Due to the pandemic and the boom of social media, content marketing is no longer a fun add on to your marketing and sales efforts. Content marketing is how businesses are validated, sales are won, and communities are built.

But the reality is, most businesses don’t take their content marketing strategy seriously enough. In fact, 63% of businesses  don’t have a formal content marketing strategy written down. Meaning if you simply write down your strategy, you’re further ahead of most companies. 

However, for many businesses that don’t have a full house marketing department, creating a content strategy seems overwhelming and terrifying. In fact, 64% of businesses say learning to write a content strategy is one of the most important needs of their business.

But at the same time, companies who can craft a content marketing strategy will be significantly more successful than those who wing it. 

So, Illuminate Marketing team has put together this handy dandy blog for you to get started with how to create a content marketing strategy.

Establish Your Content Marketing Goals

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with their content marketing is posting aimlessly online, because they know they should be posting, but they don’t know why.

So take time to reflect on why you’re creating a content marketing strategy. 

Why are you doing any marketing?
Are you looking to improve your sales on your eCommerce site after a steady decline for a while?
Are you wanting to boost web traffic as your website only sees a few users each week? 

No two businesses are the same, nor are their marketing goals. 

If you haven’t got a clue, here are some examples of your content marketing strategy goals include: 

• Improving revenue
• Making more sales
• Improving leads both quality and quantity
• Boosting web traffic
• Raising brand awareness
• Crafting an online community
• Improving dwell time 
• Establishing yourself or your business as a thought leader
• Overall engagement 

And just FYI, you can have way more than one goal. 

However, it’s crucial to know what the end goal is. If you don’t, you’re going back to aimlessly posting online. And you’ll never be truly able to measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing. Which leads us straight into the next point you need to carve out.

Determine your marketing KPIs

Yuck – KPIs. The dreaded thing everyone hates, no matter what their job is.

However, when it comes to your marketing, KPIs might actually be your best friend. 

Once you’ve established your goal(s), then you can set specific targets each month. If you’re not hitting them, then you know whatever you’re posting isn’t working. It allows you to feel in control of that aimlessly posting situation you were just in.

So what are some examples of KPIs?

• Monthly, quarterly, or yearly revenue targets
• Increased number of email and newsletter subscribers
• Open rate on emails
• Increase number and quality of leads
• Bounce rate or dwell time on blogs
• Engagement on social media posts
• Sharing of posts and blogs
• Website traffic 
• Higher search ranking

But it’s crucial to track your marketing spend against your ROI. 

Review Your Audience

As important as your goals are, clearly defining your audience might be the most important aspect of any effective content marketing strategy.

If you try to cater to everyone, you’ll cater to no one.
And if you don’t know your audience well enough, your content will fall flat. It won’t be tailored to your audience, their pain points, their needs, their desires. And it might not even be content they want to consume.

Firstly, you’ll need to figure out their: 

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Family – marriage, kids
• Location
• Income

Then move on to what their pain points are:

• Are you providing a solution to a pain point?
• Are you offering something they desire?
• Is it a luxury?
• Is it something they know nothing about?

There is a difference in how you will deliver content to someone who needs an emergency electrician versus someone who wants a botox treatment. 

Next you’ll want to figure out what and where they consume content:

• Are they on Facebook, YouTube, e-mails, Tik Tok, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter?
• Do they prefer blogs or videos?
• Do they want “how to” pieces or thought leadership pieces?
• Are you entertaining them or educating them?

If you can, offer a few current customers a free treatment or Amazon gift card for a quick interview to gain some more insights into someone who ended up purchasing your products or services.

Decide the Best Content Channels

There are a million different vehicles to deliver your content to your target audience. But it all depends where your audience is.

If you’re targeting business coaches, a good guess is to assume they’ll definitely be on LinkedIn, but they might not be on Tik Tok. If you’re a car eCommerce shop, a good strategy is YouTube and Reddit, and working with influencers.

Buzzsumo is a great tool to research where your audience is. 

But after you’ve reviewed your audience, you’ll probably have a good base of where they will consume content. And it’s your job to post it directly in front of them.

Map Out Your Content Types

Like knowing what channels your ideal customers are surfing, you’ll also need to know what type of content they’re going to consume.

Do they prefer a weekly or monthly newsletter in their inbox?

Are they blog readers?

Are they addicted to YouTube videos and Tik Toks?

But it doesn’t just end with the literal format. There are several questions to consider when deciding on your content types.

Should you work with influencers on social platforms?

Are you looking to boost SEO?

Do you need to put yourself in front of new targets to grow your audience?

As we’ve established a few times, there is no one size fits all. If you’re a wedding planner your content marketing strategy is going to be vastly different than that of a lawyer.

Take time to review your audience, your goals, and your KPIs.

Measure Results

Remember those KPIs we established early on? It’s time to check those.

Once you’ve been creating and posting content, you’ll need to be actively reviewing and measuring your metrics.

From Google Analytics to social media analytics, it’s crucial to be tracking these thoroughly.
By monitoring your progress, you’ll be able to improve your content marketing strategy regularly. 

Our favorite metrics to measure include:

• Website entrances
• Dwell time
• Bounce rate
• Link clicks
• Follow/unfollow rates 
• Conversions
• Sign ups
• Likes/reactions
• Views
• Comments

Outsource

When in doubt, outsource your content. Outsourcing your content creation, freeing up your time grow your business. Interested in outsourcing? Check out our services here!