Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that should be focused on creating and distributing relevant and consistent content that will draw in and retain a clearly-defined audience. It can ultimately drive profitable customer action as well.
To be effective, your content marketing strategy must be built on a solid foundation of core marketing details. With the right elements in place, develop a plan to help you achieve your business objectives. In part one, we'll cover the must-have details for any content marketing strategy, including setting goals, identifying your audience, and creating buyer personas.
Here are the first of the must-have details in a content marketing strategy:
1) Brand Guidelines
Brand guidelines are the foundation of your content marketing strategy. They define who you are, what you do, and how you want to be perceived by your audience across all your marketing channels.
Brand guidelines offer up a reference for a consistent look and feel for your content and ensure that your brand is represented consistently. For example, the mission statement, visual identity, social media personality, and more must all be aligned.
2) Marketing Goals
Marketing goals will help you determine what kind of content you should be creating and how to measure your success. Without specific, measurable goals, it will be difficult to create effective content that resonates with your audience.
Some common content marketing goals include generating leads, increasing brand awareness and engaging customers. Other companies also aim to drive more traffic to their website and increase sales.
3) Data and Research
Data and research are essential for understanding your audience and creating content that appeals to them. Without data, it will be difficult to determine what kind of content to create and how to measure your success.
Some common sources of data and research for content marketing include surveys, customer feedback, Google Analytics and social media analytics. Be sure to utilise software that can assist you in procuring accurate data.
4) Customer Persona
A customer persona is a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. Personas can help you further understand your customers and prospects better.
To create a customer persona, you’ll need to gather information about your target audience, including their demographics, interests, pain points, and goals. Once you have this information, create your persona by giving them various identifying details.
5) Customer Journey Map
A customer journey map is defined as a good visual representation of how a customer interacts with your company. It outlines the steps a customer takes on their journey with your brand, from awareness to purchase.
A customer journey map can help you understand your customers’ needs and pain points. It can also help you improve your customer experience by identifying areas where you can make improvements.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a good content marketing strategy should include a detailed plan for creating and distributing content, as well as a process for measuring its effectiveness. The most important details to include are your goals, target audience, and key message. Stay tuned for part two to know more!
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