If you have a large amount of content, such as product photos, blog posts, and how-to videos, how will you ensure that it reaches prospects and customers? Have you established particular objectives related to your content? Perhaps your goal is to generate more leads. Are you also interested in expanding your brand awareness and presence on social media?
If you are unable to answer these questions, it indicates that you require a content marketing plan.
You are not alone, as per a recent study, only 40% of B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy that is documented. Regardless of whether you are part of that 40% or not, it is advisable to create or review your existing content marketing plan.
In this article, we will discuss the definition of a content marketing plan and provide guidance on how to develop one for yourself.
What is a content marketing plan?
A content marketing plan is a strategy that is written down and provides information on the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your content.
- Who is creating the content?
- What kind of content?
- When is the content being published?
- Where is the content being distributed
- Why are you even content marketing?
- How are promoting and analyzing the marketing results?
Why do marketers need to create a content marketing strategy?
If you don’t have a plan, content marketing is done spontaneously. If you have ever engaged in any of the following actions, then you require a content marketing plan.
- You’ve run out of things to post
- You have multiple channels but don’t know which kind of content works best where
- You don’t know what topics your audience really enjoys
- You realize you haven’t posted that day
- You don’t know what to post about
A content marketing strategy encompasses all of the aforementioned tasks and additional ones. In addition, having a strategy allows for the utilization of data to verify its effectiveness. Content marketing involves various departments, with sales teams utilizing product sheets and case studies to cultivate leads, and the marketing team employing newsletters to reach prospective customers.
Steps to creating an effective content marketing plan
1. Set Goals and KPIs
When developing a strategy, it is important to establish goals. What is your desired outcome in regards to your content marketing? Based on a recent survey conducted among B2B marketers, it was found that 80% of respondents affirmed that content marketing effectively assisted them in generating brand awareness. Additionally, 75% reported that it aided them in establishing credibility and trust, while 70% stated that it was effective in educating their target audience.
The image above lists some common goals. If you require additional assistance, you can refer to our social media goals template. It is important to have at least one KPI for each goal in order to measure progress. Useful social media KPIs include tracking goals such as reach, engagement, conversion, and consumer loyalty.
2. Decide on Target Audiences
After deciding on your target audiences, the next step is to match up content topics and types to each audience, which often corresponds with your buyer personas or social media personas. This is especially relevant for businesses with multiple audiences.
3. Audit your Current Content
If you don’t know your starting point, how do you determine where to go? An audit provides a solution to this query by facilitating the evaluation of your content. Begin by documenting all your current content. If there is an excessive amount, establish a timeframe restriction, like 3 months or a year. It is crucial to possess a dataset that provides comprehensive insights into your publishing activities.
Conducting a content audit on your blog posts can assist you in discovering content that you were unaware of and also in spotting duplicate content on your website.
If you want to evaluate content published on your social media platforms for social media posts, you can utilize Sprout Social’s social media audit template. To challenge yourself further, consider including a competitor or two to compare your content marketing efforts.
When conducting the audit, make sure to examine the following aspects:
- Topics: What are you posting about?
- Types: What types of content are you posting?
- Channels: Where are you sharing the content?
- Performance: How are your posts preforming? Check
Once the documentation is finished, you should be able to observe patterns indicating the relative success of different content and channels.
4. Identify the Best Content Channels
Typically, it is advisable to begin your content marketing plan by focusing on the distribution channels where you already have an active presence. Through the audit process, you would have identified the trends indicating the most effective channels for your content.
To gather additional information, refer to your website’s analytics and identify the sources of referrals. Determine whether visitors are accessing your blog post through a newsletter or social media post, or if they primarily discover it through search engines. Understanding the origin of your audience will enable you to concentrate your efforts on the relevant channels.
If you are uncertain or lacking data, you can refer to Sprout’s recommendations for posting on different social media platforms as fifty-one percent of consumers cease to follow brands due to irrelevant content.
5. Decide on Content Types
When planning your content marketing strategy, it is important to note that not all content types are equal. Different content formats should be considered, as they may have varying performance on specific channels and can vary in terms of cost to create. Common examples of content types include photos, videos, blog posts, podcasts, infographics, and user-generated content.
The content will vary depending on the marketing funnel stage and the target audiences, so it’s important to think systematically.
6. Conduct research on your competitors.
Afterward, it is crucial to examine the competition you will encounter while trying to capture the attention of your desired audience. However, keep in mind that it will not only be your conventional rivals that you will be contending with for people’s attention and time.
When conducting research on your competitors, make sure to pay attention to the type of content they are creating and the content that has been the most successful for them. Additionally, analyze the keywords that they are targeting. It is worth noting that there may be similar content from other sources such as news, reference, and entertainment websites.
7. Conduct thorough research on the chosen topic and gather relevant keywords.
After you have determined your goals and comprehended your target audience, the subsequent procedure involves identifying the online queries of your audience. It is necessary to conduct investigations on the keywords individuals utilize for searches on search engines such as Google.
You can start by examining the search volume for the keywords you consider important. Your research on keywords will probably uncover unexpected findings and generate fresh content ideas.
Create your strategy.
After you have conducted your research, the subsequent step is to strategize the utilization of the obtained information. It is necessary to contemplate the platforms where you will disseminate your content and the techniques you will employ to advertise it. Moreover, you should ponder the kind of content that will captivate your specified target audience the most.
Is a combination of various media options typically the most effective approach, or should you tailor your content to your audience’s preferences, such as using white papers and blog posts or videos and infographics?
9. Organize Your Resources
After conducting your content marketing research, you will undoubtedly have numerous ideas. However, it is also essential to consider what you can realistically accomplish with the available resources. You must determine whether to create your content internally or opt for outsourcing content creation.
In order to effectively manage your content marketing campaign, it is important to assign someone the responsibility of overseeing it and another person should be designated to handle the responses to comments and questions received on your content. It is crucial to have a realistic understanding of the amount of time you can allocate to your campaign, considering that content marketing can require a significant time commitment.
10. Develop a schedule for producing your content.
To consolidate all your ideas, it is now necessary to create a content publishing schedule which includes a calendar outlining the dates of publication and the designated personnel responsible for developing each piece of content. Having a publishing calendar will ensure a consistent publication of content, which is essential in content marketing.
Follow these steps to create, publish, and promote your content.
When creating content, always have your objectives in mind and ensure to incorporate the keywords found during your research. Above all, maintain a high quality of content.
When creating content, don’t hastily rush to meet your content publishing calendar’s deadline. Additionally, after publishing your content, it is necessary to promote it. Therefore, distribute your posts on your social media platforms and send the content to individuals who might have an interest in it.
Continuously observe and improve.
To conclude your content marketing plan, it is essential to monitor the progress of your campaign and adjust your strategy accordingly, taking into account the elements that have proven to be successful. Your content marketing strategy will undergo changes, therefore it is crucial to maintain adaptability when creating your content.
