Content marketing strategy “vancouver”: the ultimate overview

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What is a content strategy and how to do it

Content marketing is a powerful tool for building brand awareness through engaging content (articles, videos, infographics, polls, podcasts, magazines, how-tos). But do not assume that it is enough just to create and distribute content. Content marketing starts with a well thought out content strategy.

So, in order to work not blindly and see your results, you need to create a content strategy. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) 2021 B2B Report , only 43% of marketers actually write and use a content strategy.

With Canva , we figure out how to create a content strategy, share a step-by-step guide, talk about techniques and tools for work.

What is a content strategy and why is it needed?

Every day, users consume a huge amount of content: they scroll through social networks, watch videos on YouTube and Tik Tok, listen to podcasts. Standing out in this endless ocean of information is a task that seems almost impossible.

To get attention as a brand, you need to create a well-thought-out content strategy that will help you move forward and achieve your goals.

A content strategy is a brand plan (script) to attract traffic, audience and increase sales through content. That is, strategic content planning to achieve key business goals.

Content strategy is an important part of a brand’s overall marketing strategy and includes the following points:

  • what are you trying to achieve and who do you want to reach;
  • what types of content you will publish;
  • what posting and promotion tools you will use;
  • analysis of results metrics of the content strategy.

A content strategy will help define the tone of the brand and establish communication with the client. To do this, be sure to include in it a detailed promotion plan on different platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, Yandex.Zen, as well as the main site or blog for search queries (SEO).

See an example of a content strategy – a rough plan of where, where and how you will move.

For visual content, we recommend using the Canva editor to create your own publication designs, business presentations, use boards to brainstorm with your team.

To do this, register on the Canva platform. If you like a particular Canva design in an article, click Use This Template. The basic features of the Canva editor are available for free, but for more features, you can connect Canva Pro .

You can use this design in your Instagram gallery post if you want to tell your audience about content marketing.

Content plan and content strategy are not the same thing

Many people confuse the two concepts of “content plan” and “content strategy”. A content strategy is an extensive plan for promoting a brand (the path from goals and objectives to results), while a content plan is a narrowly focused planning for promotion on specific platforms.

A content plan is more about time management, it does not define goals, tasks, methods, but performs its main function – planning the publication of relevant and regular content by day / week / month.

If you are promoting a brand on 1-2 platforms, you can make a general content plan, like on a ready-made Canva template.

A step by step guide to making a good content strategy

We share instructions on how to make a good content strategy for promoting content on the Internet (from SEO to SMM).

Step 1. Determine the main goals of your content strategy

The core of a content strategy is defining content marketing goals and objectives so you can focus on what’s important and what’s not. To do this, follow the two-tier structure of SMART goal setting.

Study the Canva diagram to understand what an adequate goal consists of.

For example, the goal “make a website” is not SMART at all, otherwise it would look like this “launch a website on the WordPress platform by June 2022.”

Prepare two types of goals: SMART and long-term (more abstract).

  • SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, with clear deadlines. Think of these as your process goals to make sure you are doing the necessary tasks to achieve your goals.
  • Long-term goals are big quarterly or yearly goals designed to push your team to achieve more ambitious results.

These types of goals will help define your content strategy. For example, your long-term goal is to increase organic search traffic by 100% within a year. And here are a few SMART goals that can achieve such results.

  • Publish 25 articles on the blog (on the website) and on Instagram every month.
  • Record 3-4 TikTok videos a week to attract a new audience to the site.

On the website of the Internet agency Texterra, among the cases you can find ready-made content strategies – an example for understanding what strategic content planning should be like.

Step 2: Define Your Audience – Understand Metrics

Carefully study your audience, create a few typical of your customers. This step is very important because developing a content strategy that targets the wrong audience will waste time and money.

Determine age, area of ​​interest, marital status, geolocation, income level, profession, desired products, pain points. Use the following tools to collect this data.

  • Metrics on the site ( Yandex. Metrika , Google Analytics , LiveInternet ).
  • Social media analytics (to do this, connect a business account on all platforms).
  • Audience surveys and interviews (ask on Instagram stories about interests, work, marital status, location of your followers).

Based on the data obtained, create several ideal customers for your brand. Record your results in infographics.

Step 3. Formulate brand communication strategy (brand language and voice)

So, you have defined content marketing goals and formulated portraits of your customers (or just subscribers), now you need to understand what language to speak with them.

A brand communication strategy is communication with an audience that has specific goals. The most important thing is to designate the tone of voice of the brand (Tone of voice) – this is how the brand looks (its values, its image, its intonations) in the eyes of the consumer. Use our Canva template to get an idea of ​​what your brand voice should be like.

The tone should be the same on all platforms where the brand is promoted. Think about how your brand sounds, what it talks about (ecology, equality, parenting, personality psychology, etc.), how it communicates this information (friendly, humorous or serious), what language it uses (colloquial, scientific or business), brand emotionality (unemotional, very emotional).

For example, Apple’s voice is reserved, serious, businesslike, not very emotional. But the footwear brand Sintezia has a youthful, provocative, friendly voice.

Step 4. Choose a content management system (CMS)

CMS is a website platform where you will publish content to rank for search queries.

The easiest way is to make a website on WordPress or using the Tilda Publishing constructor , for this you do not need to involve third-party developers. All you need is a person who creates content and a content manager who publishes material to the blog.

Step 5. Form a team and distribute tasks

You need to choose a system for project and team management so that all participants work smoothly, answer questions in a timely manner and complete tasks. Of the well-known project management platforms, we recommend Trello , YouGile , Bitrix24 , Jira . Choose the option that suits your needs!

