Develop A Good Content Strategy to Successfully Compete in Your Industry

It takes time to craft amazing content. Whether you outsource our blog posts or develop them in-house, you need a plan to get the outcome you want. If you want to score a top spot or even the first page on Google, a good content strategy will give you a tactical advantage over the competition. To put it simply, a content strategy is an ongoing process of translating your company’s business goals into a plan that relies on content to achieve resolutions, such as bringing awareness to the brand, attracting new customers, and developing a strong SEO presence. You can’t do without one. 

So, Do You Really Need a Content Strategy? 

These days, it’s not enough to just post something on blogs and social media sites. Every digital marketing plan must include a content strategy. All too often, we underestimate the importance of a carefully planned and well-documented content strategy. In today’s web environment, getting the right message across to the right people is essential. If you want to reach those all-important business objectives, create a solid content strategy. It allows out to plan your work and make sure that all marketing efforts are goal-driven. Most importantly, you can track progress and identify new opportunities, which will be reflected in the brand’s position. Keep in mind that a content strategy doesn’t exist in isolation. 

How To Formulate A Solid Content Strategy 

Set A Mission, Goals, And KPIs 

To develop a content strategy, you have to consider significant inputs, such as your mission and goals, the competitive landscape, your resources, and how you’ll measure results. Content is created for a specific purpose, and that purpose needs to be noticeable. Ask yourself if you’re engaging in digital marketing to enhance brand awareness, attract past customers, generate leads, improve SEO rankings, or something else. Your mission should bring your team together and make it easy to talk about your products or services. The goals and metrics will follow. 

Content marketing is a long-term strategy, which means that you won’t see a positive investment in your ROI until months after publication. Tracking performance is of the essence. Here are some KPIs to measure your efforts: 

• Unique page visits
• Downloads
• Inbound links
• Shares 
• Comments and interactions
• Lead generation
• Followers and/or subscribers
• Growth 

KPIs in digital marketing are different, as they’re tied to progress. After planning and implementing a content strategy, the final step is to measure results. 

Define Your Audience Before You Can Own It 

A good content strategy will attract your target audience at every stage of the sales funnel and keep them engaged even after a purchase. The question now is: Who is the target audience for your content? Your content strategy can be aimed at more than one type of user. Invaluable information can be obtained by checking what sort of people visit your site, what content they engage with, and what social media platforms they share content on. Don’t rely on intuition. Do your homework and find out more about your primary and secondary audiences.  

Your business can target a specific location, such as a city. For instance, you can direct your efforts towards the target market in New York. It’s just an example. Gather information about the audience’s wants, needs, or interests. A creative agency New York can help you in this regard. After all, you don’t have to do all the work yourself. Location-based marketing doesn’t refer strictly to the area around your physical business. You can target areas that your audience frequents (restaurants, online locations, etc.) or places where your audience is likely to invest in your products or services. 

Avoid Having Content That Gets Lots in The Pack 

The Internet is slowly but surely filling up with useless information to the extent that good information is nearly impossible to find. Strive to create content that stands out, has a distinct voice, and offers real value to readers. See what others are writing about and what topics generate a lot of interest. This can be a good starting point. You can write a little-known aspect of something that’s covered a lot. Your most creative ideas won’t come from other blogs. Read regularly and find new sources for content generation. Standalone content helps distinguish your site by providing information that other sites don’t.  

Figure Out What Formats to Focus On

No single type of content appeals to every visitor. You should proactively review your traffic and make changes, as necessary. Content formats to consider are: 

• Long-form articles
• Live Video
• Infographics
• eBooks
• Case studies 
• Webinars
• Quizzes and Polls
• Podcasts 

Tempting as it may be to launch a podcast because it’s grown so much in popularity, you should take into account where the audience lives. If not, you risk wasting time crafting content that won’t reach your audience or draw their attention. Check out the LIBSYN PODCASTING platform for help with finding your audience and getting started.

Choose The Right Channel/Channels for Publishing 

There are various channels to publish content to. Demographics data can help narrow down choices. For instance, Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly active users. According to Sprout Social, 44% of the audience is female, while the remaining 56% is male. Let’s take another example. YouTube, the second most visited website globally, appeals more to 15-to-25-year-olds when it comes to the U.S, and they use the platform daily. Take a peek at the statistics and see how content performs on different channels. 

Until Google gets the memo and places your content higher in the search engine results, it will take a while. Besides repurposing content, get employees involved in social media marketing. Sharing and engaging with content is a priority. As your company grows, you may need to collaborate with different teams to create an effective process. 

Finally, yet importantly, ask customers for feedback and suggestions. Listen to your customers and engage with them on a regular basis. Your content strategy will constantly improve, not to mention that people will feel important because you treat them as such. Sales teams and other members of the staff who interact with customers directly can provide thoughtful insight. You don’t need more than a couple of sentences to get the job done. Make it clear to customers that you’re eager to hear from them.