Hi everyone.
I'm Simone Cunningham.
Welcome back to my channel where I share marketing
insights to help entrepreneurs business owners and content
creators grow their businesses.
This video will shed some light on the ins and outs of how to
create a Content marketing strategy and explain the 11
simple steps.
You need to take to develop one for your business.
It's really important that you don't approach content
marketing with a hit or miss attitude.
It's not the time to be spontaneous,
there's really many reasons for this.
But the main one is that you won't get the results.
You were hoping for or need. At the end of this video.
I'll give away my content marketing plan template.
This will be a huge help to you.
I'll walk you through all the steps that you need to create
your plan and get you organized for the year ahead.
Sound good great, then keep watching.
Let's get into it.
Remember if you like what I share today.
Please give this video a like and subscribe
So YouTube will show this video to more people. Also hit the
Bell button to be notified when I post a new video and be
sure to leave a thoughtful comment below.
I'd really love to hear from you.
Okay.
So here we go.
I want to start by pointing out that 75 percent of businesses
have a content marketing strategy and there's a very
good reason for that. Compared to paid search or
advertising, content marketing drives three times as much
business per dollar spent.
That's right, three times more business. But to succeed in
content marketing.
you need to have a solid strategy.
I won't lie pulling together your strategy should take you
a few hours or longer if you do more research, but it's
well worth it.
Your content will be more focused and you'll feel in
control of your marketing.
So you can
breathe.
Remember if you fail to plan you are planning to fail.
Before I talk you through the 11 simple steps to creating a
content marketing strategy
I want to quickly explain the difference between content
marketing strategy and content strategy because people often
use the words interchangeably, but really they're not the same
thing.
Content marketing strategy focuses on the narrow subject
of marketing content.
It looks at what content you are creating why you're
creating the content who you are helping
and the specific strategy to get all your content out there.
For example me making this video for YouTube is part of
my content marketing strategy.
However, content strategy is the big picture.
It looks at content across the entire business.
It's a framework
for all content that's created and published for example
videos as a format are part of my content strategy.
Now, let's get into creating that content marketing strategy.
Here we go in 11 simple steps. Step number 1 identify your
top audiences.
You need to gather demographics on your email subscribers
visitors and social media followers look for their age
education gender income and key
interests. Google Analytics can help you with this as can
social media sites, check out your audience data.
You will need to identify your audience's needs get
information on your customers challenges pain points
motivational factors
and other sources of information. Seek out
information in Facebook groups, check out your social media
comments, or hold a webinar so you can get to know your
audience better.
Step number 2 define your
content marketing goals. It varies from business to
business but typical goals include getting high quality
leads and increase sales, more website traffic, brand
awareness, improving SEO, social media engagement to
gain authority and traffic, reducing the costs of
marketing over time, gaining influence as a thought leader
and increasing revenue as a result of your content
marketing strategy.
That's a lot
I know.
My tip is to categorize them into medium and long-term
goals and then order them from high medium and low priorities
Step number 3 established the KPIs or key performance
indicators.
You need to make them measurable and specific to
your content marketing strategy.
Your KPIs should include what you intend to accomplish in
terms of sales, revenue, traffic, SEO, social media and
email marketing metrics.
For instance you might want to get more sign ups for your
lead magnet which translates into high-quality leads,
secure a certain number of comments shares mentions and
likes for your pillar content, achieve a specific revenue
target for the month or year increase the number of new
email subscribers,
grow your site traffic and social media engagement or be
invited to participate in key industry events.
You'll also need to keep an eye on your marketing spend and
trust me it can get out of hand very quickly.
You'll need to monitor all your spending on all your campaigns
paying close attention to the cost of obtaining leads and
driving sales.
If a campaigns not working and you're on a budget don't be
afraid to shut it down after two weeks
tweak it, change the call to action and targeting and make
it live again.
Step number 4 decide on the content types to create.
This is where it starts to get fun at least for me, there are
so many options to choose from take a quick look at this
infographic.
But really my tip is to just focus on what you're good at
or what you love. Blog posts are critical when it comes to
content marketing.
Ideally your blog post should be valuable, actionable,
shareable and long more than 1500 words.
Video marketing is equally as important.
It generates leads engages your audience,
and keeps them on your site longer. Also get into the
habit of creating infographics.
