Content marketing is one form of effective marketing that is done online, with its main goal: to generate more leads and help business growth. Content marketing is a process that starts with ideation and ends with the distribution.

A content marketing strategy consists of the following nine steps: research, ideation, planning, writing/creating content, distributing your blog posts to relevant audiences (social media), generating leads from social media activity (examples provided), measuring success in terms of metrics such as a number of leads generated or a number of newsletter subscriptions received.

If you are wondering how to create a content marketing strategy for your business today, this article is for you.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Types of content:

There are many different types of content that can be used for content marketing purposes. Some common examples include blog posts, articles, e-books, infographics, webinars, and more.

The goals of content marketing vary depending on the needs of the individual business. However, some common goals include driving traffic to a website or blog, increasing brand awareness or engagement, and generating leads or sales conversions.

Content marketing can offer many benefits to businesses including improved SEO rankings from quality backlinks; increased website traffic; higher levels of engagement with potential customers; improved brand awareness and credibility; and more leads/sales conversions.

A few examples of businesses that have utilized content marketing successfully include HubSpot(a software company), Copyblogger (a blogging resource site), and Moz (an inbound marketing software company).

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

What is a content marketing plan?

A content marketing plan is essential to the success of your blog. It will help you define your goals, strategies, and campaigns. Without a plan, it will be difficult to measure your success and track your progress.

There are a few steps you need to take in order to create a content marketing plan:

1) Define your goals – What do you want to achieve with your blog?

2) Research your audience – Who are you writing for?

3) Choose your platform – Where will you publish your content?

4) Create a content calendar – When will you publish each piece of content?

5) Write great content – This is the most important part!

6) Promote your content – Get people to read what you’ve written.

7) Measure your results – How well did each piece of content perform?

A content marketing plan provides a roadmap for your content marketing efforts, ensuring that all of your content is aligned with your business goals.

What are the types of content marketing?

Video, Audio, Written, Images

How to create each type:

Video:

Can be created through various video editing software or online platforms such as WeVideo. To make an effective video, consider the following: what story you want to tell, who your target audience is, and what style of video would appeal to them.

Audio:

Audio can be recorded and edited with various software programs such as Audacity or Garageband. When creating audio content, it is important to keep in mind the quality of your recording and editing, as well as the overall message you are trying to communicate.

Written:

Written content can take many forms, from blog posts to E-books. The important thing is to ensure that your writing is clear and concise, and that it provides value to your reader.

Images:

Images can be created using various software programs or online tools such as Canva. When creating images for content marketing purposes, it is important to consider the size, resolution, and file type that will best suit your needs.

There are many types of content marketing including but not limited to: blog posts, infographics, videos, ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, and more.

How to create each marketing type

To create each type of content marketing piece, you will need to use different strategies and tactics. For example, to create an ebook, you will need to research your topic inside and out. Once you have a solid understanding of the subject matter, you can start writing your e-book. To create an infographic, on the other hand, you will need to find data that supports your main point. Once you have this data compiled, you can start designing your infographic.

Effectiveness of each type

The effectiveness of each type of content marketing depends on its ability to reach the target audience and engage them. For example, if you are trying to reach a tech-savvy audience with your content marketing campaign then an ebook might not be the best option as they are more likely to prefer videos or infographics over something they have to read. However if your target audience is made up of small business owners then an ebook could be just what they need as it provides in-depth information on a particular topic

Blogging:

A blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order, with most recent entries appearing first.

Vlogging:

A video blog or vlog is a form of blog for which the medium is video, and usually uploaded to YouTube.

Podcasting:

A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that a user can download to listen to.

Infographics:

An infographic is a graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends.

Whitepapers:

A whitepaper is an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body’s philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.

What are the goals of content marketing?

The goal of content marketing is to first create awareness of your brand, product, or service. This can be done through various means such as blog posts, infographics, videos, etc. It is a marketing journey of the market from these stages: Awareness, Engagement, Conversion and Loyalty

Awareness stage

The first stage of the content marketing funnel is awareness. This is when a potential customer becomes aware of your brand or product. Once awareness has been created, the next goal is to engage with your target audience.

Engagement

The second stage of the content marketing funnel is engagement. This is when a potential customer starts interacting with your brand or product. This can be done by providing valuable and interesting content that encourages them to interact with you. For example, you could include a call-to-action in your blog post that encourages readers to comment on the post or share it with their friends.

Conversion

The third goal of content marketing is to convert leads into customers. This is when a potential customer converts into a paying customer. This can be done by providing helpful and relevant information that helps lead them through the sales funnel towards becoming a paying customer. For example, you could include a “buy now” button on your blog post if it contains information that would help convince someone to purchase your product or service.

