How To Build A Winning Content Marketing Strategy (With Powerful Results)

I get it!

The idea of creating a content marketing strategy can be overwhelming and flat out terrifying.

You know the importance of creating content, but as a business owner you have a lot on your plate and you feel like you don’t have the time, money, or maybe the knowledge to create regular content.

But take one minute to reimagine your business with regular creative content that increases traffic to your website, is interesting and engaging to your audience, and builds trust with your leads and customers.

Now, imagine that these customers are fiercely loyal to your brand and business and are happy to recommend your product or service to everyone that will listen.

That’s just a few of the advantages of successful content marketing.

Taking the time to create a content marketing strategy can help you create content that attracts your ideal customer and sets you apart from your competitors

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the process of creating and publishing valuable content to a specified audience.

As a business owner, you want to focus on creating content that engages, benefits, and connects with your audience.

Successful content marketing improves brand awareness, educates customers on your products and services, and builds credibility and trust — all of which lead to long term client relationships.

Your first step in creating great content is a well thought out strategy.

What is Content Marketing Strategy?

A content marketing strategy is a comprehensive marketing plan that focuses on creating frequent and consistent content that educates, informs, inspires, and connects with a targeted audience.

The content is your destination and the strategy is your map.

In fact, every piece of content you create should be guided by your content marketing strategy or you run the risk of missing the mark and wasting valuable time.

You may be tempted to start creating content without taking the time to create a strategy.

However, taking the time to create a well-thought-out strategy is a must if you want to succeed in content marketing.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, The most successful content marketers are 65% more likely to have a documented content marketing strategy than their less successful peers.

1.Define your business goals

Your content marketing strategy has to begin with well-defined, well-thought-out goals.

This is the time for you to take an honest look at your current content marketing efforts.

Consider what’s missing and where you’re falling short.

Make a list of what you want to accomplish with this new strategy. Now is the time to set high achieving goals that will take your business to the next level.

A few goals you should consider:

• Build & nurture relationships with current customers.
• Attract and convert more leads and prospects.
• Increase brand awareness.
• Increase sales.
• Improve your online presence and increase traffic.
• Increase referrals and repeat business from existing customers.

Now that you have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish, It’s time to get a better understanding of your ideal customer.

2. Identify your target audience

This is arguably the most important step in the process. Your target audience is simply the people who will benefit the most from your product or service.

Your ideal customer visits your site and feels like you’ve answered a question or solved a problem. They feel like you’re an expert that they can trust and come back to if needed.

You’ll need to do a little bit of research to identify your ideal customer.

Start by using the information you and/or your team has from interactions with current and past customers.

Ask your sales team about common objections and comments from prospects and current customers.

Customer service representatives can provide information on frequent questions, requests, and complaints.

Speaking with long term or repeat customers is also an invaluable source of information on what’s special about your business.

The key is to use every encounter you have with customers as a learning opportunity toward identifying your target audience.

Once you understand who your target audience is, your next step is to create a prototype of your best customer.

3. Buyer persona

Your buyer persona is a fictional representation of your target audience. This ideal customer should embody everything you learned from your research.

Creating a buyer persona helps you to envision a clear, personalized picture of your target audience, making it easier to create helpful, engaging content that’s personalized to your ideal customer.

When visualizing your ideal customer consider:

• Age, Gender
• Income Level
• Interests/Hobbies
• Challenges
• Objectives
• Goals

Every piece of content you create should target and appeal to your buyer persona. As you brainstorm content ideas, refer back to the buyer persona you created.

4. Decide on content types

You’re finally ready to determine the best types of content.

You’ll wait to choose content types based on your audience and your products and services.

If you’re already creating content, consider what’s been successful, had the most shares, or the most engagements.

If you’re having success with a particular type of content but sales are stagnant, now’s the perfect time to experiment with new types of content.

Taking a look at what types of content your competitors are successful with is also effective.

Most successful marketers use several content types in order to connect with a wider reach of customers.

Below are some of the most effective types of content marketing:

• Blogs Posts: One of the most popular types of content. Perfect for newbies and small businesses with limited budgets. Great at building relationships with leads and current customers.
• Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin: Choosing and posting regularly to one of these outlets is critical to any content strategy.
• Video Marketing: One of the best ways to communicate with and engage your customers. In fact, consumers prefer video over any other form of content.
• E-book: A perfect choice, if one of your goals is to generate leads and provide valuable information to customers.

Other popular types of content include infographics, case studies, and podcasts.

Digital marketing trends are constantly evolving and changing.

Make sure you’re consistently creating fresh content that aligns with your audience.

5. Determine the best content channels

Now that you have an idea of what type of content you’re going to create, you have to decide what channels you want to publish on.

Content channels include:

• Your website & blog: An absolute must if you don't already have one. This is one of the most inexpensive and effective ways to reach your target audience.
• Social Media Networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all great for sharing content and expanding your brand.
• Email Marketing: Perfect for customers and prospects who are current subscribers.

6. Create content

You’re finally ready to create content!

For ideas, research content that is already successfully being published in your industry. Think about how you can expand and personalize it to your brand and audience.

Next, brainstorm and make a list of possible content ideas.

Whether you’re writing a blog post, creating a video, or sharing on social media, everything should be written with the intention of benefiting your audience.

The most important thing is that you start creating content! Don’t procrastinate.

Start writing that post, creating a video, or sharing information through social media.

7. Publish and manage your Content

Once you start creating regular content, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.

Whether you work alone or with a team, a content calendar is a quick and effective way of keeping track of when and where your content will be published.

Your content calendar can be as simple as using a google calendar or an online tool that can be found by a quick editorial calendar internet search.

The important thing is to know what type of content you're creating and where and when it’s going to be published.

Get in the habit of filling your content calendar up with at least a week and at best a month of pre-thought out content.

Wrap up & Next Steps

Whew! You’ve made it!

You now have everything you need to begin a content marketing strategy that should have you creating share-worthy, informative, engaging, and creative content for your most profit-producing ideal customer.

If you have a team, share this article and get their thoughts.

If it’s all up to you.

Let everything sink in, sleep on it, and start implementing step one tomorrow.

Tip: If you don’t have a website and a blog. I would highly suggest starting one immediately.