Developing a content marketing strategy for your business

Developing a content marketing strategy for your business

Content marketing is not just about trying out various tactics and hoping they will benefit your business. Content must be used carefully and strategically to meet your business goals. A content marketing strategy is therefore vital to your success. How do you develop a content marketing strategy? Here is a step-by-step guide.

Who is your target audience?

The first thing you need to do is get very clear about exactly who you are trying to reach with your content. Do you have only one audience, or several audience segments? Whoever your ideal customers are, you must understand how to reach them and design your content accordingly. Once you completely understand your audience, you can choose the appropriate channels to reach them, as well as planning the content itself.

Define your main goal

What do you want your content marketing to do? Is your main objective simply to raise awareness of your business, do you want to build your list of potential leads, or are you more interested in converting the leads you already have? Although you will be tempted to try and develop content that serves multiple purposes, it is important that you narrow your focus.

Brainstorm ideas

Once you fully understand your audience and know exactly what you want to achieve with your content, you can start getting creative. Bring your team together and start throwing around ideas about topics, channels and tactics. At this stage, there should be no limit to the possibilities. All ideas should be considered. Once everyone has raised their suggestions, look at everything with your audience and objectives in mind.

Choose your content management system

It is very important that you choose an effective and easy-to-use content management system (CMS) to execute your strategy. CMSs enable you to handle creation, publication, analytics and more. There are many CMS options available, so choose the one that best suits your purposes and budget.

Publish, manage and maintain your content

Finally, it is time to take your content, put it out there and monitor the response. Draw up an editorial calendar to help you publish carefully planned, well-managed, balanced and diverse content. You should also create a social media content calendar to complement your main content.  

WSI New Media Marketing is a full-service digital marketing company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for expert help with your digital marketing campaigns, including developing an effective content marketing strategy and more.