How to build your first content marketing strategy  

What is a content marketing strategy? 

I’m going to quickly explain what a content marketing strategy is, as I assume you may not have that much knowledge about it being that you clicked on this article. In simple terms a content marketing strategy (CMS) is a plan that your business follows when sharing your content on various platforms. A simple plan would include information on your audience, your goals, the way you monitor your progress and the types of channels you use. As you progress you can add more areas which allows you to be even more specific. Once you make your first CMS you will be able to build upon it and tweak it to your needs, basically this is the hardest step, but you’ve made it easier for yourself by coming here! 

Why do I need one? 

Plans generally make things easier, meaning later on down the line you don’t need to think as much, you know what your end goal is and how you’re getting there. This is the same for a CMS, at first it may be a bit time consuming but once you’ve nailed it you don’t need to worry about your posts being incohesive or not channel appropriate as you’ve already done all the research and hard work. It allows you to focus your energy elsewhere, other people on your team will easily be able to understand your reasoning as it’s all written down and can guide them when they’re executing your vision.  Companies who do have a strategy are likely to be more successful in their marketing compared to those who do not.  

Step 1: Outline your mission and Goals  

The best way to start out your CMS is to write a mission statement. This short statement will allow you to focus on what is most important and least important areas for you. 

 It covers: 

-Your Target Audience  

-The type of content you will use  

-The benefits to this method  

-Managing Engagement 

Step 2: Setting your Key performance Indicators (KPIs) 

How do you know if you’ve reached your goals? It’s simple really, make them specific and measurable. Meaning setting KPIs for your CMS. They will help you know once you’ve achieved your goals, they act as milestones, so once you’ve past certain milestones you’ll know you’re on your way to or have achieved your goal/goals. You can measure various areas with KPIs, which includes areas such as:  

Revenue, sales, traffic, SEO, traffic email marketing and social media metrics. 

Step 3: Who are your Audience? 

To create a successful CMS, you need to have an understanding of who your audience are. This is so you can produce content that will be engaging to them and share it on platforms that they use. 

How do you find out who your audience are? Collect demographic data. 

You can a pretty good idea of who your audience are through website, social media and email subscriber analytics. It will show you some of the necessary information you need one your audience,  

including: Age, Gender, Location, Education and Income. 

You can also use google analytics to get a greater insight into their key interests. To find this information in Google Analytics, go to Audience » Interests » Overview. You will be able to see the market segments your web visitors fit into and use this information accordingly 

From this information you can build quite an accurate customer profile, this will allow you to understand the best ways to approach your customers. For example, if you’re trying to sell cleaning products to 40+ year old women, you’re probably not going to use an influencer on Instagram to promote your product, unless the person you use has a following with similar people in your audience, share the same values and views. 

By following these steps, you will be able to say you’ve built a Content Marketing Strategy that allows you reach your goals and drive results. 

Good Luck!