Be sure to write down in the content strategy who will be responsible for each stage of the strategy implementation. So you can correctly estimate the budget for content marketing and understand which performers still need to be found.

Describe in detail what tasks each employee or freelancer is responsible for. For a small project, you will need the following specialists.

  • The project manager is responsible for organizing all tasks and communication between the performers.
  • A content manager or editor draws up a content plan, controls the work of authors and the publication of materials.
  • A copywriter is engaged in the creation of text content. Sometimes it is necessary to find several authors depending on the volumes.
  • An SEO specialist is responsible for promoting a website or blog in search engines.
  • The designer is responsible for the visual component.
  • An SMM specialist draws up content plans for social networks and is engaged in promotion.

A content manager, designer, copywriter, SMM specialist can work together to prepare visual materials in the Canva editor, for this you need to create a team . You will be able to comment on designs, share ideas, suggest your templates – all this can be done online in Canva, team members will receive notifications.

Step 6: Audit Your Existing Content

If some content has already been published on the site and in social networks, it must be carefully studied. Some of the content may be outdated, inappropriate for business purposes, or not show up in search queries. Think about what you need to change in the content.

You can try to work with published content! Here are some ways to improve existing content:

  • visualize with graphics;
  • simplify or break a complex topic into several posts;
  • combine related content into a guide;
  • use explanatory videos;
  • add expert comments on the topic.

Step 7. Create Semantic Core (SEO) for New Content

35% of all website traffic comes from organic search, which is why search engine optimization is so important for content marketing. SEO promotion begins with the compilation of a semantic core – this is a set of phrases and words by which Yandex and Google search robots will rank the site and show the necessary pages to visitors.

Example: if you are promoting tours, it is desirable that the pages of your site appear in the search results for such queries, for example, “Hot tours to Egypt”, “What to see in Barcelona”, “Where to rent accommodation in Istanbul”.

You can decide on key phrases for your content using Google. Word Search and Keyword Planner (by Google).

Collect as many keywords as possible, then group them into semantic blocks and write articles for them. For example, for the query “trip to Istanbul” you will find “documents for a trip to Istanbul”, “what you need to travel to Istanbul”, “trip to Istanbul on your own” – under these keys you can write different articles or make one full-fledged guide.

Step 8. Choose platforms for your content strategy

Choose a few main platforms for brand promotion. For example, a blog on the site, Instagram and Tik Tok. For each platform, you need to prepare separate content plans as part of a single content strategy.

Step 9. Decide on the types and formats of content

Content can be textual (articles, posts, manuals, cases, interviews), visual (videos, pictures, infographics, charts, checklists) and auditory (podcasts, radio, audiobooks). All types and formats need to be combined in order to pursue different business objectives: from increasing audience loyalty to sales.

Publish not only articles, but also collections, reviews, reviews, cases, polls, statistics, presentations. To draw up a content plan, marketer Chris Lake shared the author’s periodic table, a translation of this table was published on Ivanpalii.com , you can use it for your project.

The point is to select one or more elements of each color to create the material. For example, the format is an article, the view is a beginner’s guide, the platform is a website, the dimensions are search metrics, the goals are traffic, the triggers (emotions) are relevant, fun, the checklist is search queries. That is, in this case, we are preparing a guide for beginners on some expert topic in order to collect more traffic based on search queries.

Usually, the following main types of content are distinguished: engaging, selling, entertaining, reputational. Many marketers find it difficult to strike a balance between advertising and other types of content. Because the main goal of brands is sales. But the audience is tired of advertising, consumers need to be carefully motivated to make a purchase, not to impose products.

It is important to learn how to speak with the audience, so blogs and social networks should have more engaging (interactive) content in order to communicate more with the audience.

The formats may vary depending on the chosen platform. For example, the main formats on Instagram are posts (short, long, gallery), stories, Reels.

For example, in a week to keep your blog active on Instagram, you need to publish 4-5 posts, 10-15 stories (among them should be interactive to interact with the audience) and 1-2 Reels videos. To better understand this format, we recommend our article “Simple instructions on how to start learning Instagram Reels” .

Make Reels videos more interesting, design them in Canva, add frames, add cool fonts, stickers, effects, animations.

We recommend reading our article “How to make a content plan better: instructions, templates and examples” .

Step 10. Brainstorm on the choice of topics for content preparation

What to blog and social media about? Sometimes there are no ideas at all: in order to collect keywords for SEO promotion, you still need to come up with rough topics. Brainstorm to find ideas. Write down all the words, phrases that you associate with your project. Invite other team members to brainstorm.

Sometimes the method of associations can be used to come up with new ones based on old topics. Canva has a ready-made template for collecting ideas.

Step 11: Find Experts to Increase Trust Index

The next step is to pay attention to increasing the expertise of the content. Try to find specialists in your field, expert bloggers, arrange collaborations.

Google search is based on the concept of Experience, Authority and Trust (EAT). The better the materials on the site, the higher your pages in the search. Increasing your experience, credibility and trust can benefit your project. This is especially important.

Step 12. Delayed Posting

Content should be posted regularly on all platforms using deferred posting. We recommend trying out the Content Planner feature in Canva.

To do this, after creating a design, click “Plan”, select a platform, link your social networks to Canva, select a date and time for publication. You can thus plan content for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and other platforms.

CMS platforms for websites also usually have the option of delayed publication. For example, in WordPress, you can specify a specific date and time at which the material will be automatically published. For posting content on Instagram, the SMMplanner service is popular .

