Is your traditional marketing approach losing its edge in today’s digital world?

Content marketing is an effective way to put your business on your audience’s radar and get them to engage with it. 

It’s not just another way for the ‘gurus’ to get their hard-earned money, this approach…is a goldmine.

GIF Source: Giphy

But if you’re going to strike gold in this mine, you need a plan. By that we mean a plan detailing how to get the awareness, engagement, and conversion results you want.

• And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this guide.  We’ll talk about:
• The benefits of having a strategy when diving into content marketing. 
• How to create an effective content marketing strategy, starting from the basics.
• How to know if the plan is successful or not.

Without wasting any more time, let’s jump right into it starting with defining a content marketing strategy.

What is a content marketing strategy?

A content marketing strategy is a plan that outlines challenges customers face and how you’ll use content to solve them. It’s the game plan of all the actions you’ll take to achieve your business goals. 

Without one, you’ll probably be all over the place, creating content that doesn’t resonate with your audience. Someone tells you TikTok ads are what’s trending and you hop on it. Another says it’s LinkedIn posts and you’re there too. 

While these pathways can lead to content marketing success, you need to find your thing: the secret sauce that works for your business. 

In other words, you need a content marketing strategy. 

This strategy is a blueprint that outlines your framework for attracting and converting your ideal target audience. 

According to Zacharias Xiroudakis, a content marketer at Minuttia:

“This strategy pivots on nurturing relationships with potential clients by addressing their challenges and offering viable solutions.” 

Simply put, it’s a plan that answers these questions:

• What do I want to achieve? (Business goals)
• Who’s all this for? (Your target audience)
• What type of content would they like? (Blog posts, podcasts, Twitter threads, etc.)
• What are their pain points? (Again, think about your target audience)
• Where can I meet them? (Content distribution)

Once these questions are answered, you have the structure to launch a content marketing campaign.

Is it worth it? 

The short answer is a definitive yes! And the long answer? Let’s find out!

Why is having a content marketing strategy important?

An effective content marketing strategy takes your marketing goals from being just another wish to a reality. 

According to Demand Metric, 90% of marketers leverage this marketing approach because of how effective content marketing is in helping their organizations connect with their audience and improve their online presence.

Let’s see other ways a content marketing strategy helps your business.

Getting the marketing team on board with your goals

It takes a village to launch a content marketing campaign; stakeholders, content creators, copywriters, content writers, social media managers, and analysts. 

You need all of them to be on the same page regarding your marketing goals and a content marketing strategy is the key to making that happen.

A typical marketing plan starts with goals and objectives outlined (e.g.  grow business leads by 50% within two months) so it’s the first thing your team sees when reading your brief. 

This way, they understand what you’re trying to achieve and can produce content that supports your dreams. 

Streamlining your content creation and distribution process

Having a content marketing plan means you’ve researched the kind of content customers like and what digital platforms they spend time on. 

This way, you’re not creating content based on a whim as it may not resonate with, leading to low engagement. 

Instead, your content production and distribution process is more strategic, based on what your audience wants. 

This ensures that their interests and pain points are being met.  As a result, you’re more likely to see your brand loyalty increase compared to creating generic content that isn’t useful. 

Now, this isn’t something pulled from thin air. A study by SmarterHQ, a behavioral marketing platform, showed that 72% of consumers will only engage with marketing content that meets their specific needs. 

In a nutshell, a strategy ensures the way you create and distribute content is more effective. 

Communicating value to senior leadership

You know how effective launching content marketing campaigns can be but your brand is yet to implement it.

After several meetings with stakeholders, they’re still giving you the classic ‘let me get back to you on that.’ 

To have a higher chance of convincing them, create a content marketing strategy to share with them. 

A typical strategy has clear goals and objectives you want to achieve. So when leadership sees the plan, it demonstrates to them the purpose of this new initiative and how it aligns with the brand’s business goals. 

A marketing strategy also details steps, resources needed, and a timeline to reach set goals. This shows it’s a well-thought-out, strategic plan, not a money-pit project.

Plus, if the plan outlines measurable results and potential return on investment (ROI) such as increase in leads, expected revenue growth, or enhanced customer engagement that content marketing offers, it informs them of the financial profit they stand to gain.

