Do you feel anxious about the idea of creating a content marketing plan? A content marketing strategy template can make it easier.
A template can help you navigate your way through the process. You might not know where to begin if you don’t use a template.
Here are some quick tips:
You can quickly put your content marketing strategy into practice by using a template.
What is a Content Marketing Strategy?
The content marketing strategy is the guideline for how you will use content to achieve business goals. It defines the guidelines for what you will do, how and where.
It is not a content strategy. The execution of the strategy is what content planning is.
It is also a living document, which will evolve and change as your products and customers do.
The majority of content marketers shifted in 2020 to make changes to their content strategy. 94% of respondents made changes according to the CMI (Content Marketing Institute B2B Content Marketing Report).
Image by CMI
Some companies may be still “playing it by ear” when it comes content. Only 43% of organizations have a documented strategy.
Image by CMI
This may seem alarmingly low, especially when you consider that 70% of companies invest in content marketing.
To drive business results (leads and sales), it is worth making an investment in consistently publishing content that your target audience enjoys. Without a strategy, it is difficult to sustain.
Why you need a content marketing strategy
It will help you stay organized and consistent, as we have already mentioned. But it’s not just about logistics. Content marketing can help you build thought leadership and trust. A strategy is essential if you want it deliver.
Your website’s content is key to attracting your target audience. B2B buyers now make different purchasing decisions. B2B buyers typically consume 13 pieces of content before they make a purchase decision.
13 of those will be from the company. It is most commonly found on the website, via search and social media.
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A strategy is essential for your company because it cannot afford to lose the content that will help you get found. Without this foundation, you won’t be able to know crucial things such as:
What motivates your buyer?What topic areas should you create content about?How will you distribute it?How will you optimize content for search engines?What are the goals of measuring content performance relative to those goals?
These things are not part of a strategy. You’re going to be reactive and not proactive without them. The darts won’t land in the bullseye, even though you’ll be throwing them.
A Strategy is a Benefit
Will it be worth the effort to create a strategy? What benefits can you expect from a strategy?
It will be easier for content marketing ROI to be tracked: Your strategy will define how and what you will measure performance to monitor it continuously. Knowing who you are targeting will make your content more appealing and build trust. Content can be placed in many buckets, including blogs, websites, emails, long-form, web pages, and social media. A strategy will allow you to see how each piece fits together. You’ll get more organic traffic by having a strategy. You will see an increase in organic traffic and rankings if you use the right keywords. Also, your strategy will include SEO. You’ll get more leads by having a strategy. Content’s primary purpose is to generate leads. It can do this in many ways, including blogs and gated content. Companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per year than companies without them. Your brand will be recognized as an expert. Content that has a thought leadership angle doesn’t just focus on selling. It’s all about education. Your audience will see you as trustworthy and credible if you do this more often with your content.
How to create a content marketing strategy
How do you create a content marketing strategy for your business? This is not an easy task. It is not something that one person can do. Everyone should be involved in some capacity.
Before we dive into the details, take a look at this video by SEMrush.
Let’s now go over the steps and exercises.
Step 1: Define what content marketing means for your organization
Content marketing refers to the continuous publishing of relevant content that leads to business results. This is the general definition. But what does this mean for you company?
This introduction to your strategy will help you formulate the goals for producing content. These goals could include:
Generating more qualified leadsBoosting credibility and trustworthinessImproving brand equity and awarenessRanking better on GoogleSupporting sales team effortsDriving more traffic to your websiteBuilding a community
This section will also help you to identify the tactics that you will use to achieve your goals: consistent content production, better gated content, optimization content to rank well and nurturing leads.
You must also make the connection between revenue and content. This is for those stakeholders who aren’t content marketers but make budget decisions.
If they don’t see the connection, they will continue to view you as a cost center and not a revenue source.
This means that you need to monitor backend efforts. It is possible to attribute traffic and conversions to search engines, which can be used to prove that optimized content brings new customers.
Step 2: Decide your Content Types and Pillars
The main categories that all ideas are derived from are called content pillars. They help keep content creators on track. When you’ve created your content calendar, tag each piece with the pillar to help you audit for any gaps.
It is also important to record the content that you create. Content marketing is not just about blogging. This is a critical aspect.
There will also be long-form content, case studies and infographics. Video, social media posts, webinars are all available.
Step 3: Create Your Buyer Personas
Your strategy is based on your buyer personas. They are the ones creating content, so it is important to get to know them. This extends beyond titles and demographics.
It is also important to identify their pain points, assumptions and challenges.
The creation of buyer personas should be a collaborative effort that includes content marketers, product managers, and other SMEs.
To refresh buyer personas, it is important to revisit them at least once a year. It’s a good idea to revisit your buyer personas if there are any major changes in your industry, or company.
Step 4: Create your Content Calendar and Workflows
This section will help you identify the content calendar’s design and location. These content calendar templates are a great resource.
A content calendar is a living document which provides visibility across all projects. This is where you will find your workflows. It takes many tasks to get a piece of content from conception to publication to amplification.
Step 5: Create a voice and tone
Tone documents and brand voice create guidelines for content, attributes and product language.
At least three attributes should be part of your brand voice. One could be conversational. You can then describe it as: It’s not formal; you can use slang; it’s benefit driven, not feature-focused.
Then you can list some must-haves and exceptions. As you can see, a conversational voice is not able to use complicated words but is friendly and personable.
Next, define parameters:
Structure, syntax, and readability. Word choice: What do you call your buyers?
Step 6: Develop Your SEO Strategy
SEO is essential to content marketing. But, Google first, people second!
Address:
Keywords to track and target The audit will likely be included. Ahrefs has a video on how to do it. )Backlinking opportunities (guest posting, outreach, editorials, etc. Site health and issues that impact it (e.g. broken links, mixed content issues).
It’s a smart idea to use a platform for tracking your SEO efforts. It will give you insights and help you to identify issues quickly. It is important to track your rank.
You should understand why you have lost ranking. Next, take steps to rectify the situation.
Step 7: Outline Your Distribution Strategy
Now you have content. Now, you must send it out to the world.
You’ll find several buckets in distribution.
Social media: Define your profiles, what you will post, how frequently you’ll publish, and how revenue is tied to social media. Email marketing: What type of emails will be sent to distribute content? Newsletters? Offers of long-form content? Nurture campaigns?Amplification tools: There are many options for amplifying your content, including services like Boca, Converge, GaggleAMP, and Outbrain. These are available if you have the resources and budget. Paid sponsorship opportunities can be found with respected industry publications. Organic means working with a partner in order to create mutually-beneficial content.
This is a template that we use to calculate the ROI for various distribution options (paid or organic).
Step 8: Show how content marketing supports traditional marketing
Content marketing can be used to complement traditional marketing such as PR, trade shows, product launches, and PR.
This section will explain how content can help in these areas. You can, for example, create blogs pre-event about a tradeshow, promote a piece of content to registrants and then deliver the content post-show.
Step 9: Determine the important metrics
How do you measure content marketing ROI? How can you determine if your content marketing goals are being met? These are the most important content analytics:
Traffic to websiteTop PagesPageviews: Blog pageviews are the most importantSource referrals for the website: organic search, social media, third-party sitesBounce ratesSocial media engagement(likes, shares and comments, clicks), SEO position rankings, visibility and site healthConversions through content marketing effortsEmail open and clicks
Here is the content marketing dashboard template that we use:
Choose a content marketing template
After we have explained the steps involved in developing one, it is time to make it work for everyone.
It is not possible for everyone to view or use it to be an expert in content market. When reviewing these content marketing templates, be aware of this.
This is a completely free content marketing worksheet (googlesheet) that I give away to clients and share with them in our content strategy workshops.
DivvyHQ
DivvyHQ is our tool of choice. They have a 30-day content strategy template. This template provides lots of guidance and direction on how to create a strategy that will help you achieve your business goals. Although it has 10 steps, it is not overwhelming.
Backlinko
Backlinko provides a content marketing template available in three formats. Although it isn’t as detailed as the others, it’s a great starter template.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule provides a stronger template and instructions for how to use it. You can download it by completing the form.
ContentCal
ContentCal claims its template is flexible. That’s a good thing. The template’s use is also explained. You can even see their strategy to inspire you.
HubSpot
HubSpot offers a content strategy book that you can download. It is very detailed, particularly in regards to types of content and the ideation processes.
You might find it helpful to use parts of each template to create your own. This will allow you to address the specific components of your company.
Template for Content Marketing Strategy in Action
It’s a great way to start your content marketing efforts by going through these steps and organizing the template. You’ll have to actually put it into practice. Implementation can be difficult.
We can help you with that. As your content creators, we can help you create the strategy and implement it.
Our Content Builder Service can help you get more visitors to your website by publishing quality content consistently.
Contact me to set up a consultation and I will send you a PDF copy of my books. Get started today to generate more leads and traffic for your business.
Marketing Insider Group published The Ultimate Content Marketing Strategy Template.
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By: Michael Brenner
Title: The Ultimate Content Marketing Strategy Template
Sourced From: marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/the-ultimate-content-marketing-strategy-template/
Published Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2022 16:00:13 +0000
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