Step 13. Consider a content distribution strategy (promotion channels)

Content distribution is an important stage of the content strategy. After creating the material, you need to think about its subsequent distribution in order to get as much response from the audience as possible. Leave links, invite bloggers to talk about your publication, duplicate content on third-party sites (RSS or blogs Yandex. Zen, Pulse, Telegram, Pinterest).

Run targeted ads to promote your posts on Instagram, Facebook, VK.

Step 14: Make a Content Strategy Presentation for the Team

All the information from the previous paragraphs must be visualized so that team members can look at specific paragraphs at any time and then use this template for other projects.

It is best to design your content strategy as a presentation, at any time you can broadcast it on any screen right from Canva.

Step 15. Prepare a redaction policy so that authors follow the general rules for creating content

An editorial policy should also be drawn up at the stage of developing a content strategy, it is necessary to create content in a unified style.

Redpolitika is a guide from the editor (or content marketer) for authors, SMM specialists, content managers on working with text. All major brands have this guide. In general, you should have an editorial policy for each project, so as not to explain separately to each author the nuances of working with the text.

All you need to do is create a presentation in Canva that you can send to your employees and freelancers.

Step 16: Analyze the effectiveness of your content

Analyzing the effectiveness of your content is the best way to understand what type and format of content is ideal for your audience. Rely on the opinions of users, so it will be easier for you to come up with new content that will definitely interest the audience.

The effectiveness of content marketing can be measured in different ways. Metrics can be varied, they depend on what goals your business pursues.

  • Study the change in the total number of visitors – how much traffic to the site has improved over the time the content strategy was followed. Compare the number of unique visitors, visitors from different devices, geolocations, etc.
  • How the bounce rate has changed (the lower, the higher the audience engagement and the higher the effectiveness of the content, the amount of time spent on the site, the number of repeat visits, repeated visits by users of the site indicates that the content is interesting).
  • What happens to engagement: the number of likes, reposts, saving to favorites / bookmarks.
  • Change in the number of brand mentions in various sources. For evaluation, you can use special services: Popsters , YouScan and others.

Creating good content is hard, but great content is a powerful tool for building brand awareness. Use different formats and types of content, cover different communication channels, combine content marketing and SEO. But first, start with a competent content strategy!

Development, templates and examples of suitable content

Most companies need a content strategy to organize content production and get the most out of it. In this article, I will explain how to develop such a strategy, what it consists of, what content and distribution channels to use, and how to evaluate the results.

Content:

  • What is a content strategy
  • How content marketing differs from SEO
  • How to combine SEO and content marketing the right way
  • Content types
  • Content Formats
  • Content Distribution Channels
  • Own channels
  • Guest Channels
  • Paid advertising
  • Content strategy development
  • Analyze your target audience
  • Analyze competitors
  • Define goals and objectives
  • Gather a team
  • Create content
  • Optimize your content
  • Promote content
  • Evaluate results
  • Developing a content strategy: what to remember

What is a content strategy

A content strategy is a fully thought out plan for creating content. In it you write:

  • Purpose – why the content is needed.
  • Target audience – who will consume it.
  • Content – what you will talk about and in what formats.
  • Creation – who will produce the content and what the process will look like.
  • Distribution – how and where you plan to distribute materials.
  • Evaluation – how you will analyze the results and what metrics are important to you.

The content strategy describes the entire path from your current position to the moment when you have established the process of publishing materials and get the desired result from them.

How content marketing differs from SEO

The goals of content marketing and SEO are the same – to bring as much traffic to the site as possible and convert it into purchases. The process is slightly different though.

SEO is more about tailoring a website to the technical parameters of search engines. Page optimization, filling the site with key queries, fulfilling the requirements of search engines. When we create content for SEO purposes, we usually create topics for the most popular search queries. A person searches for such a request, sees us in the search results and goes to the site.

Content marketing is working with the interests of the audience. For example, we can conduct research on our topic and publish its results in the form of an article or presentation. There are few requests in the search engine for such content, but it will bring more views from the existing audience, trust and loyalty for high-quality and interesting content. In addition, the viral component will work – good content will be shared, and new subscribers will come to you.

In addition, SEO and content marketing differ in content formats, posting sites, and speed of results.

  • SEO – own site and articles from medium to long. It works for a long time — it can take months from the first optimization steps to the first significant traffic.
  • Content marketing – social networks, guest articles on blogs, native advertising in publications, responses on forums on behalf of the company. Any format depending on the audience and platform. Can work quickly due to wide coverage.

How to combine SEO and content marketing the right way

Combine topics in a content plan. Let there be both based on popular queries and simply potentially interesting for the audience.

Handle one topic. You can write several materials on one topic, they just go to different platforms. Publish an article optimized according to all the canons of SEO on your website. A hot case on the same topic is on VC.ru or Habré. At the same time, you will see from which external channel you get more traffic.

Recycle content. Wrote an SEO article for the site — turn it into a checklist for downloading, into a visual cheat sheet for social networks, into a video for your YouTube channel. This way you reach more channels and potential buyers.

Transfer from the site to other sites. In order not to depend on the whims of search engines, do not focus only on the site. Offer to subscribe to social networks, a chat bot , an email newsletter, a YouTube channel – any other channel for distributing your content.

Link to your site and mention the company. Wrote in someone else’s blog – agree on a link. Work on forums – mention the company in the comments. This is a good way to increase the external mass of links and mentions and increase the site’s ranking in search engines.

Content types

Content is divided into types depending on the purpose.

  • Informational – tells, teaches.
  • Entertaining – laughs, distracts, relaxes.
  • Selling – aimed at sales.
  • Involving – stimulates to leave comments, interact with the publication.
  • Viral – such that subscribers want to share it and distribute it themselves.

