CONTENT MARKETING MADE SIMPLE: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Content marketing is necessary for businesses that want to earn customers, brand loyalty, and continued growth.
Creating a business strategy helped define your services and offerings. Next, determine your brand voice. Are you creative and informative, like Apple? Or are you conversational like Ritual vitamins?
Next, determine how important the Oxford comma is, your link structure, and other nuances. Once your ideation process is complete, creating a content marketing strategy is the next logical step.
Read on for the steps you can take to solidify your content marketing strategy. With consistency and grit, you can elevate your content, and in time, grow your sales.
STEP 1: UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE
The conversation your audience is having about your product, service, and the overall industry is important. Although you might try to target Segment A with Widget A, there might be a need for that exact widget in Segment H, and Segment A wants Widget K.
Aligning your products with the demands of your audience lets you more accurately reach your target client with your content.
STEP 2: KEYWORD ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH
Any SEO marketing company will recommend SEO and Google Analytics as it is a crucial step in understanding successful content campaigns. Reviewing and comparing keywords that you rank for, your competitors rank for, and what your clients are actually searching for might prove to be eye-opening.
STEP 3: CREATE TOPICS, HEADINGS, AND SUBHEADINGS
Once you’ve chosen your keywords, try to integrate them into headings. Not only will this help guide you as you write the article, similar to an outline you might have completed in high school, but Google recognizes headings as important, and if it includes your targetted keyword, that is the icing on the cake. Aim to use one keyword (or string) several times throughout the article—a good start is once per section and once per heading. From there, sprinkle in your alternative, or secondary keywords, and you now have a balanced article.
Lastly, do not forget to include a powerful call to action at the end of your article. Your reader made it that far, now what do you want them to do?
STEP 4: WHERE WILL THE CONTENT LIVE?
Some brands resonate particularly well with YouTube, while others have popular blogs. Your content marketing strategy can include any and all mediums and platforms but consider the balance of what is useful to the reader and what you are capable of maintaining.
CONTENT MARKETING ON YOUTUBE
YouTube lets you record video, and it makes it easy to post. In fact, hundreds of hours of video are posted globally each minute. However, it might not be realistic to post a highly-edited video every day if you also have a business to run. Be sure your video format is sustainable. If you cannot spend eight hours editing each video, create a template that suits your brand and satisfies your viewer.
CONTENT MARKETING WITH BLOGS
Similar to YouTube, be sure you create a blog schedule that is sustainable. If it is only once per month, or once per week, stick to it. Not only will your readers have something to look forward to, but Google likes consistent and reliable behaviors.
STEP 5: TRACK THE ANALYTICS OF YOUR CONTENT MARKETING
You spent a sum of your time and resources to perform keyword research, create the article or video, and now you’ve posted it. Do not just let it sit. Promote the content on LinkedIn, Twitter, and cross-post with others in your industry. In about a week, review the likes, views, shares, and comments—when applicable. Not all of your content marketing efforts will go viral or even reach your ideal audience. The beauty of content marketing is that you can pivot and strategize to maximize when you can.
If it appears to fall flat, go to the next step below.
STEP 6: REVISE AND ADD CONTENT
A large portion of all websites is on WordPress, present site included. WordPress and other platforms make it easy for you to post, edit, and even delete your content. If your keyword was misguided, or if the topic is misaligned to your brand, edit it. If a blog did well a year ago and you want to revive it, add an updated section or rework the existing content. Videos that might have fallen out of favor can benefit from being transcribed with text overlay.
All of these content marketing strategies can help you with your marketing journey. Be adaptable and open to new methods to reach your audience. Educate yourself on audience requirements and educate your audience when they need it.
For more information and help with your content marketing strategy contact MDINC today.
