Before we get stuck into content strategies, consider this: You’re going about your normal day at home, out in the world or even at work and you realise you don’t know the answer to something. A query, a question, a half-formed unknown that makes you pause and grasp for information just out of reach in your mind. Simultaneously your hand has already reached for your phone, is moving the mouse towards the search bar, or you’ve already started typing out your question on the keyboard.

That’s why we need content. To capture people at this moment of query and reveal to them that your products or services are just the right solution to their needs, that you hold all the answers. This is my entry point, and from here I can position content to further guide them through the sales funnel.

Well, that’s part of it. There are lots of different reasons your target audience go in search of content and different opportunities to get it in front of them as we progress through the sales funnel.

But if we take the top of the sales funnel as our starting point, then we’re dealing with a lot of unknowns we need to tackle as the basis of our content strategy:

• Who are we trying to help here? Who is our target customer?
• Who are we? How do we help people?
• What is our target customer’s query?
• Will it always be the same query or will it evolve?
• What will they want once they’ve answered their question?
• Can they get the information they need anywhere else?

That’s why we need a content strategy, it’s a roadmap outlining who we are, who we help, why people need our help, and outlines how and which content would help them. It goes in many directions all at once.

A robust content marketing strategy is a journey that shows how your customers will interact with your brand until they convert. It’s not about creating content for the sake of it (just get those blogs out, post more organic social!); it’s about crafting content that resonates with your audience, addresses their pain points, and ultimately compels them to take desired actions that lead them to convert and ultimately, buy from you.

The benefits of a content marketing strategy

I create content marketing strategies that are well-thought-out and empathy led. I place myself in the shoes of my target personas to understand their needs, their pain points, what keeps them up at night at the different stages of the sales funnel, and craft content to reach them as their problems evolve.

My process has a wide array of benefits, including:

• Enhancing brand visibility and authority
• Increasing organic traffic to the website (via SEO optimisation)
• Drawing in engaged audiences
• Building trust and fostering a relationship before they’ve even decided to buy
• Driving lead generation
• Establishing the brand as a thought leader
• Emphasising unique selling propositions and setting us apart from competitors
• Cultivating conversions, re-engagement and long-term customer loyalty

How I create content marketing strategies: My 13-step process

There are lots of ways to create a content marketing strategy, I prefer to take an in-depth approach that covers all bases of who we are, who we’re trying to attract, what we’ve done before, who we’re up against, where the opportunities lie, and go from there.

Step 1: Check in on the brand

To create an effective digital or content marketing strategy from scratch, I start with a full reckoning of the brand to check value propositions still ring true against the business’ priorities, internal culture, and product portfolio. That means reviewing the:

• Vision statement
• Mission statement
• Product marketing and sales collateral
• USPs and value proposition messaging

Step 2: Define your audience and markets

Understanding the target audience is pivotal in content marketing. I focus on creating content that speaks to their interests, concerns, and needs, so I need to know who they are and what they worry about!

If buyer personas already exist, I conduct some light market research to check they are still accurate representations, and adjust if needed. In the absence of buyer personas, I will conduct thorough market research to identify your audience’s demographics, psychographics, and online behaviours.

It is important for a content strategy to be built of solid buyer personas that map out their exact needs and challenges at each stage of the sales funnel and the buyer’s journey so I can shape content to suit those different needs.

Step 3: Understand business goals and strategy

Every effective strategy I create begins with a clear understanding of what your business more widely wants to achieve. I then shape a content approach to support those priorities.

I establish if you are you looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads, boost sales, or establish authority in your industry, and use those as my guiding north star when constructing content outputs and channel approaches.

Step 4: SWOT and competitor analysis

SWOT analysis reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the current or previous strategy. I combine this with competitor research where I analyse their content efforts, to again identify content gaps and opportunities. This both helps me understand what our target audience expect, and what other resources they can use to answer their search queries, and helps me understand what we need to do to differentiate ourselves from our competition.

Step 5: Define content goals and objectives

I use Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals to help not only create achievable KPIs, but to support measurement and analytical processes down the line.

Step 6: Keyword research

Keyword research is a fundamental component of my content marketing. It helps me identify the words and phrases your audience is searching for. I am very comfortable creating keyword strategies using Semrush or AHREFs and doing ad hoc SEO research using Keywords Everywhere.

Using these tools, I create a list of high-impact keywords and phrases that align with your goals and target audiences. These become the basis for my approach to content pillars and topic clusters.

Step 7: Content planning and your content calendar

Once I understand where the SEO opportunities lie, I can begin to draw together the different threads of brand, business goals, intended content outcomes, and SWOT analysis to plot out what content we need and when in a content calendar. Each section of the sales funnel should have an appropriate amount of content aligned to meet the pain points of our buyer personas at that stage.

A content calendar helps me stay organized and consistent with content creation and distribution. I outline what content will be produced, when it will be published, and which platforms it will be shared across. A content calendar is also a great way to track progress!

To ensure cross-functional awareness of content drops, I make the content calendar publicly available to key stakeholders so they know what’s going out when and how to engage with it in a meaningful way.

Step 8: Thinking one step ahead

It’s not just about putting the content calendar together, I also think about how content interacts with other pieces of content. When your audience has finished reading one piece of content, what should they do next? Do I expect them to convert right away or do I think they would benefit from reading further content related to this piece to build that trust in the brand?

I like to map out in my content calendar what my calls to action will be and which content pieces will link to others in a structured user journey that matches the buyers journey, moving my readers through the sales funnel till they become a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL).

Step 9: Content creation

Time to get started! The highpoint of a content strategy, when the ideas and tools are laid out before you and it’s time to get going.

The key here is to produce high-quality, engaging, and valuable content in different formats, including blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, thought leadership and more, all designed to hit customers at the right stage in their buying journey and nurture them through the sales funnel.

Consistency of tone, brand and quality is key here so that every time a potential customer engages with my content they grow to trust you more and more and get closer to making a purchasing decision.

Step 10: SEO optimisation

Search Engine Optimising (SEO) my content as I go with the keywords and long-tail keyword phrases I outlined earlier in the process ensures my content is discoverable by the right target audience. A long-term strategy of optimisation is important too, I consider each piece a living document to be worked on continually to improve page load times and enhance the user experience.

Step 11: Content distribution and promotion via a structured channel approach

Creating fantastic content is only half the battle. Distributing it and promoting it effectively is equally important! I outline which distribution channels will best suit our target audience at which times: be it paid or organic social media, SEO optimised landing pages, email marketing or PPC. I test which times work best for posting and distribution too so my content has the best impact.

Step 12: Measure, analyse and optimise

Based on the goals I set earlier in the content strategy process, I set up Google Data Studio to understand individual asset’s performance and measure metrics like:

• Website traffic
• Click-through rates
• Conversion rates
• Engagement metrics

Based on the results measured here, I work out if anything is underperforming and needs to be adjusted and optimised.

Step 13: Measure ROI

Ultimately, every content marketing strategy should deliver a return on investment (ROI). To calculate the costs associated with my content marketing efforts, I measure them against the revenue generated from these efforts.

This is my approach to building a content marketing strategy that is customised to your specific business needs and target audience. By following these steps, measuring results, and adapting as necessary, I can build a content marketing strategy that drives growth, engages your target audience, and delivers a significant return on investment.

I use it as a roadmap to guide my efforts and also track progress, however, it is important to note that the market can change, which can impact your customers’ priorities, and your business plans. This means that my content strategy needs to be adjustable and flexible to what could happen.

If you’re interested in working together, shoot me an email: gracewrites892@gmail.com