Types can be mixed with each other. For example, a sales post is usually a bad idea, it is better to make it with an informational or engaging message.

Content Formats

I’ll tell you about two divisions into formats that will help you navigate and make a variety of materials.

First, use the opportunities of the sites. Here are the formats technically available to you.

  • Picture – photo, meme, drawing and so on.
  • Text – a short post or a long article. Long articles can be written not only on the site. For example, VKontakte has an editor for articles that are created on separate pages.
  • Video – GIF or video of any length, depending on the site. On YouTube, you can upload a video up to 12 hours, and TikTok is the preferred option for 15 seconds.
  • Stories is a separate tape of disappearing short videos. There are in Instagram, Facebook, VKontakte and even Odnoklassniki.
  • Live broadcast is also available in almost any social network.
  • Poll is a built-in option in posts on Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram.

To understand what formats to add to your content marketing strategy, experiment. You can draw on research on what content is popular on different social networks, for example, check out this study from Popsters . By the way, this study itself is a great example of viral content. The post with him on the company’s VKontakte page is the most popular in several months.

Otherwise, when developing a content strategy, you are limited only by the imagination and interests of your target audience. For example, I sketched 15 obvious common formats, but in reality there are many more.

  1. news,
  2. article,
  3. case,
  4. from customers – reviews, photos, impressions,
  5. about the product
  6. interview,
  7. joke,
  8. quote,
  9. Live Stream,
  10. test or survey
  11. instruction,
  12. compilation,
  13. analytics,
  14. underside of business,
  15. response to a subscriber’s question.

Below is an article with examples of formats, you can save it as a reminder.

Content Distribution Channels

Distribution channels when drawing up a content strategy can be conveniently divided into three groups – own, guest and paid. So you will understand which group has already been treated, and which one can still benefit from.

Own channels

Own distribution channels – those that you have created and completely control:

  • website,
  • mailing list ,
  • social network,
  • chat bots.
  • Pros: You decide when, how and what to publish.
  • Cons: coverage only of your own audience (subscribers).

Guest Channels

Guest channels are third-party channels where you don’t have to pay to host. It can be:

  • Guest blog posts or post exchanges. The golden rule of such an exchange is to look for sites with a similar target audience, but not competing on the topic.
  • Viral coverage – when subscribers themselves distribute successful publications.
  • Forums – answer questions from subscribers or comment on discussions on your topic.
  • Mentions – testimonials from clients or colleagues.
  • Pros: wide coverage of a new audience.
  • Cons: you need to act according to the rules of the sites, and the result can be unpredictable.

Paid advertising

Paid advertising includes all channels where you need to pay for distribution. This is:

  • advertising in social networks;
  • contextual and search advertising;
  • placement with influencers.
  • Pros: a new audience, wide opportunities for targeting and retargeting.
  • Cons: need a budget.

Content strategy development

We figured out the preparatory theory, now we go directly to the step-by-step development of a content strategy.

Analyze your target audience

The first and most important step is to understand who you want to attract. The result of this step is portraits of the target audience. When you clearly articulate who these people are and why your product is useful to them, it is much easier to create content for different stages of the sales funnel and choose the right distribution channels.

First, analyze the existing audience: age, place of residence, interests, income level. This can be done using internal statistics of social networks or analytics systems – “Google Analytics” or “Yandex.Metrics”.

Of course, analytics systems will give a more detailed picture. The screenshot below shows that Yandex.Metrica has a fairly extensive list of standard audience reports, including demographics, geography, interests, and activity on the site.

In addition, it is useful to look at the sources of traffic to the site – how these people find you. Perhaps you will discover some new channel that you were not aware of.

Analyze competitors

Find your top competitors and analyze their content marketing strategy. We described in detail how to find them in an article on competitive analysis, a link to it is below.

Competitor content strategy analysis will help you:

  • decide on the tone, successful formats and topics;
  • rebuild and come up with your own chip in the content;
  • find channels used by the target audience;
  • regularly monitor the use of new features in the content.

Here is a workflow for each competitor:

  1. Make a list of all content distribution channels. Subscribe to each.
  2. For each channel, describe the topics and formats used. Note what you especially liked.
  3. Use special services to analyze the social networks of competitors and find the most popular posts. For example, the Popsters service .
  4. Also, with the help of services, study the blogs of competitors – attendance, traffic, popular materials. Use our selection of SEO tools .
  5. Find external mentions of the company – publications on other blogs, articles about it, and so on.
  6. Analyze user content, for this you can search for posts by thematic hashtags of the company.

Define goals and objectives

It is clear that the goal of any business is to make money. Content marketing allows you to earn by attracting and retaining a solvent audience: attracted traffic – converted into leads – warmed up to a purchase – convinced to re-purchase – made a brand advocate .

In addition, content marketing:

  • increases brand awareness ;
  • forms a loyal audience;
  • helps lead the audience through the sales funnel ;
  • can affect brand reputation.

Set goals based on the goal. These are more specific things that you have to deal with. At this stage, you can assign KPI tasks that seem feasible to you, for example:

  • publish one blog post per week;
  • release posts with influencers three times a month;
  • master two sites with questions and reviews, regularly answer there.

When setting goals, be guided by the analysis of the target audience and competitors.

Gather a team

It will be very cool if you think at the strategy stage who will be engaged in content marketing. So you have planned expert articles from your specialists, and then it turns out that they have no time to write or it turns out badly and everything is inconsistent. So, from the very beginning, an editor was needed – to pull out information and arrange it in articles.

The visual also needs a separate person. It’s good if there is a designer, but what if there isn’t one? Selecting free images from photo stocks is a thankless and inefficient undertaking. Decide in advance how to make the visual part so that it does not take much time, but looks decent.