If stakeholders are yet to get on board the content marketing train, sharing the strategy will look like a proposal of the value it brings to the table.

Improving visibility online

A content marketing strategy means you can produce well-optimized, high-quality content consistently.  The type people link to and share on social media

And here’s what you get for doing that:

The search engines will light up your site, ranking you high on the search engine results page (SERP). 

Brian Dean, founder of SEO blog Backlinko says, “the more backlinks your site has, the higher you may be able to rank …as Google’s algorithm takes backlinks into account.” 

Then, because you’re creating content that people find helpful and targeting high-value keywords, your social credibility will get a strong boost. 

Your audience will waste no time sharing your content with their network.

Optimizing resources

Creating a content marketing strategy gives you a broad picture of what’s needed to achieve your goals. You’ll know precisely what type of content you need to create, the formats it should be in, and other important details.

This clarity helps you assign tasks to the right person on your team, estimate required time, and create and allocate the budget accordingly.

In short, a content marketing strategy ensures resources are distributed appropriately, maximizing your ROI. 

Building brand trust and authority

Want your audience to trust you?

Drafting a content marketing strategy is key. It gives you insight into their pain points and a plan that allows you to create content that consistently addresses their issues. 

That then sets you apart as a thought leader who knows their stuff and genuinely cares about their challenges.

The result?

Your audience sees your brand not just as another corporate entity but as a customer-centric brand that’s earned their trust. And a report by Adobe shows that 7 in 10 customers will only buy from a brand they trust. 

***

We’ve made a pretty good case for why you need a content marketing strategy. 

Now, let’s show you how to create one by taking you through the main steps you need to follow, like goal setting, audience research, and content audit.

How to develop a content marketing strategy: A step-by-step guide

First, you need to understand that building a good content marketing strategy isn’t rocket science. 

You have to put in the effort, but the main thing you need to do is have a solid process to follow, like the one we’ve outlined below. 

Let’s break them down in detail here. 

1. Set your content marketing strategy goals

The strategy process starts with setting goals. You can do that by answering one simple question: What do I want to achieve?

Now, this isn’t the place to start listing fantasy goals like generating $2 million in profit in a month. 🙄 

If you run an enterprise, that’s probably not unrealistic. But if you’re a small business owner, you want to manage your expectations and think long-term. Go for goals that are within your grasp.  

This isn’t to say don’t dream big but ensure you understand that great things may take a while. 

Now, let’s get practical! 

Your goals will dictate the entire content marketing process so you need to be explicit about what you want. 

For example, realistic and actionable strategy goals could be…

• Improve lead generation by 50%.
• Get a thousand more subscribers to your email marketing campaign in 4 months. 
• Achieve a 20% increase in revenue within 12 months. 
• Increase organic traffic from search engines by 25% within 6 months. 

Once you have your goal, make sure they’re  S.M.A.R.T.:

• Specific, so everyone is clear about their roles and the outcome. 
• Measurable, so you can track if you’re smashing the goals. 
• Achievable, so you’re sure tasks can be done.
• Relevant to your overall marketing objectives. 
• Time-bound to ensure there’s a sense of urgency in everyone involved.

2. Understand your target audience

After setting your goals, your next move is to understand the people whose trust you’re trying to get. 

You probably already know who they are, but for content marketing to work, you’ll need to dig deeper to uncover the ideal fit for your business.  To do that, you want to carry out in-depth personas research by:

• Interviewing your existing audience. These people have interacted with your brand already so getting to know them a bit better is a good place to start. Here’s how to do that:

  • Identify who to interview. It’s always best to do a random selection of your existing customers. Pick repeat customers and people from different demographics, or varying purchase histories. This way, you have a good number to represent a broader audience.  
  • Reach out via email or private DMs (with an incentive to motivate them 😉) to confirm they’re open to having an interview. You can ask if they prefer surveys or having one-on-one interviews via a Zoom-like webinar approach.

  • Conduct the interview by asking questions about their pain points:

    • What problem do they want to solve?
    • How was the problem solved before your brand?
    • Have they used other services in the past, what was their experience with them?
    • Was the process of choosing your brand a smooth one?
    • How can you do better?

