How To Create A Content Marketing Strategy: Part 2

In our last edition of the Mobile Marketing blog, we discussed what a content marketing strategy is before outlining the first three steps for creating your content marketing strategy. If you haven’t taken the time to read part one, then we invite you to do so now.

In part two of our content marketing strategy series, we’ll detail the remaining steps you should take to create an effective content marketing strategy for your client or business.

Whether creating your first-ever content marketing strategy or working to refine one you have completed, this series of blog posts can help!

Before we get into the final three steps, let’s review what was covered in part one. 

What is a content marketing strategy?

A content marketing strategy is a document that outlines how you plan to attract and engage with an audience via your content marketing. Per Hubspot, a content strategy can involve content planning, creation, publication, management, and governance.  

Why is it important to have a content marketing strategy?

A content marketing strategy is a roadmap for future content marketing efforts. Effective content marketing will take time and resources; a content marketing strategy can help ensure the effort is worthwhile. Content creation is an investment, and creating a marketing strategy will enable a company to gauge the success of its content while assessing the return on investment. 

How do I create a content marketing strategy?

Steps 1-3 are covered in more detail in our previous post. 

1) Establish content goals

Depending on your company and its overall needs, your goals, and objectives may be broader or more specific. However, the more specific and numerically driven, the easier it is to assess success. 

Specific goals can include:

• Increasing website traffic.
• Ranking better from an SEO perspective.
• Generating more leads.
• Establishing yourself as a thought leader.

2) Complete audience research

To write compelling content for your audience, you need to know who your audience is. Completing persona research and establishing your target audience can enable you to write more effective and tailored content that reaches your ideal buyer.

When you analyze your existing data, you can learn a lot about your existing customers which will, in turn, help you decide who and what your audience is and how to prepare content that will appeal to them. This information can tell you who your current audience is while helping you establish gaps in your current audience marketing efforts.  

3) Do competitor research

The third step in a content marketing strategy is to complete competitor research. Looking at the content work your direct competitors are doing can help you decipher what is and isn’t working for them while helping you to decide what gaps you might have in your existing content. 

You should note what types of content they create (blogs, white pages, social media, infographics, videos, etc.) while also considering the keywords they focus on for your future SEO work.

4) Complete an audit of your current content

When creating a content marketing strategy, completing an audit of your existing content is a necessary step with many benefits. By looking back at content published in the past, you can assess what types of content have and have not performed well by way of whatever standardized metrics you have in place.

As you browse your existing library, take note of the styles, outlets, topics, and mediums where your content was most successful. Doing so will aid you in creating your content marketing strategy, as it can guide what your audience does and does not like. When you come across content that did not perform well or was not well received, think of it not as a failure but as a learning opportunity. Ask yourself why this content didn’t connect with your audience and then look to grow from it in the future. 

A content audit can also help you to establish any gaps that previously existed in your content strategy/content creation process. Make a list of topics covered, keywords used, page titles, and so on, and use it to assess focus areas for future content creation. 

When auditing your content, you can also look for opportunities to repurpose existing content. Consider taking existing topics well received by your audience and building them out/repurposing them in new and exciting ways.

For example, your 500-word blog on SEO best practices performed well. Why not turn that blog into a YouTube video or audio clip for your audience? Good content can always be adapted, recycled, and repurposed. 

5) Create your content strategy

Now comes the fun part! With your content goals established, your audience research completed, your competitive analysis, and your internal content audit finished, it’s time to assemble your content marketing strategy. 

A content marketing strategy should include the following: 

• A topic or subject matter
• The platform it will be published on
• Who will be working on it
• What the deadline will be
• What, if any, specific goals or objectives come with this piece?

Here’s an example: 

• Topic: How To Create A Marketing Strategy
• Platform: WordPress Blog
• Writer: Adam
• Deadline: 8/31/23
• Goals: Build out blog presence and increase SEO ranking for the keyword “create a marketing strategy.”

It’s that simple! It might help at this point in the process to create a content calendar as well. A content calendar is just an outline of content pieces, where they will go, and the date they will be published. Some businesses will have a blog calendar, a social media calendar, etc. You may break these out by platform or medium or include all of your content in one specific calendar. A calendar can help you stay organized and hit your content creation deadlines. 

6) Research and write the content

At long last, after hours of research and planning, it’s finally time actually to write the content. But don’t worry; if you completed steps 1-5, you should be well prepared. Content creation takes time, research, patience, and care. If you’re part of a small marketing team, then be realistic about the work you can complete in a given window. If your marketing team is more sizeable, spread the work around evenly to avoid burnout. 

When you’ve finished your research, writing, and editing, it’s time to publish or schedule your content for publication. 

7) Track, Measure, And Adapt

It takes time to assess the success or popularity of a single piece of content. So be patient!

Using the goals you established in Step One, you should start to be able to track, measure, and analyze your work after a month or so. It is best to monitor trends quarterly to get a snapshot of what content pieces connect and which are not. It cannot be stressed enough to observe patterns and trends in content takes time. Just because a piece of content didn’t find an audience right away, that doesn’t mean that it never will. 

As the months pass and you assess your work, you can refine and adjust your strategy based on what has been successful and what has not. 

Congratulations, you’ve done it. You’ve created a content marketing strategy!

Mobile Marketing Knows Content Marketing

Mobile Marketing has consistently delivered fantastic customer experiences and driving results for the past eight years. We offer everything from review management to complete website builds, content strategy, and more! We’re a future-focused marketing agency with an eye toward the cutting edge, and we’re here to help create memorable digital experiences that bring your business to the next level.

Will your company be next? Let us provide you with a comprehensive content marketing strategy and provide you with a dedicated content marketer to complete the job.

Interested in learning more about who we are and what we stand for? We offer free digital assessments for prospective customers to help indicate future areas of improvement.