Create content

At this stage, you have portraits of the target audience and an understanding of what topics and formats will be of interest to this audience. You have already roughly decided on the list of sites and the content that is popular on them. You can start creating your content.

It is always easier to work when there is a system. As a content system, I suggest you develop headings – materials of a similar format that will be published at the same frequency. For example:

  • The first and third Mondays are a case.
  • Second Monday – advice from a specialist.
  • Fourth Monday – industry news.
  • Wednesday is review day.
  • Thursday is a selling post.
  • Friday is the digest of the week.

Decided on the formats – think over the content and design. For example, how will you publish reviews: one at a time or collect several at once, post them in a post or in a story.

Optimize your content

Ready content can and should be optimized. To a greater extent, this applies to articles on the site – a resource that is already optimized for SEO and is more likely to get into the search results.

Look for popular search terms on a topic and add them to your content. Try not to overdo it – a well-written article with helpful illustrations, lists, and tips is better than a sheet of keywords.

Below are articles on the topic that will help you understand the creation of SEO content and use it in promotion.

Promote content

Content without distribution is a waste of time and money. No one will know about your great articles if you don’t promote them to the right audience.

  • Share articles from the blog in your channels – social networks, email newsletters, chat bots.
  • Tell us about the publications that were released on partner sites.
  • Run paid advertising on social networks for your own audience – this way people will definitely see the posts.
  • Update and raise old “evergreen” materials.

Evaluate results

Here is a list of metrics by which you can evaluate the success of your content strategy.

Traffic:

  • number of users
  • number of new users
  • number of unique users.

Does the content come in:

  • bounce rate
  • time on one page and on the site
  • viewing depth
  • return percentage
  • number of visits per user

Social media metrics:

  • likes,
  • reposts,
  • conservation,
  • transitions,
  • mentions.

Internet reputation:

  • brand mentions,
  • the ratio of positive and negative feedback.

Financial results – it will be difficult to calculate here, because content marketing rarely brings direct sales . To track the contribution of content to sales, you will have to connect end-to-end analytics. Here are some financial metrics to track:

  • the cost of a lead from different channels;
  • percentage of leads converted into purchases;
  • the number of new and repeated purchases;
  • average bill , including from different acquisition channels;
  • customer lifetime value ;
  • return on investment percentage .

Developing a content strategy: what to remember

A content strategy is needed for a business to make content in an organized, systematic way and with an accurate hit on the target audience. Content marketing will help you build a sales funnel, combine SEO strategy and content, and grow a loyal audience that brings constant profit.

To create a content strategy:

  • study the target audience;
  • analyze competitors;
  • define goals and objectives;
  • assemble a content team;
  • decide on formats, themes, channels and frequency of release.

Next – create content, optimize for SEO requirements and do not forget about promotion. Use different channels:

  • own — website, social networks, newsletters,
  • guest blogs, forums,
  • paid — advertising in social networks, context.

Don’t forget to evaluate the results! A timely assessment will help to adjust the strategy in favor of the most profitable content formats and promotion channels.

A real Content marketing strategy vancuver cas

It will still dominate internet marketing strategies, but it will probably change. Time will tell. But this is later, now it is more important for us to understand which content marketing strategy to choose at a given time to get the best results.

Just a few words for those who seem to know what content marketing is, but at the same time do not know. Yes, it happens, just like in that short joke: “He was good in bed, but bad in intimate relationships.”

Content marketing is the creation and dissemination of useful information to your potential customers in order to build relationships and increase the level of trust in you or your company.

There is a whole article on our blog where we tell you all the secrets and tricks of content marketing. Therefore, after you read this material, be sure to read the article recommended by me.

12 WIN-LOSE STRATEGIES

Already, content marketing accounts for a significant portion of advertising budgets. Our company invests about 40% of all advertising money in this business.

Therefore, we know firsthand what is important to do now in order to get quality leads through content . And this knowledge in the form of 12 strategies, we present to you.

Option 1: Be helpful

Before you start writing a new article, do a little check and ask yourself why people will read your post and what they will benefit from it.

The number of copy-paste articles of the same type is already off the scale, especially in social media content plans . Therefore, in order to stand out now, it is enough to write usefully and expertly. And do not order rewriting of other articles on the copywriting exchange.

Become a really valuable resource for your readers, make stuff that blows their minds with the words “This is a smart and professional approach!”.

And then readers will definitely come back to you for something “new”, and share it with their friends. And a completely ideal option, in the future they will become your customers, as they already trust you as professionals in their field.

content marketing strategy example
Enough for everyone

Option 2. Volume of material

At this point, most companies come across. Surely you want to end up with effective content that will bring you traffic for more than one day.

To do this, be sure to pay attention to the volume of the article. According to my practice, to cover one topic, you need to write from 1000 to 2000 words (not symbols!).

And I will tell you a terrible secret. In order to reach this minimum word limit, you do not need to dilute everything with water. It is better to expand the topic in more detail, disassemble everything to the smallest detail. For this, both readers and traffic indicators will thank you.

To motivate myself and my colleagues to complete the volume, I always ask them one question: “You haven’t fully disclosed the topic now, which means that the audience will not like it and literally in a week it will be lost in the abyss of the Internet. Do you agree with this or are you ready to give a couple more hours so that people read it for years?

what is content marketing strategy
What to do? How can you not like it?

Option 3. Sell and teach

To win the love of users, you need to pay attention to two things: the quality of content and its diversity.

