start working with one.
Content creation is more like embarking on a journey, to get to your destination faster you need a roadmap/google map.
Here are 9 steps to map out a winning content marketing plan
1. Define your content goal: What exactly do you want to achieve this month/quarter from every piece of content you put out? (that’s your goal) it could be more sales, leads, etc,
You know I love giving instances? So let’s get practical today!
Let’s say your goal is to get 1000 leads that’ll eventually turn to customers in the next 30 days.
By the way, a lead is someone interested in your offer but yet to give you money.
So your goal might be to source them out from the ground and put them in your net(email, group, waitlist, WhatsApp, etc)
2. Identify your KPI(Key performance indicators): Your key performance indicators are how you measure your progress towards achieving that goal, it could be several subscribers, downloads, etc.
How do you know you’re walking towards this goal?
From our goal, if we divide 1000 by 30 days that’s about 34 leads daily so if we’re able to get 34- 35 leads daily then we’re rest assured of progress.
3. Map your customer profile(demographics) Who exactly is your content going to serve? What is her age, location, gender, income, marital status? What are her challenges? Frustrations? What is her story(journey before coming across you)
At this point you need to create your customer story, to identify what life looks like before she comes across you and how it should be after she experiences you. (We’re going to talk about this in a separate post)
4. Audit your existing content: Content Audit helps you know what your existing content has helped you achieve, why most of them didn’t work, the gaps you need to fill, and how you can do better.
What you do here is go through all the content you have on all your social handles and see what you have been doing well & wrongly
Ask yourself
How is my audience responding to my content?
Is it valuable enough?
How can I do better?
What do they need exactly that I’m neglecting?
5. Decide your lead magnet: You need something in exchange to get the attention of your audience, what are you going to give them for free to get their email address or contact details for you to nurture the relationship. It could be a cheat sheet, workbook, template, guide, webinar, etc.
Decide what it’ll be and create it
6. Decide your offer/product: After you have gotten the attention of your audience with your lead magnet what next? How do you want to help them further? What will you use to filter the serious ones and those that are in for freebies?
Your offer! mind you your lead magnet should correspond with your paid offer
7. Plan the process: What are the necessary things you need to have in place to have effective content marketing? It could be:
Tools you need(canva, Trello, MailChimp, website, etc)
Skills you need (you either pay people to do it for you or learn how to)
Distribution channels(WhatsApp, live videos, etc)
Marketing schedule & frequency (organic or paid ads)
8. Brain dump your content ideas: Your content ideas must be focused on helping your customer avatar and also helping you achieve your content goals. Brain dump as much as you can.
What type and forms of content are you going to use to achieve this result?
Lead generation content?
Educational content etc.
Videos, Audios, images, texts etc choose what works best for you
9. Plan your daily, weekly action steps: What do you have to do every day to move you towards achieving your goal? It could be writing/recording the lead magnet on Monday, setting up the website on Tuesday, running ads for it on Wednesday, etc.
In your hands is a goldmine that when followed you’ll never create content out of guesswork or struggle to communicate your message.
B) HOW TO CREATE GREAT CONTENT FOR YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
Content marketing is important to generate leads and sales for businesses.
However, many marketers and content creators find it difficult to create great content.
Here are things you can do better
– Be point-driven
Focus on the topic or idea you are writing. Remember your audience want a solution to the topic you are writing about. So go straight to the point and not dilly-dallying.
– Keep your paragraph for easy scanning.
Your paragraphs should be short with enough whitespace in between them.
People don’t come online for your textbooks so keep it simple to capture their attention.
– Keep the language simple
Leave big vocabularies for Wole Soyinka or Adichie; your readers need no dictionary or thesaurus to understand your message.
– Write as you speak
Write like you are speaking to one person at a time — hyper-personalize your message.
Also, writing as you speak ensures your points flow like speech.
– Do not be tired to read your content again
When you hit the submit button, your errors will turn off readers. More eyes on your content help you to perfect your content.
– Read your work aloud
Reading your work aloud helps you notice wordiness or unnecessary words usage. Clip off excess words to increase the sharpness of your content.
– Your content should be actionable
In content marketing, focus on your readers and not you. Listing your achievement is good, but the idea is to make readers practice your steps and gain results. Otherwise, you’re just boasting.
– Use related pictures
Pictures speak 10% of your content idea. And related picture helps to capture the attention
– Read your content like an audience
Position yourself as the audience and read the content to see if you have answered all the queries they have in mind.
HOW TO CREATE AND WORK WITH CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
C) Reasons Why Your Business Needs Content Marketing
I know you are already aware of the meaning of business. And that’s why you are into it and business has to do with the sale of products to make a profit that’s one of the major aims of the business.
So the aim by which you are selling your product is to get more potential customers that you will sell your products to.
Your customers will be happy with your services and always want to patronise you, thereby you will be someone people are always looking at for to serve them well and for you to make a profit.
Let me also explain content marketing to you so that you can understand that its plays a major role in promoting your business.
Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract and retain people especially those who are interested in your products by creating and sharing relevant articles of your product which will be beneficial to them.
Because one thing that comes to a person’s mind is why do they need your product and what services can they find in your business that will make them stay and keep coming to you without going elsewhere and even referring people to you.
Content marketing helps your business, to grow by building trust. It is important that through your business and the content they see online, is genuine and true.
It allows building a good relationship between you and your customers, ones people trust your products and how you deliver your services as been valuable and high quality.
SEE ALSO : HOW AND WHY EMAIL MARKETING WILL HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW
P.S: Listen this takes time to get right but if you can discipline yourself to do it, you won’t struggle as before
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HOW TO CREATE AND WORK WITH CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY