Now that you know the content marketing types there are to choose from, it’s best that you don’t just jump straight in without a solid plan.

Having a plan in mind while carrying out your content marketing objectives will ensure that you don’t start firing off into the dark.

You want to make sure that your efforts are utilized well, right?

In this article, you will learn all about how to make your bulletproof content marketing strategy.

Why Do You Need To Create A Content Marketing Strategy?

Having a content marketing strategy helps you as a business owner plan and prepare for the number of consistent leads you will generate through the content you produce.

You will have a better idea of how much revenue you can expect to generate and the actions needed to make that happen.

Going into content marketing blind leads to missed opportunities and a likelihood of underutilized efforts. 

You don’t want to look back at everything you did and think to yourself about how much time you wasted because you didn’t think it through.

Your strategy makes it easy to prioritize your marketing efforts, allowing you to focus on the most critical part, execution.

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8 Steps To Create Your Content Marketing Strategy

The process of making a great content marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a hair-pulling experience.

Follow these eight simple steps, and you will be off to a great start and calmer knowing where you are going.

1. Audit What You Are Doing Already

Go through everything that you are already doing.

Look at your social media efforts, blog posts, videos, website pages, and anything else you have been doing up to this point in an attempt to generate traffic.

Take inventory of what is currently working for you and what is bringing in customers.

Note down what specific channels are working best for you already.

Start by asking questions that help you better understand what is currently working for you:

Is a majority of your traffic coming from organic search?

Do you get many referrals from Facebook? 

Are a lot of people coming from your videos on youtube?

Do you have a massive email list with reasonable open rates?

Run through your entire list of preferred mediums until you know where everyone is coming from.

With that information in mind, the next thing you need to understand is what type of content is working well for you already.

Use these questions as a guideline: 

What kind of content attracts your viewers? 

Do a lot of people enjoy your how-to content? 

Is your audience reacting well to the lists you make? 

Are people interacting well with your checklist pdfs?

Jot down anything significant about what you are currently doing.

Then start thinking to yourself, based on what you discovered about your current content marketing results, what could you do more to boost your results you are currently getting.

Let the questions guide your way to the answer.

2. Lay Out Your Goal 

What results are you looking to achieve in the next year with your business?

It’s great to be a dreamer, but it’s wise to throw some realistic expectations into the mix if you want to achieve your goals. 

If your current website traffic is 0 and you write down that your goal is to hit 1 million page views per month within one year, there is a great chance that will not happen unless you have some serious cash for paid advertising and shoutouts.

Especially without a proper plan on how to get there.

Make your goals as clear and realistic as possible in the beginning. As you execute your plan and work towards your goals, you can always do more if possible. 

Stick to the S.M.A.R.T. goal outline:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Relevant

T – Time-bound

Run everything you write down as a goal past the acronym and see if it lines up within those parameters. 

Example of wrong S.M.A.R.T. goal:

• I want to grow traffic and make more money

Example of good S.M.A.R.T. goal:

• I will grow my website traffic from 800 to 1000 unique visitors per day by creating three new blog posts per week based on digital marketing. I will achieve this goal by 07/21/2021.

3. Figure Out Your KPI’s

After you have figured out precisely what you want, you need to figure out what metrics to watch to know you are on the right path.

KPI’s (key performance indicators) are your fundamental growth trackers. You will be paying attention to these metrics in the analytical phase to determine that your execution is lined with where you want to go.

These metrics fall under a few different categories: User behavior metrics, Engagement metrics, SEO Outcome Metrics, and Company Revenue.

The key performance indicators that you can watch out for in each category are:

User Behavior Metrics

• Pageviews
• Unique visitors
• New and returning customers
• Average time on page
• Bounce rate
• Traffic sources
• Pages per session

Engagement Metrics

• Likes and shares
• Comments
• Mentions
• Re-posts 
• Incoming requests

SEO Outcome Metrics

• Organic traffic
• Dwell time
• Backlinks
• Keywords

Company Revenue

• Number of leads
• Existing leads touched
• Conversion rate
• Return on investment

Choosing what metrics are important to you depends on what you are trying to achieve through your goals. Success is defined as something different for everyone, so figure out what matters the most to you. 