If we have already clarified the moment of quality in the points above, then with variety everything is a little more complicated. Ideally, it should be of 3 types, each of which is aimed at solving a separate problem:

  1. Content that generates information traffic;
  2. Content that positions you as an expert;
  3. Content that sells.

As a rule, companies that enter the content marketing market set themselves a polar goal. Or only teach, or only sell.

But everything should be in moderation. If you, like us, are fixated on one training, then you lose a lot of money, because people simply do not know that you can be useful to them. So don’t forget to make calls to action to buy in most of your articles.

Option 4. Traffic profitability

A professional content manager knows that there is nothing better than traffic that will be bought in the near future. Therefore, when writing articles, you do not need to go from afar, first start writing on those topics that are more likely to bring hot customers.

You can independently, on your own convictions, understand what is the probability of a purchase for the selected request. But if this is difficult for you, then one of the simple life hacks is to look at the results in Yandex and Google.

If this issue contains advertisements in contextual advertising , then this request has great potential, since it is advertised in it for a fee.

But on the other hand, we must not forget that the promotion strategy in social networks and other similar resources is a long-term strategy. And it is possible to get an effect from it immediately and now, but it will not work on a global scale.

Option 5. Breathe new life

If you have been in the subject for more than a year, then you definitely have materials that have become obsolete. After all, everything goes on and everything changes, new chips, techniques, approaches, etc. appear.

Turn this situation in a positive direction for yourself, update the content of old posts according to current data. This is necessary first of all so that the reader does not close your article with the words “Junk!”, and so that your articles do not fall out of the TOP.

It is also necessary so that the reader does not position you as a blog with outdated data in the future.

The task is boring and seems useless, especially when your article is already popular. But to your surprise, the text that you are reading now has already passed the 3rd edition since 2015. That is, every year we update the data for the next one so that you are aware of all the events.WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 32,000 people.

Option 6. Zest

Even 5-10 years ago, it was very difficult to find a good blog or public on social networks. There were literally a few leaders on the market, which could be counted on the fingers.

Now the Internet is not just a lot, but DO-FI-GA companies with useful blogs. And since the content often overlaps in topics, the client begins to get confused in the companies.

Therefore, you need to find your zest. It can be in corporate style , presentation of material, author’s pictures and … The list goes on and on. But the result is the same – you need to differ now, even if not globally, but at least a little.

To make it clearer, take a look at our blog now and tell me how it differs from others? It has different highlights, they are not a perfect example, you can always do better.

But I will reveal the main highlight to you – this is a photograph of our founder. Through the face, we make the company more recognizable. This is our strategy.

Option 7. Video Marketing

If earlier it was considered that the video is only for the elite, now this opinion has changed.

Content without video is like Pugacheva’s songs, they seem to be still popular, but there are fewer and fewer fans. Of course, Internet marketers are getting themselves a new headache, but no one said it would be easy?!

But this does not mean that you need to shoot hour-long videos with professional cuts. Everything fits the task, for example, our average video lasts 2-3 minutes without editing. Since we understand that an entrepreneur does not have much time to browse and he does not need extra frills.

In addition, from the point of view of SEO marketing, the more people are on the page (the longer they watch the video), the faster the article goes to the TOP.

You also get an excellent bonus in the form of increased loyalty, because if a person saw you live (and not just a text), then he is more likely to decide to work with you. Of course, provided that he likes you.

Option 8. Didn’t grab – lost

The bounce rate on the blog is kept at a rate of 70-90%. This means that this is the number of people who look at one page and leave your site.

Again. Almost all people after reading your material leave the site and never return (until the next moment when they meet you in a search engine). Therefore, the most stupid decision is to let them go without taking contacts.

On our blog, you can notice a huge number of calls to subscribe to our materials. Somewhere we offer free bonuses, and somewhere calls to join our social networks.

This is all so that we do not lose you as a target audience and can build our relationship in the future.

Option 9. Bet on SEO

There are a lot of opinions on the topic of SEO marketing . There are opinions that he is dead or dying, and there are opinions that he is more alive than the living. Our opinion has not changed for several years.

CEO is alive and will live. It is dying for those who make low-quality content and try to get quick results.

At one time, we had a choice – to develop social networks or make a blog. As a result, we did both. But the main focus remained on the blog, since in order to promote social networks, you need to not only write good material, but also attract subscribers to the group. In the case of SEO, good content automatically (and for free) attracts readers.

Therefore, now our social networks, email marketing , chat bots are purely customer retention, and the blog is attraction. In conjunction, it looks like this: we attract readers to the blog, and then using capture and retargeting forms, we invite them to join our social networks.

Option 10. Mobilegeddon

Mobilegeddon was dubbed a change in the Google and Yandex mobile search algorithm. If your site is not mobile friendliness (there is no adaptation for mobile phones), then you will lose most of the traffic.

Therefore, your blog should not only look good on all gadgets, but it should also load easier than on computers.

For statistics, 52% of search queries on our blog are from mobile devices. It was a big shock for us when we realized that our site on a mobile phone looks crooked and practically does not give transitions to ordering our services .

All elements in your content marketing should be adapted for gadgets. The menu should have a different look, the capture forms should be easy to press, the text should perhaps be enlarged … All these little things affect the overall strategy very much.

Option 11. The word analytics

Now you can no longer afford the luxury of changing your marketing strategy, relying only on intuition or your subjective opinion.

Now such decisions should be made on the basis of real data, and not on “cockroaches” in your head.

content marketing strategy analytics

It is important to track each marketing channel, check its effectiveness, and then evaluate the effectiveness of the overall strategy. To do this, be sure to set yourself Google Analytics , if you have not already done so. And be sure to set up goals with utm tags.

