6 Steps for a Content Creation Strategy to Grow Your Business
Posted by Julianne Salisbury on Sat, Jan 21, 2012 @ 09:56 AM
Implementing a content creation strategy for your business has never been more important than today. Outbound marketing is becoming less and less effective. It is increasingly seen as being "pushy" or disruptive.
On the other hand, inbound marketing has never been more effective than it is today. Conducting a proper campaign consists of having customers find you, rather than trying to sell to people that aren’t asking for it. Your customers are there, seeking information.
When forming your inbound marketing content creation strategy, it is helpful to keep several steps in mind.
Step 1: What is Your Audience Seeking?
Exactly what type of information do your customers seek? Figure this one out as specifically as you can, because it influences everything else.
This first step involves actually putting yourself in your prospect's shoes. What are they thinking about? What are their concerns and problems?
All marketing must start with identifying who your target audience is and exactly what they are looking for.
Step 2: Where Does Your Audience Congregate?
The next step is to identify where exactly your audience gathers online. Once you have accurately identified what the audience is looking for, it becomes much easier to figure out where they are.
This can be as simple as finding out what forums your audience uses. Or which newsletters they read. You may also frequent these same places. At any rate, this will also influence your content creation strategy.
Step 3: Evaluate Current Content Strategies:
What are you currently doing to create content? Is it effective?
Most businesses could really use some help in this area. You need to really take a hard look at your inbound marketing, and make decisions as to what is working...and what is not. Can the poorer performing strategies be turned around? Or is it time to try other things? Or perhaps add extra focus to what is currently working?
Step 4: Develop Promotion Methods:
This is THE crucial step in your inbound marketing, as far as creating content itself is concerned. This is where you focus on tactics. Some options in this area include:
- Blogging
- Article writing/marketing
- White papers
- Social media sites
- Search engine optimization
- Email marketing
- Public relations
Step 5: Who Will Be Responsible For Inbound Marketing?
Content creation will be much more effective if there is a clear sense of who on the team will be responsible. Of course, inbound marketing tasks do not need to fall to only one person. In fact, you may wish to have someone in charge of a blogging campaign and another person head up article marketing.
Step 6: Evaluation:
You must be able to find a way to determine whether your strategies and tactics are working or need improvement. Establish some guidelines for this. It could be the number of visitors to your site. Maybe use conversion numbers, or the number of people who view your articles.
Being clear and following guidelines will help improve your inbound marketing. This will make your company a trusted source.
