Content is the foundation of any online marketing strategy. Whether you’re trying to bring traffic to your website through Search Engine Optimization or you want to advertise on social media, you need to have a strong content strategy to get you started.
Having a powerful content marketing strategy can help you connect with your target audience to educate, entertain, and ultimately encourage them to make a purchase. However, if you’ve never created a content marketing strategy before, it can seem overwhelming.
To help you get you started with creating a content marketing strategy that will help you nurture leads, get more sales, and keep your customers and clients happy, here are a few steps you can follow.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing can be summed up as any type of marketing that includes online content, such as videos, social media posts, blog posts, infographics, webinars, or more. The content within your strategy is not confined to specific outlets, platforms, or types.
But content marketing is much more than just creating content that your audience wants to engage with. To truly become a master at content marketing, you need to dig deeper to consider how the content you create can convince your audience to buy.
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Your content marketing strategy will depend on who you are, who your audience is, and what kinds of content they’re most likely to identify with. However, there are a few steps you can follow to create a strong content marketing strategy regardless of your industry, business type, or target audience.
Create an Audience Persona
The strength of your content marketing strategy will depend on how well it can connect with your target audience. Before you get started creating any content at all, you want to consider who exactly you’re trying to attract.
An audience persona looks at who your ideal customer is, what they value, what struggles they’re facing, and what you can do to help solve that problem. Your audience persona should also consider how that individual uses social media, search engines, and what kinds of content they’re most likely to engage with.
If you have multiple ideal customers, create unique personas for each demographic you want to target. This will make it easier when creating your content strategy.
Differentiate Your Content Types
While the majority of your target audience may enjoy video content, there is likely to be at least a few audience members that would rather read their content in the form of a blog post. If you’re only creating one form of content, you’re only going to reach one group of your audience.
When creating content, think of the various different ways you might be able to present that information. While some kinds of content, such as blog posts, might be easier and cheaper to create, you want to invest in different content types that can attract new audience members.
To save time and money, consider repurposing some of your most popular content. If there was a blog post that received a lot of attention, consider turning it into a video, podcast, or infographic.
Consider Different Buying Stages
Each member of your audience will enter the buying process at a different phase. Some may have no idea what they’re looking for while others might want to buy immediately. In order to have a strong content marketing strategy, you need to appeal to all individuals.
When creating your content, get specific about who that piece is for. Outline what audience persona you’re trying to target, as well as where they are in the buying process. You can take your strategy a step further to also think about what the ideal outcome of that piece of content is.
Make sure you have content for each phase of the buyer’s journey. If one area is lacking, create some new pieces to ensure each individual is properly supported.
Conclusion
Content marketing is an important area to master. However, it doesn’t need to be difficult. Keep these tips in mind the next time you’re creating a content marketing strategy.