How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy from Scratch?

Planning and creating content for promoting a business can get overwhelming at times. Given the constant increase in the variety of content available online, understanding all the strategies and digital tools available is a steep learning curve. 

So in this article, we are going to tell you how to create a content marketing strategy from scratch and execute it all by yourself!

What is Content Marketing Strategy?

Content marketing strategy is the art of regularly creating rich content for users to bring them closer to business. A proper content marketing strategy can effectively convert visitors to customers. The idea is to provide content that genuinely solves a problem faced by the user and subtly promote one’s own product or service during the process. ‍

10 Questions You Need To Ask For A Stellar Content Marketing Strategy 

Steps to Build Content Marketing Strategy

Following are the steps to build a content marketing strategy.‍

Goal Identification

The first and most important step in content marketing is to identify the goals of the project clearly. Having no well-defined goals might lead to no results or even disastrous results in extreme cases. It is best to focus on a particular set of goals when creating a content marketing strategy. Some examples of content marketing goals can be like:

• To get more visitors and improve the site rankings
• To sell a product or a service
• Spread a social message
• Boost cosmetic metrics (Likes, Followers etc.)

Target Audience

This step involves conducting an extensive study of the behaviour of the target audience. When studying the target audience, one should try to understand their behaviour and distribute them into different sections based on the demographics.

Content Solutions 

The kind of content that appeals to various user groups differs significantly. The solution is to create different content for different niches and user groups. Say, for example, visitors looking for content related to the entertainment niche will find pictures and videos more interesting, whereas the ones looking for detailed information will prefer long articles or blog posts. 

In content marketing, building a relationship with visitors is the first step towards conversion. It is important to address the visitor’s problems and provide solutions to them instead of trying to get them to pay for your services or products. 

Content Idea Generation

Here is a list of the best tools that can come in handy when generating content ideas and the content itself:

• Generate AI: Generate AI is a great way to overcome the short form content crisis for your marketing campaigns. Use the power of AI to generate unlimited and unique content. Using Generate AI can save your company’s time to first look for writers. It can be used to create content for titles, catchy captions, CTAs, etc. Just add in your brand name and context, rest all is taken care of by the powerful content-generating tool.
  

• UberSuggests: UberSuggest is one of the most potent keywords analysing tools. It is used to generate content ideas, get data related search volumes, backlink data, and a lot more. If you want to dive deeper, then you can check out other tools like Semrush, Google Keyword Planner, and Ahrefs as well.
  

• AnswerThePublic: If you are struggling to find the questions that people are searching related to your keyword, then you should try this one out. AnswerThePublic gives you an insight into the volumes of searches on questions related to a particular keyword. It wouldn’t be incorrect to call this site a goldmine of ideas.
  

• Headline Analyzer by Coschedule: Headline is the first thing users look at when they come across a piece of content. It should be well optimised and intriguing. Headline Analyzer by Coschedule can be used to check the quality of the headline and make improvements. 
  

• Grammarly: Writing isn’t easy, but this tool tries to make it for you. Grammarly not only catches grammatical mistakes but also finds issues that affect the clarity, engagement and delivery of the text. A must-have app if you write anything on your device.
  

• Canva: The one-stop solution to all your graphic creation needs. You can design all sorts of banners, flyers, infographics, presentations and all other marketing material on this website free of cost. The premium membership lets you access some advanced features.
  

• Filmora: If editing videos is your thing, then Filmora can help you get started. The software can be used to create different kinds of videos. However, experienced users should go with the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite.
  

Content Marketing Formats 

An important part of how to create a content marketing strategy is to decide on the content marketing format. Some of the most commonly found content formats on the internet are:

• Articles, blogs, newsletters and other text: If you are creative enough, text content can take you long ways. Websites and social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are the best for posting text content. A lot of leads can be generated by e-mail newsletters as well.
  

• Images and infographics: Visual content is the best when it comes to capturing the attention of the visitors. You can convey your message easily to your visitors with the help of catchy images. Images are easy to create and increase user engagement.
  

• Videos: While you don’t really need an expensive camera to record simple videos, the investment increases exponentially as the quality of production goes up. To create high-quality videos, you’ll have to hire videographers and editors, and that can cost you a bomb.
  

• User Reviews: As search engines and online shopping platforms gained popularity, it gave rise to an important content format that has emerged as a prominent option. User reviews have a significant impact on conversion. Almost all customers hesitate to purchase something that has no user reviews. Many brands indulge in buying paid reviews, but there are better ways to get organic ones.
  

• Events, Contests and Giveaways: Giving away your products and services or conducting contests can help advertise your business. It is the fastest way to increase engagement on your posts. All you need to do is to ask your audience to like, comment and share the post to enter the giveaway and wait for the magic to happen.

Content Distribution Strategy

Social media is a powerful tool to distribute content online. Content can be distributed in various forms. Even if the audience is the same, they expect a particular type of content from a specific social media platform.

Let us consider an example to understand this better. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are optimised for posting images. People visit these websites to see pictures. For watching videos, people turn to YouTube. All these platforms are for having fun and networking with like-minded people. LinkedIn, too, is a social media platform, but it’s more formal. LinkedIn is primarily meant for working professionals.

Similar content can be crafted in various ways to suit different social media platforms. Diversifying the content format and distribution strategy is the key to success in content marketing. 

Measure Your Results 

After creating a robust content marketing plan and executing it in order, the next step is analysing the results. One may get consistent with content creation but doing that without analysing user feedback is like shooting in the dark. 

You need to know the user feedback on what they liked the most about your content. What type of content formats are most liked and shared, or what drives a negative response. Now how will you analyse the content performance? Here are some of the key performance indicators that you can look at while analysing your content performance using Google Analytics: 

• Consumption Metrics: The consumption patterns and user interaction determine the performance of the content. Some of the factors to analyse are average time on page, bounce rate and pageviews. 
  

• Social Media Metrics: The performance of the content repurposed or created on social media platforms can be judged based on the number of likes, shares, conversions and the number of visitors on your platform directed through social media channels. Once you have this data, you will be able to decipher which type of content gets converted and which platform is working best for different types of content. 
  

• Sales Metrics: For some businesses, the ultimate goal is to boost revenue. If your content isn’t performing well, this means that the engagement factor is lacking. Therefore, it is imperative to find out the amount of revenue your content is generating. 
  

Customer Feedback 

While data analysis will help you address the content gaps and make suitable modifications, customer feedback will give you a better understanding of what the end consumers are looking for. Customers need to know that their opinions matter. 

You can reach out to your customers directly with proper questionnaires, quizzes or stay active on social media to respond to their feedback, both positive and negative. Their views and interests expressed online combined with big data analytics will help you create an effective content marketing strategy. ‍

Content Amplification 

Once you have formulated a sound content marketing plan and have derived proper data insights, the next step is content amplification. This can only be done once you have a better understanding of platforms that are best suited for your content. 

To amplify the content, you need to first identify channels that your target audience is actively following and then feature your content on that platform for maximum reach. You will also need to identify all the available options and then harness the power of customers and influencers for the best results. 

We hope you now understand how to create a content marketing strategy. Now, it's time to find some amazing creative content creators who will help you execute the strategy with exceptional results. Get in touch with the Scalenut team now and save yourself from the never-ending struggle of finding the right content and designs for your platform.