1. Define your marketing goals (awareness-traffic, consideration, retention, advocacy)

-Start with what you want to achieve with the pieces of content you will produce.

-Create content that meets those goals and choose subjects that help you stay on track.

2. Research your audience & define your buyer persona.

-Identify your audience’s needs and write for each step of their customer journey.

-Showcase the problems you are solving.

-Highlight the benefits they’ll get.

3. Establish your KPIs

-Make your goals specific and measurable by deciding on the milestones that indicate success for your content.

-Some KPI examples could be new email subscribers, more signups, lead forms, improvement in the search ranking, etc.

4. Do a keyword research

-Your content should be SEO optimized. Search for the right keywords used by your audience and incorporate them into your content.

-Make specific content around those keywords.

5. Create a content calendar

-Brainstorm ideas and research what’s already out there (search ideas on Answerthepublic).

-Keep a content calendar to track your topics and organize your workflow.

6. Create content that stands out

-Your content should be unique and of immense value to your audience.

-Keep in my mind to create content as if you are speaking directly to your customers.

-Decide on your tone of voice based on your buyer persona.

-Make sure you include a clear CTA.

7. Distribute your content

-Use your social media platforms, newsletters, groups, press releases, etc. to distribute your content. Promote it in every given opportunity (distribution should take the same amount of time as actual content production).

8. Repurpose your content

-Recreate and adjust your content in different forms. Examples:

Podcasts
Blogs

Ebooks
Videos
Cheat Sheets
Demos
Infographics

Trials
Emails
Guides
Slideshare presentations

9. Measure your results

-Based on the KPIs you’ve already chosen, measure the results that your content brought you.

-Use platforms like Google Analytics.

10. Ask for users’ feedback and listen to their needs

-Their opinions matter. They should be the center of your content production efforts and are the only ones who can help you be of value.

-Encourage them to engage with your content, to Like, comment share, and click.

How to develop a content marketing strategy in 10 steps

A 10-steps guide to planning, creating, distributing and measuring content that supports your marketing goals.

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