   Then ask questions to find out more about their behavior:

• How did they find you?
• What keywords/terms were used to land on your content?
• Did they read any material related to the topic?
• What social media platforms do they use?
• How much time do they spend online?

     Then have a convo about your competitors:

• What made you their preferred choice over other competitors?
• What benefit do they get from using your service?
• What’s one thing they’ve enjoyed about your product?

• Ethically spying on the competition using audience research tools like Semrush’s One2Target software. To use the tool, enter a competitor’s website and click analyze. It will show you the relevant audience data you need, including their demographics (age and gender), socioeconomic data (education level, employment status, and income level), and behaviors (social media platforms they use the most, sites they visit, and preferred browsing devices).

Looking at the overall data will show who your ideal audience is.  

Let’s say your brand is an investment app, your research outcome could look like this:

• Motivation: To have enough/more than enough money to retire with.
• Pain point: Finding zero-risks investments that aren’t scams. 
• Motivation/belief: Retiring by 60 is a way of life.
• Social media platforms: X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
• Location: San Francisco
• Job: Work 9-5 jobs at a bank, tech company, IT firm, real estate company, etc. 
• Preferred piece of content: Video content, memes, and written content.
• Demographics: Male and female; aged 23-50.

3. Establish your metrics and KPIs

Remember we said your goals need to be measurable?

What we didn’t say was how to measure them. 🙃

You need to set key performance indicators (KPIs) – that’s a fancy way of saying how to know your content is passing the milestones you’ve set.

For instance, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, KPIs to measure could be social media engagements, the number of mentions online, or the number of backlinks. 

If the goal is to increase conversion rates, you can track average order value, number of leads,  customer acquisition cost, lead-to-opportunity ratio, lead-to-response time, average session duration, or bounce rates.

In essence, the KPIs you set largely depend on your goals and the audience’s preference. 

4. Choose the right content types

In the digital marketing space, there are several types of content to use for a campaign. 

From case studies to white papers, blog posts, social media content, podcasts, and interactive content, all of them can be quite effective when shared with the right audience. 

However, the best way to choose the right type is by looking at your goals and what your audience likes. 

If your audience is a tech bro as in the example above and the goal is raising awareness, then X (formerly Twitter) threads or Instagram Reels will be the right content for you. 

GIF Source: Tenor

You also want to look at your resources when choosing a content type. 

Is there a budget to splurge on content production? Is your team big enough to handle it?

Do you even have the time to create content?

Will it be more economical to ask existing customers to create content for the campaign?

That’s how to pick the right content type.

5. Conduct a content audit

The idea behind running an audit is to examine what’s working for you so far so you can improve on it.

Which content has given you the results you want? Which one is almost hitting the mark but still needs a push? Which content needs to take a break from your strategy?

Basically, you want to discover if your existing content is helping you meet your marketing goals.

How do you do that?

First, you’ll need a list of all the pages/URLs you want to check and a performance checklist e.g. organic tracking, SERP ranking, and number of backlinks to use as a benchmark for what’s working. 

Then, follow these steps:

1. Put together a list of the content pages from your site using Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool. Just go to the Bulk export tab and export “Internal HTML URLs, status code 200.” This will crawl your site and list out all your content pages.  Copy and paste all of them to a Google sheet like the one below: 

2. Assess the content quality using the content performance checklist you set. Here are some questions to help you audit: 

• Does it get great organic traffic? 
• Are there backlinks? 
• Is it in a format your audience likes? 
• Is the content useful? 
• Is the URL slug (the last part of the URL) easily identifiable? 
• Is it optimized for mobile? 
• Are there broken links?
• Is the page better than your competitors?
• Are there duplicate pages that could be merged?

Write down the answers in the sheet like the one above. 

3. Make a decision on what to do next. For instance, pages that perform well and are relevant to your audience, you can keep as is and repurpose across different channels. This could mean transforming a podcast into a blog or YouTube Shorts.

Pages with outdated information or that aren’t meeting your goals, you want to update. For the ones with duplicate pages, you can merge them and redirect one link to another. 

And then those that have bad content, aren’t targeting any term/ keyword, or aren’t relevant to your audience, you can delete. 

At the same time, a content audit isn’t limited to your content alone. Examine how your team produces and publishes content. Is there a way it can be better? 