It's so easy these days with tools like Piktochart and my
favorite Canva.
I love love love Canva and no I'm not being paid to say this.
I just literally use it for all my graphic creation.
Even this.
I won't go through all the content types now, we'll be
here all day.
The complete list will be in my content marketing plan template,
which you can download later in the video.
Step number 5 select the best content channels.
Okay.
This is tricky when you're first starting because you
won't know where your audience hangs out.
But as you grow your online presence and collect more
audience data
This will be easier.
As you make progress in your content marketing you'll start
to get a sense of where your audience mostly hangs out and
where you have an opportunity to grow your online presence.
Test your content on the most relevant
platforms for your business such as Facebook LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube Instagram Pinterest TicTok and Snapchat. Pick the
ones that fit your demographic. Step number 6 develop your
workflow.
I personally love a Trello board or ten.
I probably spend far too much time planning, but that works
for me.
To get your content marketing on and implement your content
marketing strategy.
You'll need to start planning.
You'll need a clear picture of who's producing which content
and the content workflow. Depending on the size of your
team
You can determine whether you'll outsource your content
production or do everything inhouse.
In case you need to outsource content marketing services
My business eWord's agency can help you with this. Step
number 7
put it in a content marketing plan and use it. Now it's time
to write down what you've just outlined. You could document
this content
marketing plan in a Google doc, Google sheet, Word doc or
Trello board.
Just make sure that you bookmark it to your desktop or
print it out so that you can refer to it weekly or as often
as you need to. Keep it at the top of your mind so that you
can look at it when creating your content. Step number 8
create a content calendar.
The main reason why people fail at content marketing is they
fail to plan. Check out my video here if you want to
learn more. Your content marketing strategy should
include knowing exactly when you'll be creating and
publishing content. A content calendar is the place where
you plan your content
for the weeks and months ahead.
You can have several content calendars on the go
One for planning the content formats and topics, one for
publishing the content and a separate calendar for social
media content management. Download my free content
calendar template to save you time and help you post
consistently.
There are many tools out there for task management and
productivity.
You can try CoSchedule Monday and my favorites are Asana and
Trello. Step number 9 create and publish the content. By now
you must be ready to write?
So now I want you to find out what's been written already
about your topics and how the content you create will add
value for your target audience.
Make sure to include keyword research for better SEO and
search ranking.
Also really important to create the content in a way that
reflects your brand's personality.
We're nearly there. Step number 10 promote and market the
content. So you've created this amazing content, but
you're not done yet.
You need to plan its distribution and marketing or
no one will see it and what a waste that would be after all
your hard work.
You need to set a schedule for sharing your content on social
media.
And use email marketing to distribute the content to your
subscribers
and also inform and influencers mentioned in your content to
spread the word further.
For your content to get traction
You need to include paid media in your promotion strategy.
Focus on where your audience spends most of their time or
which channel you want to grow first.
Don't try to be everywhere at once unless you have a sizable
budget.
Also consider where you can generate the most leads. Now
the last step number 11 measure your content marketing
results.
This is where you see all your hard work pay off over time.
I've said in my other videos that content marketing is all
about the long game and it really is.
In this last step.
You'll have to check on the KPIs you set at the beginning
of your content marketing strategy plan.
You can view your WordPress dashboard to see your
website's traffic or use tools like SEMRush to help you assess
your content search rank.
You can also track your email signups using the email
marketing software analytics.
Remember your content marketing strategy is a work in progress.
You need to keep updating it throughout the year as your
content and your business involves.
That's it.
Now, it's your turn go forth and create your content
marketing strategy, but first as promised here is the link
to download my content marketing plan.
I know this will be a huge help to you
fill it out.
And if you have any questions comment below or shoot me an
email.
I'd also love to know what's your favourite type of content
to create? Pop your answer below.
I'd really love to get to know my subscribers more.
while you wait for next week's video take a look at these two
videos I have here as well. 6 reasons why content marketing
fails and 7 content creation hacks for social media.
They'll give you some extra tips
While you are writing your content marketing strategy.
Well team.
I'm excited for you.
You're going to be organized and pushing out some great
content this year. If you like what I'm sharing.
I'd love to have your support.
Please remember to subscribe and hit the like button.
Thank you for watching as always.
I appreciate you.
I hope you have a great day and a great week.
I'll see you in the next one.
Bye for now.