But despite what many people think, content marketing is not about spending the day writing and publishing posts and waiting for visits and leads to grow like mushrooms, but there is much more to it than this.
Step-by-step guide: How to create a content marketing strategy
Content Managers are not automatic ceo email lists writing machines that write whatever we want, one post after another, but everything we do has a reason . What I intend with this step-by-step guide on content marketing is to show you everything that goes on behind the scenes to carry out this type of strategy.
As writers, we are used to writing about a wide variety of topics, especially those of us who work in agencies. In the morning you can be writing about technology and in the afternoon about tourism. As you can see, these are two topics that have nothing to do with each other. For this reason, first of all, it is essential that you know and become thoroughly familiar with the services and products of the company you are going to write for. But to make it clearer, I am going to give you a point-by-point summary, step by step, of what you would have to do to prepare a content marketing strategy that works .
1. Know the company well
As I told you a few lines ago, before you start writing any article for the company, the first thing you have to do is get to know it . Know what they do, how they do it, why they do it, who they are addressing, what tone they use... To do this you should:
Knowing what your Buyer Persona is
Having a clear idea of who the company's ideal client is is very important to know who you are addressing when writing. In this way, you can use a more approachable tone, or understand what their problems or doubts are, or why what the company offers is ideal for this buyer .
Know your goals
Why do you want to do content marketing? What do you hope to achieve? What type of content do you want to create? Will the posts be accompanied by resources? Will they be related to thematic campaigns? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself before you start writing without rhyme or reason. Believe me, writing for the sake of writing never usually works .
2. Content audit
Do you think you already know the company as if it were your own? Then it is time to do a Content Audit . This consists of three parts.
Checklist
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This checklist is a document in which you should write down all the actions related to content that the company does or does not carry out , to know where it is, and which actions that it does not carry out would be interesting to start working on, such as Call To Action, Infographics, resources, among many others.
Content audit
The next step in the content audit is to carry out an internal content audit of the company, for example, of all the content on the website . It is interesting to classify them with numbers, for example from 1 to 10, where one is the worst of all and ten is perfect. In this way, you will see which pages you should improve, so that the content positions better.
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SEO Audit
The SEO Audit is one of the most important actions you will take in preparing your content marketing strategy , since it will give you the most interesting keywords that you should include in posts related to the company , and that will help you achieve good positioning in search engines .
In addition, these can also be used by other companies in the sector, and this can help you compete with them, and get better visibility, brand awareness and positioning. To obtain these keywords, I use tools such as SEMRush or Google Analytics . Below you have an example of how I do this SEO Audit.
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3. Define the type of content
Depending on the objectives established in the first part of the strategy, your content will be focused in one way or another, depending on the conversion funnel.
You have different content options, more TOFU, that is, to make something known . They tend to be more basic posts and totally focused on positioning . Some titles that you can use are:
What is it…?
What is it for…?
Tips for…
You also have the option of creating more MOFU content , that is, content that would be found in the middle of the funnel, and would serve to solve a problem that your ideal client might have. Some examples:
Why should you use X and not X?
How to implement…?
Advantages of…
And finally, we would find the posts focused on BOFU , that is, those that serve to directly sell the company's product or services . I'll give you some examples:
X, your solution for…
Discover how to optimize your time and reduce costs with…
Improve your X with X
Another option that works very well is to alternate the three types of posts so as not to tire the reader and improve your positioning, but not only in search engines, but also how customers see your brand.
4. List of contents
Once all the previous points have been completed, it is time to look for the theme of the posts , according to the keywords or key words that you want to position and the defined objectives and Buyer Persona .
For example, if the company is targeting the B2B sector, posts should be created exclusively for this sector, and which will solve problems or provide solutions. This would be a brainstorming session with ideas.
The easiest way is to take the keyword and search on Google to see which posts are succeeding around it, and how we can compete with them in positioning.
Furthermore, once we have defined the posts, it is important to determine if they are going to be useful for carrying out certain campaigns, such as Webinars, sending promotions, among others.
5. Creating an editorial calendar
It is important to create an editorial calendar . That is, mark the days that will be published, have clear post titles and take into account the special days within the calendar, since this will help us to make posts related to that day and move them through networks. Below I show you an example of an editorial calendar.