4. Understand Who Your Audience Is

Your audience is critical when it comes to succeeding in your content marketing endeavors. Without having someone to enjoy your content, what’s the point?

But to start thinking about where your audience hangs out, it’s crucial to be clear WHO your audience is.

To figure this out, here are some questions you need to answer:

• What do they think, and what do they feel?
• What is the really important stuff to them?
• What do they worry about the most?
• What do they say, and what do they do?
• How do they act towards others?
• How do they dress?
• What is their attitude in public?
• What do they listen to?
• What are their friends saying?
• What are the people that matter most to them saying?
• Who are the people they care to listen to?
• What do they look at?
• What does their environment look like?
• Who are their friends?
• What are their influences?
• What discourages them?
• What is their main obstacle?
• What do they fear the most?
• What frustrates them?
• What encourages them?
• What are their desires?
• What are their needs?
• How do they define success?
• What do they enjoy?
• What are they striving to achieve?

If you take the time to answer these questions truthfully, you will have a clear understanding of whom your content is meant to help.

Whether you are creating a blog post or post for your Facebook page, you will have a more targeted approach in the information you give.

Plus, your readers will enjoy your work more because it is easier to resonate with a brand that gets you. 

5. Figure Out What Your Audience Wants To Hear

Now that you know whom you are talking to, you need to dig a little deeper to see what that segment of people wants to see.

Look around to see what competitors are doing in your industry and what people are responding well to.

Cross-check with a few different competitors and list out what content types that get people excited.

Look at the social media platforms they gather on frequently.

What kind of questions do they ask?

Go to platforms like Reddit and Facebook and find the groups your customers are in. 

Browse your industry’s blogs by googling “(your industry) blog” and see what gets shared the most and gets the most comments.

Go through as much information as you need until you feel confident in the information you have gathered.

By the end of this investigation, you should have a pretty good idea of the types of content you should be adding to your lineup.

6. Plan Out The Content You Will Make And The Types

There are many options to choose from when it comes to types of content. But based on your research, you should probably have a decent idea of what you are planning to implement.

Check out our breakdown of all of the different types of content marketing if you are still unsure.

Otherwise, it is time to sit down and get specific with what and when you will be creating.

Consistency is essential with anything but especially with content marketing.

If you have a team, then distribute content creation responsibilities and give achievable deadlines and guarantee everyone reaches their goals.

Not everyone has a full shop of content creators waiting idly by, however.

When you are running a one-person crew, you need to bite off what you can chew. Do what you know you can do, and make sure you lay out what you plan to do and when you will have it done by.

I promise it will get easier over time if you stick with it! 

7. Plan How Your Customers Will See Your Content (Distribution)

Staying organized helps you keep track of when and what goes out.

With so many ideas floating around in your head and all of the things that you need to keep track of as a business owner, trying to remember off the top of your head will not work for long.

Treat yourself right and keep your scheduling somewhere that you can easily access and move things around.

You don’t need anything fancy at this point, and google calendars will work just fine. 

Or, if you wanted to spice it up, Trello is a cool alternative you can consider. They have a free version if you wanted to give it a go.

Take the time to plan your content strategy out as far in advance as you can manage.

Create at least two weeks’ worth of content ideas and give yourself deadlines to stick to.

Choose a time interval that works best for you. If two weeks is too much for you, then start with one. 

8. Analyze Content Performance

Regularly check in on your content performance by reviewing the key performance indicators you chose to follow earlier on in this process.

They will be your guiding light towards whether you are nailing your performance goals and heading in the right direction.

Tools such as google analytics and google search console will help you monitor your website content performance and any other KPI you wish to better understand for your site. 

For social media performance, most platforms have built-in analytics for you to track directly through your admin side of things. 

You don’t have to be obsessed with checking every day’s performance all day, but it’s nice to see you are making progress every week.

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