Overall, think of a content audit as an assessment of all you’ve been doing to help you improve and ensure your content is on the right track.

6. Brainstorm marketing content ideas

It’s time to brainstorm topics you’ll create content on. 

You can do this with your team where everyone shares ideas they believe would be a hit or leveraging marketing tools to get the ball rolling. Here are some tools you can try. 

• Keyword magic tool: With this tool from Semrush, you can input terms related to your industry, click the Questions tab, and you’ll see topic ideas to use. You’ll also find insight into how popular the terms are to help streamline your search. 
• Keywords generator: This one is Ahrefs’ digital baby for keyword research and it can help you with ideas for content projects. Once you type in related keywords, it provides insights on the keyword’s traffic potential, search volume, questions people ask, similar terms it ranks for, etc.

7. Prioritize content topics with high potential

It’s not enough to just have loads of content ideas in the bag, you need to ensure the topics you choose can help build trust with your audience. 

The best way to do that is by using your strategy goals as a compass. 

What was it you wanted to achieve?

If it’s brand awareness, watch out for topics with high search volumes that tell you what people are actively searching for. 

It has a better potential of putting you on the map and increasing awareness. 

Another thing to look out for is the term’s difficulty. If the keyword has a high difficulty score, it’ll be harder for you to rank in the SERPs. On the other hand, low-difficulty scores are easier to rank but people aren’t actively searching for them. 

The best move? 

• Prioritize keywords with high search volume. 
• If you’re going to go with low difficulty scores, pair them with long-tail keywords so you target people with high buying intent.

8. Decide on the right content distribution channels

Where would you publish the content you’ve created? That’s what you need to figure out next. 

It should be a no-brainer if you handled the goal-setting business well –  you just need to go back to the research you did to know the best channels for sharing your content. 

Where did your audience say they spend most of their time online?

Emails? Social media? Websites? 

Besides that, it’s important to look at where you’ve been getting a lot of traction from and focus on that.  

If your social media platforms have been blowing up, then you know it’s a great channel for your content.

However, you must understand that your buyer’s journeys will vary. So while social media might be buzzing and boosting brand awareness, it may not cater to people at the conversion stage. Websites or emails might be better.

Our advice?

Going back to content marketer Zacharias for a moment:  

“Map your content to specific stages of the customer journey from early-stage content focused on awareness and education, progressively moving toward conversion-focused content as the prospect advances through the funnel.”

In other words, produce content and publish it where the music is but don’t neglect your other channels. 

9. Design a content publishing schedule

Your marketing strategy would be incomplete without an editorial calendar. 

This calendar is like your accountability partner but for content. Its job is to help coordinate and execute content plans so all the efforts you put into it won’t be a waste.  

It also ensures you’re consistent with content publishing. 

You can create a content calendar for one month or more and it’d include:

• Content title.
• Content type. 
• Who’s responsible for creation. 
• Production status.
• Due date. 
• Distribution channel. 
• Publication date.

This way, you don’t have to run after people or wonder who’s to publish a piece of content.

Designing a content calendar isn’t so difficult. You can use CoSchedule so you’re more organized or Google Sheets if you’re on a budget. Just transfer the essentials we listed to the sheet and enter the necessary data. 

And if you want to share the calendar during a team presentation, you can use Ceros to make it attractive and engaging. 

10. Secure and allocate resources

Do you have everything you need to implement your marketing strategy?

Yet to get content creation tools or project management software? 🧐

Secure them now!

Aside from the right tools, you also need human resources like videographers, copywriters, content writers, and creators. 

Plus, spend a bit of time thinking of who’s in charge of producing content and approving it. 

Now, how about a production workflow?

You need to have all these defined before launching the campaign.

If you’re producing a video content, the workflow might look like this:

• Select topics with high potential. 
• Write a script. 
• Send it to the editor or content manager. 
• Hire creatives or actors.
• Record the film. 
• Send it to the video editor. 
• Send the first draft to the manager or CEO. 
• Make changes and publish. 

11. Create your marketing content

A lot of work has gone into planning every step of your campaign. 

Now, it’s showtime!

Start from an interesting angle or point of view. 