This way, you can easily highlight your most valuable content that will generate the most traffic and engagement.

And you will also see content that does not bring applications now, which means you will need to think about how to monetize it differently (for example, an affiliate program).

Option 12. Have fun and dance

Have you noticed the number of gifs and jokes in this article? They are few, but they exist. Why all this if we have a serious blog about marketing? And in order to make the boring study of useful material interesting and exciting.

The more the reader studies your material, the better for many factors. Therefore, you need to entertain him. You can do this in different ways: use gifs, insert interesting pictures, write jokes, post funny videos.

All this will keep him on the page longer, make it easier to study the material and make him more willing to buy. Yes! Laughter encourages buying, and this is a very powerful tool.

Develop your plan to conquer the market

“Content is king, content marketing is the undisputed trend, technology of the future, marketing of the 21st century” – I bet you hear this more and more often. Believe it or not – your right. But let’s think logically: we are surrounded by a lot of content – newsletters, YouTube videos, posts on VKontakte, photos on Instagram, professional blogs with longreads and instructions, city portals with reviews of establishments and articles about new stores, educational sites with books and manuals, etc. .d.

Users absorb and will absorb tons of content in search of the necessary information. Moreover, the one who says that people are only interested in entertainment materials on the Internet will be wrong. This is far from true.

Don’t believe? Let’s move the action from the Internet to the office of a travel agency. You need a vacation by the sea, you came to a girl, and she has no booklets with photos of the area and the hotel, no story about all the delights of Greece or Spain, no answers to your questions, no tour operator number in the register – in a word, nothing. And you are flying abroad for the first time and also do not know anything – from the word at all. How do you do? The answer, I think, is obvious. So, in this situation, you didn’t have enough content – oral stories, tips, booklets, photos of happy tourists, a tour operator license.

Therefore, it is quite reasonable to influence the client through the correct, interesting and useful content: this is work with trust, reputation, recognition, promotion of goods and services, indirectly and with sales. Actually competent content marketing helps a business achieve its goals and influence the target audience. 

Content marketing strategy: looking for whales that keep everything going

But before throwing yourself into the pool with your head, you need to understand and outline where to dive and how to make efforts. There is no magic pill “content marketing” – you need to work a lot, for a long time and  according to a plan . You need a content marketing strategy – your route, without which you will either run into a snag in a whirlpool, or sail to Hokkaido instead of the Maldives, or stay at home altogether, since the route was built exclusively from the bathroom to the living room.A content marketing strategy will give a detailed answer about what exactly, to whom and how you will write and publish on the Internet, as well as for what purpose you are doing all this and how you will evaluate the work. Without a content strategy, you will simply create content. Perhaps even good, but not the fact that you need and effective.

There are no strict rules, a direct step-by-step guide or a universal template here – the work is actually piecework, individual. It all depends on the theme of the site, the tasks facing it, the specifics of the industry, the target audience, and even corny on the amount of time, budget, goals that the business owner sets. But let’s figure out what you can’t do without and what points you definitely need to work out.

I. Setting Goals and Objectives in a Content Marketing Strategy

First of all, you need to understand and designate “why is it all?”. And the answers “because it’s fashionable”, “competitors are engaged, and that means I need it”, “Vasya said that it’s cool”, “I want to try it” will not work. Goals should be specific, realistic and measurable. It is necessary to indicate what you want to get at the output.

However, you need to understand that working with a blog will not give you sales on the second day, and publishing expert articles on major portals in a week will not triple your profits. You can set such goals, but you will not get the result.

Of course, there are such global goals as “sales” and “increase in profits”, any business dreams of this. But there are many other small steps and tasks on the way to them. This is where they need to be fixed.

State your goals simply and clearly. To do this, answer the questions: what do you want to get from this job? What do you want to achieve in a month, six months, a year? What do you expect, why this work will be carried out? And most importantly, remember that goals should be quite measurable and realistic for content marketing. For example:

  • increase in traffic, new leads, increase in the number of newsletter subscribers;
  • bringing the pages of the site in order;
  • recognition, sympathy for the brand and work with loyalty;
  • increasing expertise;
  • direct or indirect communication with the audience, etc.

Well, visual options for understanding:

Of course, the goals are very closely related, but developing a content marketing strategy without a clear understanding of where you will go is impossible. It will only be “go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what.”Set several goals that you can achieve through content and what you will strive for. If you do not have a clear and honest answer to the question “why is it all”, then only disappointment in the spirit of “expectation-reality” will await you.

II. Preliminary analysis when developing a content strategy: what are we researching?

A common mistake of business owners and novice masters is to create content either to their own taste, or supposedly to the universal taste of all users from 18 to 90 years old, while not taking into account the state of their site, the interests of customers, industry trends, the popularity of content distribution channels, etc. .

When developing a content strategy, it is necessary to analyze at least three areas: competitors and the market, target audience, own website and business. It seems that not everything is so complicated, but often the assessment comes down to this: “competitors are really bad, everything is really, really better with us, we sell goods to all women, we can satisfy the needs of any client; we also just made a website – it is fashionable and beautiful, people seem to like it.” Alas, such information is of no use and will not help both in developing a content marketing strategy and in further content creation.

Let’s figure out what needs to be analyzed and how to do it so that there is real benefit.