Loyalty

The fourth and final stage of the content marketing funnel is loyalty. This is when a customer becomes a loyal advocate for your brand or product. This can be done by continuing to provide valuable and engaging content even after they have become paying customers. For example, you could create an email newsletter that provides exclusive deals and tips for existing customers.

What goes into creating a content marketing campaign?

Know your audience, objectives and budget

Creating content: Decide what type of content to create, who will create it and how often it will be published. Once you have a plan in place, it’s time to start creating your content. This could involve writing blog posts, creating infographics, or developing videos. Whatever type of content you create, it should be high-quality and engaging.

Distributing content: Develop a distribution strategy and plan for getting your content seen by your target audience

Measuring content: Set up analytics to track engagement and measure results

Determine your goals

-Who is your target audience?

-What type of content will resonate with them?

-What platforms will you use to distribute your content?

Creating:

-Develop high quality, original content that is interesting and informative.

Distributing:

-Get your content seen by as many people as possible. This can be done through social media, email marketing, paid advertising, etc.

Measuring:

-Track the performance of your campaign and make changes as needed.

Finally, you’ll need to track the performance of your campaign and adjust accordingly. This involves looking at things like web traffic data, social media engagement metrics, and conversion rates. By tracking these metrics, you can ensure that your campaign is on track and making the impact that you want it to make.”

Creating a content marketing strategy can be done in 9 steps.

1) Set a goal. 

The first step to creating a content marketing strategy is setting a goal for your business or products. What do you want to achieve with your content? Are you trying to drive traffic and leads to your website? Are you trying to build awareness for a new product or service launch? Once you know what goal you want to achieve with content, the rest of your strategy will fall into place.

2) Find your voice.

Once you know what goal you want to achieve with content, the next step is finding your voice. What tone and style of writing will best resonate with your audience? Do you want a more authoritative or conversational tone? Once you know what tone and style of writing will resonate best with your audience, the rest of your strategy will fall into place.

3) Research your topic.

Research your topic. The first step of planning content is research: what do you know about the subject? What are people asking questions about? What are they confused by? How can you help them? You can use tools like Google Trends or keywords to find content that your audience is already interested in. Using this information, you can focus on answering all the questions people have about a certain topic and help them solve problems they may be struggling with.

4) Create your content outline.

Create a content map, map out your ideas. In order for your content map to be effective, it needs to be organized. This map is the backbone of your content strategy. Start with a broad topic and then break it down into specific questions, topics, and map out your specific ideas to create the most effective strategy possible. To create an outline you can use a mind map. Start with a broad topic and then break it down into specific questions, topics, and map out your specific ideas to create the most effective strategy possible.

5) Promote your content maximize the power of online internet promotion.

Create a calendar. Create a schedule for the creation of content, promotion of content, and measurement of success. Create a content marketing team or an entire department or it can be specific to one person in your organization. It’s important to delegate and manage your expectations.

6) Engage with your audience.

Engage with your audience and encourage them to interact. Make it a two-way street..

Create a persona that represents your ideal customer and write to them in first person. Share stories about how your product or service has helped real people like them. How many people are engaging with your content? How many people share it? What’s the average time spent on your site per visit and how does that compare to other companies in your industry

7) Analyze your results.

Track your results. Measure the success of content marketing campaigns by tracking how many people visit a page, download an ebook, newsletter or whitepaper, or take a survey. This will help you to see what content is most effective and what topics are resonating with your target audience. Measure your progress and measure your success and adjust accordingly.

8) Adjust your strategy as needed.

Once you’ve implemented your strategy, look at the results and make adjustments. If a particular campaign isn’t working as well as expected, try another angle or approach with that content. If you find a topic that is particularly popular, focus more on it and expand the content around it.

Track your results: Measure the success of your campaigns by tracking how many people visit your site, how many people sign up for your email list and how many sales you make.

9) Rinse and repeat!

Once you’ve completed one content marketing cycle, start another one. This time, use the lessons you learned from your previous campaign to make it even more successful.

Everest Content marketing service

So what’s the difference?

A content marketing service is a platform that helps you create, publish and measure your content. They have tools to help you plan out your blog posts, email campaigns and social media content. They also help with SEO, analytics and audience targeting.

Content marketing services can be expensive if you’re not using them to publish your own content or just buying access to their tools.

If you are creating your own content, it’s just as easy to use a spreadsheet or Word document and plan out your posts in advance. You can also create an editorial calendar on your own.

If you’re using a content marketing service, it’s important to make sure they are providing value and not just doing the same thing that you could do on your own.

All this content marketing efforts must be scalable. But if you are the type of entrepreneur who would better focus on business, then its better to hire content marketing companies. Its a steep learning curve to create a content marketing strategy.

It’s not just about creating good content. You have to make sure people know it exists, and that they can find it when they need it.

Choose us to you be your content marketing service and we’ll help you with everything from planning to publishing and promoting.