In other words, create your best content in a way that sets you apart from others. 

Here are some ideas:

• Answer questions they need answers to. 
• Explain what industry problem your brand is solving. 
• Share how people can find a brand like yours. 
• What makes a brand great in your industry?
• Tell stories. 
• Share ongoing projects. 
• Create interactive content so the audience can interact with your content using Studio, a platform for designing interactive content.

12. Market and promote your content

If you want your target audience to see and engage with your content (which we’re sure you do), you need to make plans to amplify it. 

Here are some ideas on how to make that happen:

• Leverage social media to promote your content by using relevant hashtags and choosing a specific time to post.
• Carry out content syndication. A marketing term that means sharing your content on third-party platforms to draw potential customers in.
• Collaborate with influencers and industry experts to promote your content. 
• Remember search engine optimization (SEO). Optimize your content with high-quality keywords so it ranks high on the SERPs.
• Run paid ads if you can. Boost your content on Meta or Google ads so it has more reach and impressions. 
• Use email marketing to build friendships with your email list and notify them about new content. 

13. Monitor performance

Every business is different; what works for one might not for the other. 

Your best bet?

• Track your content when it goes live and monitor the KPIs you set. 
• Take note of topics that brought in engagements and led to sales. 
• Identify the most effective content formats.

Wondering how to do all that?

1. Use Ceros to produce content, as it can help you monitor it and identify touch points users engage with the most. 
2. Google Analytics can help monitor your site’s performance, especially if you’re tracking organic traffic. 
3. YouTube analytics is also helpful. It shows you the number of views on your video, watch time, new subscribers, etc. 
4. Google Alerts will send notifications when your brand is mentioned.
5. SemRush Position tracking can track Google rankings for keywords used.   

Now, the point of monitoring your site’s performance isn’t for data collection. The goal is to identify areas you need to improve and get to work.

***

Since we’re talking about measuring and monitoring, we might as well go in-depth into the metrics you need to measure.

How can you measure the success of a content marketing strategy?

Simple, by measuring some of these metrics we’ve outlined below: 

• Visibility metrics – If your goal is to increase brand awareness and visibility, this is a metric to track. It tells you about the new audiences your content is reaching on social media and paid ads, the amount of website traffic, and how your content is doing in the SERPs.

  • Organic search traffic – Number of organic visits to your website.
  • Visits – Number of people who’ve visited your web pages from paid ads, social media, organic search, and other sources.
  • Impressions – Number of times your content was shown to users on a platform. 

• Audience metrics – Want to know what drives traffic to you and where they spend their time? These are the metrics to check out. 

  • Traffic sources – Refers to all the sources (organic search, direct visits, socials, paid search, etc.) from which users visit your site. 
  • Brand mentions – Notifies you of all the platforms or content your brand has been mentioned in. 

• Conversions and sales tracking metrics – This metric is how you know if the efforts you put into content marketing are resulting in sales or conversions. 

  • Conversion rates – Percentage of people who clicked on a call to action (CTA) e.g. subscribe or book a demo.
  • Content marketing ROI – Percentage of how much profit you made from content marketing versus the actual investment. 

• Engagement metrics – If you want to know if your social credibility is on the up and up with your audience? Take a look at your engagements. 

  • Average engagement rate – Percentage of your audience that engages with your content versus the number of followers you have.
  • Click-through rates – Number of people who click on your CTA out of the percentage of people who saw it. 
  • Social media engagements – Number of likes, shares, and comments, on your social media posts. 
  • Average engagement time – Amount of time people were focused on your website or landing page.

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With that, we’ve come to the end of this guide. Before we say our goodbyes, there’s one last thing you should know…

Ceros can bring your content marketing strategy to life

This guide is the perfect companion for anyone interested in creating an effective content marketing strategy. 

With the right tool and support from teammates who know what to do and why, you can produce the captivating content your audience wants to see – interactive content, comfortably. 

But what’s the right tool? It’s Ceros, a suite of tools for creating interactive content without writing a single line of code.

It's the kind of content that moves them from being spectators to participants. Where they become one with the content, fully knowing that it was custom-made for them. 

Would you like to see how this works?

Schedule a demo with Ceros and get introduced to a whole new world of interaction yourself.