By now all businesses should be aware of the importance of a content marketing strategy. It’s not a luxury, but a necessity. For years, the term ‘Content is King’ has been a hot buzzword in business marketing, and there’s a good reason why. When building out your strategy it’s important to remember that content is at the heart of all marketing.

Now that we’ve established the importance of content, let’s transition into the main focus of this article, a ‘content marketing strategy.’ Emphasis is placed on this part of the marketing strategy and is a big component of the overall marketing plan. A lot of time and effort is required to devise a fully functional content marketing strategy. So what do you have to do to boost your content marketing strategy? Go over our list to find out.

• • Start with your objective

You start by asking yourself what the point of your content marketing strategy is? How will it help your business? How do you want it to affect your business?

Determining your clear objective can help you create a concise marketing strategy, leaving out the unnecessary pieces that could actually get in the way rather than nurture your growth.

• • Establish your target audience

After determining your goal you shouldn’t immediately jump into creating content, you have to know who you’re creating the content for. Define your target audience, build your buyer personas, and directly to them.

Content marketing is all about solving your customers’ problems. Your content should be able to help your audience and answer questions about your products and/or services. Understanding your audience and your objectives are important to ensure your content will be able to serve your goals.

• • Produce a variety of content

Try spicing up your content to keep your readers interested. It will also help you in gaining more readers, those who might be interested in a specific type of format or style.

• • • How-to’s: Create content that can educate your readers with an in-depth step-by-step article.
    • Lists: Try making lists involving topics that might interest your readers.
    • Compilation: Write a compilation of the different insights and views from varying experts.
    • Explanatory: Explain jargon and terms used in your business industry.
    • Think Piece/ Column: Share your opinion regarding a certain topic. Some of your readers may value your perception on different topics.
    • Why piece: Write an article explaining different concepts and/or products.
    • Profile/Feature with Q&A: Talk to an influential individual in your field and create an article about them. You can even include quotes from your interview. Make sure to include your Q&A.
    • Survey: Include a survey for your readers so they can engage with you.
  • Get to know your audience

It’s your job to research about your audience’s needs. Engage with your readers to get their insights. Talk to them to better understand how you may persuade them. Then you have to organize by persona and funnel stage to map out the necessary content.

• • Devise an execution plan

It’s also important to observe how your audience reacts in regards to the content you put out. Like how and where your audience consumes information. Create a content calendar as a guide for your posts.

• • Get people to notice your content

Putting out great content is useless when you don’t have an audience to appreciate it. Boost your content and start marketing your content. This is where social media steps in. Decide which social media platform has the most potential for your company and the ones your target audience engages with most. Once you determine your best course of action, boost and advertise your posts to further your reach. You can also employ influencers to talk about your content which will help garner more people.

Do you find any of the tips helpful? Try them and come back to tell us how it worked for you!