Content marketing is essential to build the foundation for and grow a strong relationship with your target audience. Many marketers have begun to implement a content marketing strategy to engage with current and/or potential customers. If you’re new to the game, read below to discover the questions you should be asking yourself to begin your own content marketing strategy!
Why Do I Want to Start?
Before you can start to strategize and develop a content marketing plan, you have to first think about why you want to start in the first place. If you begin generating content for a general audience, it’s likely that your content will garner no attention. It’s important to have a specific target audience in mind before you produce content. The content that you generate will need to identify with the problems, questions, etc. that your target audience has. Without that initial target audience in mind, you can’t begin your content marketing strategy. Beyond identifying your target audience, you must also understand them. This is all about getting to the root of their struggles and why they would read your content in the first place.
What Type of Content Should I Produce?
There are hundreds of different forms of content you can produce – from blog posts to videos and e-books to podcasts. Determining which forms of content to produce all goes back to your target audience. Think about your audience’s preferences and what forms of content have been the most popular with them in the past. After all, you are creating content to appeal to your audience’s needs – make sure that your forms of content align with your audience’s preferences.
While your audience is your main concern, you also need to consider what resources you have available to create this content. If you feel you don’t have the editing skills to make a great video, then don’t make one. You want to produce quality content that represents your business and will position you as an expert in your industry.
How Do I Keep Track of It?
When creating a content marketing strategy, one of the most difficult parts of implementation is simply keeping tracking of all of your content. You want to produce content that is new and innovative each week, not repetitive and boring. One of the best ways to make sure you keep your audience excited to read more content is by managing a content calendar. At the beginning of each month, brainstorm ideas and plan your content ahead of time to avoid forgetting about your content marketing strategy. This will also be useful when multiple people are managing a strategy so that they’re all on the same page.
A content marketing strategy provides you with the opportunity to manage the content you create in order to develop personal and long-lasting relationships with your customers. Catering to the preferences of your audience shows them that their needs always come first in your mind. What other questions should marketers ask themselves when first creating a content marketing strategy?