Using content for marketing your business is a no-brainer. It’s been done since businesses started advertising and marketing. So forever.
It’s honestly not a new thing, however, using content to market online has made it even more effective due to the fact you can track your efforts and laser target your ideal customer using keywords.
FREE Download: 5 Step Content Strategy
How To Create Content for Marketing Purposes
Content for marketing includes mostly the educational, informational, motivational and persuasive content that you use throughout your marketing funnel to attract your ideal audience. Here are 10 key elements for your content creation strategy.
1. Understand Your Business and Your Audience
You’ve heard it before, but it will never change. You must always study your ideal customer and understand how your business functions to solve the specific problems for the specific people in your audience.
2. Know Your Goals
The goal you have for each piece of content you create will be individually determined. If you want to attract new audience members if you want to expand your reach, if you want to make a sale… it’s all a different goal that you must know before developing the content.
3. Know How You’ll Measure Your Goals
Each of your goals needs a metric or key performance indicator that you’re reaching for or looking for. For example, how will you measure whether you’ve reached new customers or not? Know how you’ll determine success so that you can set up the technology right.
4. Focus on Content Clusters
A content cluster is simply a broad topic covered by related content that is narrower in focus. So, for example, you may start with the broad topic of SEO and then focus down on each individual element of SEO, then you link each of the smaller articles to the larger topic.
5. Choose Where You’ll Publish Your Content
You should know where you’re going to publish the content before even starting the creative process. Whether it’s your blog, social platforms like YouTube or Instagram, etc. Where it gets published informs many other factors of the content like format, visuals, and so forth.
6. Determine the Content Types You’ll Use
Will you publish written content, videos, podcasts, or something else? The truth is, publishing a wide variety of formats is always better because everyone, even within your audience, learns differently.
7. Design Content Repurposing from the Start
The great thing about content marketing is that you can create content once, then pick it apart and use it elsewhere. You can also change the format or even the target audience to make it new and refreshed.
8. Create a Content Calendar
Once you have the particulars worked out, start a content calendar and spell out what, when, where, why, and how of each piece of content, including your repurposing plans.
9. Set Your Schedule and Implement
Once you’ve made the calendar, you can set up your schedule and get it done. Don’t delay because content published is better than content that is perfect but only in your mind.
10. Track, Measure, and Test
A solid website content strategy is a plan of how you are going to use content to grow and market your online business. Always track every KPI, measure the results, and try testing new ideas to improve your efforts.
Free Checklist: 5 Steps To Create Content for MarketingÂ
The most important thing is that you get to know your audience so that you know exactly how they want the content you create designed and delivered to them. Writing good content is all about following a process that helps you cover all the arguments your audience may have in their mind about the solution you’re recommending.
To help make this process simple, download the free checklist, The 5 Step Content Strategy to discover the key content marketing tactics used by the most successful online entrepreneurs.