Content creation is one of the most significant aspects of today’s digital marketing business. What’s trending is the way we can create and deliver the content. 

However, the whole idea of using content to market your brand depends on your location, your exposure and the audience you’re targeting.  

No doubt, strong content allows you to show your customers who your business is and what your brand represents. Aligning your online presence isn’t just whether your audience recognizes your brand, but it’s how well they understand the qualities that make your brand unique. In addition,  content marketing for brands helps drive more traffic, boost lead growth, and improves conversion rate. 

But, that all can be achieved through proper planning and strategizing. There is a wide range of challenges that content creators face - some are specific to content creation while others might appear tangential, but are still relevant as they can greatly influence the performance of the content.

However, the concept of your brand with a content strategy is like a jigsaw puzzle. Hundreds of pieces but where do you place them all to ensure maximum ROI from your content.

Let’s explore 5 simple content marketing strategy steps that have all the power to align your entire online presence with your brand all while solving this jigsaw puzzle.

Content Marketing Strategic Steps

What type of content is most suitable for what kind of work? What channels should you use in order to get the most out of your efforts? 

Generally,  content marketing includes three types of content: 

1. Textual 
2. Visual 
3. Video

The distribution of the content, however, depends on the planned strategy which also depends on the audience and the channels they use in order to get informed. 

So, the basic steps every content creator should follow: 

1. Define Your Content Goals 

Strategies that come from a decent understanding of content marketing without well-defined goals, is just a NOISE - a noise that neither you nor your audience will be satisfied with.  

However, clear goals in mind will help you start planning out the type of content you need to create. 

 

You can achieve this by digging deeper into your brand values as well as by understanding your audience and adopting a brand tone. 

A brand tone encompasses everything from the words you use, to the personality and image your marketing assets aim to invoke. It plays a vital role in making sure your message cuts through the noise and makes a lasting impression on potential customers.

Simply, start by getting clear on your overall digital presence goals and then decide how you want your content marketing strategy to serve those goals. The more specific your digital marketing goals are, the better you will be able to tailor content to meet those goals. 

For instance, let’s say your marketing goal is to capture and convert leads through online platforms. Then your strategy must incorporate content (could be a social post, story, or a blog) that moves people towards your landing page or another part of your marketing funnel.  As shown in the image - Messenger Marketing by Danajo & Co. The moment a person clicks on it it will redirect him/her to this blog - the same you can do with catch ebook titles or any asset that your brand’s own. On click, it will take your audience to that particular landing page. 

2. Establish a Schedule For The Content 

How often you should post? What time is best to reach your target audience

Whether you are a new business or an established one, always remember it’s not people who love fresh content, Google does too. Blogs, social posts, pins or etc. that are updated on a regular basis see a constant uptick in the number of followers.  

But, when it comes to putting a number on it, consider the following questions:

• What number you can conveniently manage?
• How often you can post the quality content? 
• What are your plans to generate engagement around the content? 
• What is the aim of your content? (Like are you aiming for a certain number of newsletter signup? Perhaps you want to attain a certain number of new followers each month?)

Simply, stick to whatever schedule you choose.  Trust me, there is no harm in starting small (one post per week) only if you ensure the quality of your content for your followers. Have a proper plan to drive engagement across channels with it.  

However, while deciding where to post what content, also inspect what type of content performs best for what platform (like you can’t post simple content on Pinterest as you do on twitter. For Pinterest you need design, variation and alot more). Plus, you need to figure out the best time to post on each platform. The simplest trick to find the right posting time - collect data from your followers (like their active hours and days) and schedule accordingly to achieve the most reach. 

There are so many editorial calendar tools that can help you simplify this process. Like Google Drive, trello, CoShedule, etc. 

3. Use Your Blogs As A Tool For Brand Awareness

There are infinite perks of writing a quality blog, so if you don’t already have one, it is highly recommended that you should create one as soon as possible. It will give you brand a voice in the market and can be a valuable tool for building your brand online presence or in other words brand awareness.  

Here are a few tips that can help you build your online brand presence through blogs:

• New & Unique Content

People are always in search of something new but interesting. If you post the same piece of content as your competitors are posting that won’t make you stand out.

For potential customers to consider you as a brand, you need to come up with one of a kind content. 

We all know it’s quite difficult to come up with an innovative brand new topics all the time, but the time and effort it takes are worth the results. 

One of the pro tips is to pick one topic that has been written, break it down into different components and then discuss each component in detail. Adopting a unique tone and highlighting new angles of the topic will help you establish your brand as innovative and reliable. But in case if you fail to achieve these two, you actually fail to achieve the content marketing goals you have set earlier in the first step. 

• Choose Topic According to your Audiences’ Interest  

Before, choosing a topic you need to look at the interest of your audience- like the topics they are more interested in and what to be discussed in the future. This could be the question people frequently asking you, for example, if particularly talking about ecommerce business people might be looking for the ultimate checklist for this holiday season… or it could be anything related to your business. 

This will give you a golden chance to showcase your authority and grip on a topic you already know your audience wants to learn about. 

• Keep an Eye what your Competitors are posting 

Here you must act like a detective, see what kind of blogs your competitors are posting, what topics are doing well for them. 

Never copy, do a bit of research and rework on those topics - take out the general ideas that are helping your competitors connect with their customers.  

4. Use Social Platforms To Promote Your Content 

Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are a great way to promote your brand’s content and reach a huge audience. 

They allow your targeted audience to respond positively to your brand.  Social media platforms are great for content marketing for brands as the information you share with your audience is also available for their friends. 

Isn’t that sound amazing? 

Well,  it’s also a practical tool because it allows the user to share their opinions in the comment section (that could be in favor or might come up as a conflict), which you can respond to in order to form a strong relationship with your potential customers. 

Tip: You can also run ads on social platforms to showcase your products or services.  Ads could be static images or in the form or a short video to grab attention. Always focus on targeting the right customer at the right time. 

5. Measure Results 

The last step of your content marketing strategy is measuring the results of all the efforts you made so far. 

Analyzing the results of a different content marketing strategy will allow you to understand which techniques work and which don’t - this will in return help you improve your overall content marketing strategy. 

Google Analytics is one of the finest platforms that help you understand data on how your content is doing online. You can clearly notice which piece of content is bringing most of the traffic and through which channel. You can see a complete roadmap of where your customers are entering on your site, the time they spend, and even where they have clicked. 

By utilizing this information you can now determine which type of content is the most valuable to your goals and take a data-driven method to select new topics. 

Wrapping Up: 

Content marketing is not about stuffing your brand with content, content, and content.  

Always focus on QUALITY over quantity. This will benefit your brand in the long term. Never post something on your site or social platform just to make a noise - this will have a negative impact on your brand and might damage your brand’s reputation. 

That is why your goals are important. If they are concrete, they will help you define your content. 

And just because your marketing strategy is going digital, doesn’t mean there is no longer a need for content. In fact, developing and expanding your content is an ongoing cycle. 

Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.