Haven’t you heard of the phrase “Content is King”?
Yes, you did!
Whether you are new to the digital marketing field or an expert in this niche, you must have realised content marketing as the soul of all spheres. Content marketing, if executed perfectly, can economise your expenses and maximise your profits.
Standing by the 2020 numbers…
It may so happen that you strictly abide by a long-implemented and successful strategy. However, revising your content marketing plan for a better effect will do no harm to the workflow.
Content marketing can spearhead your battle against the competitors. In case, you are unable to chalk out a “full-proof” plan to beat this competitive market, this write-up might be of much help.
Diving into…
In layman’s terms, content strategy is the management of media in pretty much every form you can name, such as – visual, written, audios, downloadable, etc.
In much simpler words, content strategy helps in indicating who you are or what your business specialise in and what expertise you contribute to the industry.
Inevitably, if you have been accustomed to this industry for quite some time, by now you must have understood the importance of content creation in the growth of the business. Chalking out a content marketing strategy can be pretty easy, keeping some key points in mind, like –
Content marketing helps organisations to plan the sources of engaging traffic and securing prospective leads. Say, you post a blog on your website. Well composed ones can drive traffic enough to generate revenues that would be considerable to experiment other tactics of marketing that would help in increasing the revenue further. Other marketing tactics may include social media advertising, sponsored and distributed content. Moreover, such content will also help in raising awareness regarding your brand.
Now that you know what content strategy is and why you have the pressing need for it, let’s understand how you would map your strategy.
Before you decide to jump on content marketing, ask yourself these questions –
Once you have the answers to your question, and know your aim, chalking out your content marketing strategy will be far more convenient. Besides, if you shake hands with a digital marketing agency for your content promotion, you will be required to share your goal to help them understand your requisites better and strategize your marketing accordingly.
Developing a successful strategy can get pretty easy if you know the buyer’s persona or the target audience.
It has proven to be highly beneficial for those who are new to business and marketing and desires to expand their business in no time. Being aware of the target audience will help in making your product relatable to your customers and increase the chances of sales.
Any kind of marketing without proper audit is like bread without jam or butter – useless!
For example, you post blogs on your company’s channel – 2 per week. You do not audit your performance and hence you are unaware of how your blogs are doing.
Now imagine, you are working day-in-day-out to produce a top-notch quality blog but with no results. Isn’t it demotivating?
Plus, if you have hired the top content writing agency to manage your content, you will be just paying handsome bucks without any return.
Are you ready for such losses?
Therefore, it is advisable that you audit your content to get a hold of your performance. Knowing your performance will also help you experiment with other tools of content marketing.
Managing your content is the most crucial part of your marketing. Just framing content and publishing the same will not serve the purpose. You need to know where to publish, when to publish and how to publish.
As assistance you can always hire a content marketing agency to do the job on your behalf. Such agencies will also help you analyse your content, forecast its reach and monitor its performance.
After choosing a content management system, it’s your time to come up with new ideas! Before commencing with your first project, you can consider some of the tools to start with:
Keeping track of the trending topics has never been so easy. With this RSS feed generator, you can have access to all popular trends at your fingertip.
While brainstorming with your project, you might require to take care of a few aspects. Be it analysing the strength of a particular keyword, choice of headlines, titles or performing a grammar check – this analytical tool does it all!
Once you have the “starting” line figured out, it’s time to bring out new ideas. Tools like Blog Ideas Generator from HubSpot can help you with choosing a trending topic or a generic one based on the project you have in mind.
Apart from these tools, you can also consider looking into BlogAbout and BuzzSumo to help you out with your project. While the former more or less operates as Blog Ideas Generator, the latter helps you to analyse if a content piece has the ingredients to create an impact in the web.
Lastly, there’s the need to determine the strength of your blog post and website as well. Website Grader from HubSpot can help you optimize the weak areas from drawing a detailed analysis report.
Determining your go-to content type can be a rough sea. Based on the nature of the project you are about to deliver, your content type differs too! Some of the prominent ways to showcase your content are listed below:
The most popular type, Blog posts are possibly the most common way to drive new traffic towards your website. This content marketing technique has been here for decades; relying on informing the audience on a particular subject.
Rather than “preaching” visitors who land on your page, an idea is presented before them in a conversational manner. This makes your content appealing and increases readability among your viewers.
A somewhat ‘distant cousin’ – eBooks (or, e-brochures) serve as a detailed information hub for visitors. Offering a free eBook to download in exchange for their email Ids open you to a door of new possibilities. You can further inform them with newsletters via email marketing.
A picture speaks a thousand words! – Infographics takes this saying way too seriously! Instead of bombarding your audience with detailed reports or case studies, you can “visualise” your content in a more compelling format.
It is not only visually appealing, but also effective. Easier to go-through as most content is depicted in a pictorial way, Infographics are engaging the mass more than ever!
Not quite far off relative, templates, and help you to generate leads by providing your audience with “compact” tools to stay engaged with your content.
If a picture says a thousand words, a well-knit video has 30 to 40 times more impact over your users!
Unlike the written or pictorial content format, a video is extremely engaging if made in the right way. Although this marketing technique is time consuming, its increasing popularity makes it a worthwhile investment.
Approach a video marketing agency TODAY!
You can also consider investing your efforts into making podcasts. It is quick, effective and handy. In this fast paced world, your target audiences might not have the luxury to invest too much time on your content. Podcasts eliminate that possibility and bring in a more user-friendly way to “know on the go!”
Start with podcasts, you won’t regret it.
Undoubtedly, a power-packed platform to “viral” the content in a good way!
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are among the marquee players in this segment. LinkedIn, tumblr, Snapchat also do not trail behind.
To catapult your brand in the global arena and amplify your presence to reach the target audience – social media plays a crucial role. That is where most visitors are, and you can turn them into potential customers! To do that, you’d require a strong social media presence.
So, start off from scratch, post engaging topics, and connect with your “tribe” to grow your online presence. Seal the deal with a leading digital marketing agency that can help you grow your business.
Also, seek feedback as they help you to right the wrong thus, making your brand bigger and BETTER.
In the final stages of content marketing, you need to take the extra mile. Just posting your content or making it live isn’t enough! Make use of the editorial calendar and social media content calendar to manage and promote your content.
While publishing a content, make sure it’s still relevant at the time of posting. That being said, timely topics play a pivotal role in generating traffic. You can also tap the potential of popular holidays into the favour of your marketing portfolio. To appeal to a wide audience, make sure you’re strategically posting your content.
Plan in advance and execute with swift moves!
Remember: It takes creativity, time, effort and A LOT of patience to become successful in a content marketing game. The road to solidifying your content marketing plan is long and tedious. But, the fruit it bears at the end of the journey is WORTH all the pain.
Albeit, if you think it that way!