“How to” use Content Marketing for Your Business

I’ve written a lot about Content Marketing over the past months

Why your Business should Use Content Marketing
5 Easy Ways to Make Your Content Marketing Successful
Internet Marketing – Website Optimization and Content Creation

Quick reminder – what is content marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing program that centers on creating, publishing, and distributing content for your target audience — usually online — the goal of which is to attract new customers. Hubspot

Nitty gritty – how exactly do you do it? Let’s tame your Unicorn…

Step 1 – Know your Audience & Where to Find them

Content Marketing revolves around providing valuable information for your customers, clients and /or audience. So, who are they? Start by asking some questions and writing down your answers to these questions

• Who are your ideal prospects and customers? (there may be several – call them avatars, ideal clients or buyer personas whatever you prefer). Think about their demographics and characteristics
• How do they go about making a buying decision?
• What are their questions? Pain points? Objections?
• What gaps in information are they lacking that you content could fill?
• Why would they care about you, as a business/company (aside from your product)?

What online platforms do they use? How do they look for information? How do they choose and buy your type of services and / or product?

Step 2 – What are your Business Objectives and Goals?

Do you want to increase your online authority?
Generate leads to your business? Sell a new service or product?

Define how your success will look months from now.
This will also give you a measure for how you are progressing towards your goals.

Step 3 – Identify the Correct Formula to Create Successful Content

What content will you deliver?
How are you going to deliver your content?

There are so many options which we’ve also touched on in the past (see articles above) but remember these points when deciding

• Create content your customers want (Step 1 is vital here)
• Don’t make the mistake of pushing marketing messages that are important to the company, rather than providing information that’s important to the customer. Take a customer-centric approach to ensure you create something of value for your readers (very LEAN!)
• Develop different content to deploy across multiple channels and devices. Think here of blogs, social media sites, webinars and videos. Keep it variable and remember re-purposing – from a blog to an info-graphic, from a webinar to a podcast etc.
• Curate as well as create content. Pull together “best of” content from across the Web. By showcasing and sharing relevant content from other thought leaders – from magazines, blogs, research, etc. – you demonstrate independence and credibility, which can increase customer affinity and loyalty. Remember your Content Marketing mix (see image below).

Step 4 – Decide how often you will Publish Content

Remember what gets measured, gets done. I would also say what gets planned gets done, IF! you have also assigned someone to be accountable.

If you’re just starting out – set yourself up for success by not over-planning here. Consistency is key. Once you start you will build up a library of content that can be

• Shared multiple times
• Re-purposed
• Broken down into sub-topics etc.

You will also start to see what resonates with your audience(s).

Step 5. Create a Calendar to Plan your Content

This article discussed setting up a Content Marketing Schedule.

Every good content marketing program begins with a carefully planned, proactive calendar. It’s your comprehensive plan for integrating content into a cohesive story that you want your audience to see.

• Which buyer persona are you appealing to?
• What type of content is it?
• Where will it appear?

Social promotion and content go hand-in-hand, so be sure to map social campaigns on your editorial calendar. Make sure you align your content schedule with events during the year, milestones, calendar events etc.

Step 6. Measure (and Celebrate!) your Success

Back in Step 2 you defined your business objectives and goals – and hopefully your KPI’s to match

Over time check in with your statistics to see how you’re tracking. Adjust as appropriate.

Content Marketing Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide for Modern Marketers
Six Best Practices for Creating a Content Marketing Strategy