Content is king in today’s digital world. But many small business owners and marketing managers struggle to create a content marketing plan that speaks to their audience. This post will break down the process of creating a successful content marketing strategy for your business. By the end of this blog post, you’ll have practical tips to build a content foundation and know how Aperture Comms can help take your content marketing to the next level.
What is a Content Marketing Strategy?
A content strategy is a plan that outlines how your business will use different types of content to achieve its marketing objectives. It includes finding your clearly defined audience, setting specific goals, creating content and planning how to distribute it.
Your Target AudienceWho Are They?
Knowing your audience is the first step in creating a good content strategy. Your audience is people who will benefit most from your products or services. Your content marketing efforts should target these people and resonate with their needs and values.
What Are Their Needs and Values?
Knowing the needs and values of your audience will help you create high-quality content that speaks to them. This will include learning your audience’s demographics including age, gender, income levels, interests, affiliations, locality, marital status, and other relevant information for your offering. Each stage of the buyer’s journey should inspire confidence in your brand and demonstrate how it will meet their needs.
For example, an upscale restaurant may target high-earners living in affluent areas and a cosmetics company may target young women. Knowing these will allow you to tailor your marketing campaigns to their specific pain points and aspirations.
How Can Your Offering Fix Their Problem?
When you create content as part of your own content marketing strategy, it should show how your products or services can solve the problems your audience faces. This could be through how-to guides, case studies or customer testimonials showing real-world applications and benefits.
In the above content marketing examples, an upscale restaurant may choose to use professional photographs of their food and interiors, while a cosmetics company would benefit from real-world testimonials from users. Increasingly, consumers rely on social proof and user-generated content to find brands they can trust. An effective content strategy can improve brand awareness and ensure the right people see your content.
Content GoalsWhat Do You Want to Achieve
Having specific content goals is key to measuring your strategy and ensuring content marketing success. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic or generating leads your goals should be clear and measurable using key performance indicators.
Align to Business Objectives
Make sure your content goals align with your overall goals and current industry trends. If your business wants to be seen as a thought leader in the industry you should create informative, high-quality, valuable content that targets potential customers in your niche.
Measure and Adjust
A documented content marketing strategy is a useful tool for measuring what is and isn’t working for your business. It can help keep your marketing team on the same page and inform your content creation process going forward. Monitor your content against your goals and your competitors’ results. Conduct a content audit and review existing content to learn where your strategy is working and where it needs improvement. Use analytics to track social media engagement, search engine ranking, social media analytics, Google Analytics, conversion rates and ROI prepare to adjust your strategy as needed to achieve business goals.
Content Types
The types of content formats and content marketing strategies you decide to use in your digital marketing and other marketing efforts will depend largely on who your audience is and the type of product or service you offer. Create a content plan to reach your customers on the content channels they use the most, whether through social media channels or even print media outlets like magazines.
Social Media Posts
Having a social media strategy in place is crucial for most businesses. Social media platforms are a great way to reach and engage your audience. Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are great places to share updates, promote products and interact with followers.
These sites offer simple digital tools to distribute content, making them an easier way to reach many customers than your own site. Social media followers are also more likely to engage with influencer marketing; an increasingly effective way to convert leads.
Images and Videos
Visual content like images and video content can boost your engagement rates. High-quality visuals can make your content more attractive and memorable whether it’s a product demo, a behind-the-scenes look at your business or an infographic.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are the foundation of content marketing. You can share in-depth information, offer expertise and improve your SEO rankings on search engines. Regularly updated blogs can drive organic search and position your business as a trusted authority.
Print Media
While digital content is important don’t underestimate the power of print media. Brochures, flyers and print ads can still play a part in lead generation, especially for local businesses or events.
Content Distribution Plan
Once your content is ready, you need to create a content management system and develop your own strategy for its distribution process. Various tools exist to help social media managers and content marketers keep track of their content and deliver it on schedule. How you choose to distribute your content will also determine how you learn your campaigns’ results. For example, tools like email marketing software offer analytics tracking, while Meta business suite tracks your ads on Facebook and Instagram, providing valuable data about your customers.
Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar, or content calendar, helps you plan and schedule your content. This content calendar will help ensure consistency, allow you to track what’s working and coordinate across different platforms.
Where to Publish
Decide where to publish your content. Consider where your target audience spends their time and tailor your content to each platform’s features and audience.
Promote and Engage
Distribution doesn’t stop at posting content. Promote your content through email newsletters, social shares and collaborations with influencers. Engage with your audience by responding to comments and encouraging discussions.
Why Do I Need a Content Marketing Strategy?
Every digital marketer knows a good content marketing strategy gives you many benefits. It helps you target the right audience, increases brand visibility and drives more qualified leads. It also ensures consistency in your messaging and allows you to measure your results. A documented strategy can also help you set goalposts and home your marketing practices over time.
Brand Authority
A good content marketing strategy positions your business as an authority in your industry. By delivering content consistently you build trust and credibility with your audience.
SEO Rankings
Quality content is a ranking factor. By targeting relevant keywords and creating in-depth content you can drive more organic traffic to your website.
Cost Effective
Content marketing is more cost-effective than traditional advertising. It has long-term value as content continues to attract and engage audiences over time.
How Can a Content Creation Agency Help?Expertise and Knowledge
A content agency like Aperture Comms brings expertise and knowledge to the table. We understand content marketing and can create a strategy tailored to your business.
Content Production
Agencies have the resources to produce content consistently. We can write blog posts, create videos and professional images, and everything in between so your content is professional and engaging.
Planning and Execution
Aperture Comms can help you develop a content strategy and execute it. We will develop exceptional content and ensure it reaches your desired audience so you can focus on other parts of your business.
Conclusion
A good content marketing strategy is key to your business’s success in today’s market. By knowing your audience, setting goals and choosing the right content and channels you can drive engagement and growth. Working with a content creation agency like Aperture Comms can help take it to the next level.
Get in touch with Aperture Comms today and let’s get started.
