A new financial year is upon us - yikes! I don't know if this is true for anyone else but it seems to have crept up on me this year and I haven't got ahead on any planning for the next 12 months AT ALL.
To motivate myself a bit and maybe help anyone else out there who's having a bit of a panic, I wanted to share a few ideas to help with content marketing planning, even if you're completely unprepared.
Content marketing is more important than ever for small businesses. Creating regular ongoing content and promoting it is one of the best things you can do to generate leads, raise your profile and grow your business but like most things that are worth doing, good content marketing takes time.
The time consuming nature of content marketing is one of the reasons why we often put off doing it. When you have a to do list a mile long the last thing you need is to spend hours writing time consuming blog posts, marketing emails and building a social media profile.
If you have decided its time to bite the bullet and get going with your content marketing, you may feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start. Getting a strategy together is the first step in implementing a successful content marketing campaign. Here are a few pointers to help you get started creating a basic content marketing strategy from the ground up.
1. Determine your objectives
What do you want your content marketing to achieve? Starting with the end goal in sight can help you create a rock solid strategy and avoid wasting time on producing or distributing content that isn’t aligned with your business goals.
2. Work out your core message
What are your brand values and how do you want your audience to perceive you? Content marketing relies on authenticity and a strong writing voice and if you want to truly connect with your audience you first need to connect with your own story and values so they come through in your content.
3. Decide who is going to be responsible for creating content
If you’re a one person operation, that person is likely to be you. Otherwise you can involve the rest of your team in the process of creating content. Because different departments are likely to have different angles, making use of the diverse range of skills you have at your disposal can be a great way to get a range of different content types without too much effort.
4. Create a schedule
A content schedule forms the foundation of any great content marketing strategy. By creating a schedule you can make sure you have a good balance of content topics and types and keep yourself on track and motivated. Schedules are essential if you are co-ordinating different people as they help everyone know who is responsible for what.
5. Promote your content
Unless your website or blog already has a strong following, producing and publishing content on its own isn’t going to be enough. To get your content in front of your audience you’re probably going to have to do some kind of promotion. The two most common promotion platforms for small businesses are social media and paid advertising.
6. Evaluate the results
Results tracking is a crucial part of your content marketing strategy and it can give you insight into what works and what doesn’t as well as inspiration for future content. If certain topics and types of content are getting better results on social media and bringing more traffic to your site you know where to focus.
When you’re just getting started, content marketing can seem overwhelming but once you start to build up some momentum it gets much easier. Taking a strategic approach means you can ensure your content marketing hits the target and you get the best results from your time and effort.
Need a hand with your content marketing? Drop me a line!