When building a content marketing plan, there are a million paths to choose from. Many of those paths are exceedingly complex and some are overly simplified. The key is to find the right balance of strategy and ease.
As you build your content marketing plan, keep these tips in mind. With a little forethought and intentionality, your content marketing plan has the potential to make all the difference.
The Goal of Content Marketing
As you work to develop your plan, remember the 3 goals you are trying to achieve:
- Drive AWARENESS for your brand
- Deliver VALUE to your customers in advance
- Gain TRUST and CREDIBILITY
As you work toward these goals, every step of your content marketing plan should come in line with these. It’s important to maintain consistency in your advertising, so these should be a priority.
Determine Your Keywords
You need to consider keywords that will appeal to your target audience. If you’re targeting mothers with young children, you’ll need keywords related to the early stages of motherhood. Alternatively, if you’re selling golf clubs to wealthy retirees, you’ll use keywords that target that demographic. It’s important to have standard keywords that you use, but there are many options for long-form keywords as well. These may be more applicable for certain circumstances.
Use Keyword Research tools like:
These allow you to find the right terms and words searched by your target audience. You can also use a resource like Answer the Public that shows specific questions people are asking online in relation to your marketing. This can help with long-form posts where you answer how your product can solve their problem.
Ideally, keywords should have a monthly search volume greater than 1000. Greater search volume means more people are likely to see your content.
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Build an Editorial Calendar
Editorial Calendars are important for planning ahead. What are your plans for the year? What does your content marketing look like moving forward? How will it reflect the past? Will you make any dramatic changed? Document key information about your planned content, including:
- Content Type
- Keywords
- Post Date
- URL’s
- Core Offers
These elements must be included in your planning, so you have a guide for where you plan to go throughout the year.
Get Started
There are important steps to take in building your content marketing plan and Planify™ can help. But no matter where you’re at, you can’t grow your business without getting started. Using the principles above, you can move forward with a content marketing plan that allows your business to gain followers, encourage leads, and become a resource for customers everywhere.