  1. Know Yourself: Analyzing Your Own Content and BusinessBefore you know how things are with competitors in the market, you need to take an inventory of what you currently have. Moreover, to complete the picture, it makes sense not only to look at the site, but also to give answers to basic questions about organizing a business: USP, strengths, weaknesses and advantages.Here you need to be as objective as possible and not overpraise yourself. It is clear that for a business owner, his offspring is the best and he does not need arguments. But potential customers don’t think so, they don’t know the company, so it’s important to be as honest with yourself as possible.Make a plate in the “question-answer” format, where you will fix all the information – it will serve as a good reminder for you, and then it will help the performers to understand your specifics. Questions to help:
    • What does the company do, is it known in the market, is it known on the Internet? If yes, what position does it occupy? Do they know your products/services and how well?
    • What is the unique selling proposition? How does the company compare favorably with competitors, what advantages does it have?
    • Why is it really profitable and convenient for customers to order something from you?
    • What are the strengths of the company in terms of providing goods or services to customers?
    • What are the weaknesses, what still needs to be worked on, where are the gaps?Well, as an example, we will analyze the answers good-bad:

Doing it wrong: the information is too general, there is no explanation about the individual approach and pricing. As a result: how the company differs from a number of others and why it is good is not at all clear. 

Doing it right: there are specific facts about the company, all the main points of work are briefly listed, a unique selling proposition is highlighted and justified. As a result: there is basic factual information about the specifics of the company.Once again about why such information is needed: the basis of the content marketing strategy and any texts is the capabilities of the company or business itself. And no one knows this better than the owner or manager. A marketer, a copywriter will help refine the USP, formulate some advantages and features so that they interest customers, but only on the basis of real facts. And “a wide range” and “a dynamically developing company” are rather abstract information.You can think of something or come up with something from scratch, but can you do it? Most likely not, and beautiful words will remain words. And you will simply deceive your users by promising them something that is not there. As a result, you will lose credibility and trust, which are very difficult to restore.But remember that you still need to evaluate the content on the site. You should look at what materials are available now, whether they are enough, whether the sections are completed, whether the texts meet the needs of the audience. In addition, check and mark where the content is still distributed, whether there are social networks, whether there were publications in portals, blogs, etc.Here it is also important to move away from subjectivity when evaluating the materials themselves. Remember, “I like/I don’t like” is not an indicator for text. It is important that the target audience likes the content, gives it complete and detailed information and solves the tasks assigned to it.So what are we looking at:

  • Which pages have content, which one: informational, selling, to what extent, for what purpose does it serve?
  • Are the texts on the site optimized? Optimized correctly?
  • How clear and accessible is the information presented to the target audience? Does it give the target audience answers to all the questions that arise?
  • How useful, interesting and unique are the texts? Is the content duplicated on many other sites?
  • Are the texts relevant (corresponding) to the pages? And in the blog, if you have one, do you write about your products and services or about everything in a row?
  • If there is a blog or news section, how often is fresh content posted?
  • Do you distribute content on third-party sites and what channels do you use: social networks, YouTube, city portals, expert third-party blogs, partner sites, etc.?
  • What kind of response do the materials give? Do you evaluate traffic, do you look at PF, what are they like?
  • What types of content do you have in general: articles, infographics, video reviews, interviews, case studies?

Put all answers in a single table. So you will understand what is missing, what channels are already involved, how materials are being worked out, in what tone you write, how useful the content is for the target audience, whether it solves your problems, etc.As a rule, often it all starts with improvements to the content of the site itself. Somewhere the texts are missing, somewhere they do not correspond to the content of the page and are not written for people, somewhere just copy-paste so that the page is not empty. All these shortcomings must be eliminated.We often hear from users: “I know about all the shortcomings, why do I need this?” or “I’m fine, I like everything.” If you know, why don’t you fix it? This work should not be shelved, it will directly affect both promotion and your ultimate goal – sales. And the fact that “like-dislike” is not an indicator, we repeat tirelessly. Remember, you may like Chekhov’s stories, but posting them on the site will not bring you any benefit.

Who are all these people: analysis of the target audienceThe golden rule of content development is to create it for a specific target audience, for your customers, taking into account their needs and requirements. But very often the owner of a site or business does not have an understanding, and sometimes just the time or desire, to think about who they work for. Or there is a desire to sell your product to absolutely everyone, which is also not entirely correct: a single man will not buy a fashionable hair dryer for 40 thousand rubles, and a granny will not order a bandanna with skulls. Yes, there may be rare exceptions, but these are not typical buyers. 

You need to look at those groups of people who most often purchase your goods or services.For example, not so long ago our support team received the following question:The answer to it is simple: the text will not differ in any way, and such a division of the target audience will not affect the writing process in any way. 

But a more important problem is immediately visible behind the question: there is no understanding that the target audience is not only divided by gender and age. This means there is no understanding of who the customers are, what they need and why.The target audience is not only a group of people that differ in gender and age. Here, interests, habits, behavior, social status, work, problems that they want to solve with a purchase are taken into account. 

That is, to study a potential client, or rather a group of clients, you need to more deeply and comprehensively, create a portrait of your potential customer. And then the differences will be:Our product:

Do not hesitate to clarify with the client why he chose your company, what he wants to get from the product / service, what he fears, what motivates him to buy, what problems the product / service will solve, what service he expects, etc.A few checklists to help:

  • Who are your customers, what are their interests and needs?
  • What problem do customers usually want to solve by purchasing your product or service?
  • How do they make a buying decision, who do they trust?
  • What motivates customers to buy, what can be the deciding factor?
  • What most often scares and repels users?
  • What information are customers looking for in social networks and forums? What are they complaining about, what questions are they asking?
  • If there are regular customers, what exactly attracted them? Why are ready to contact you again and again?
  • How convenient is it for customers to make purchases or order services from you? What do people note, what do they praise for, what are they dissatisfied with?
  • What did you like/dislike about the site, what materials were interesting, what questions were asked in the comments in the log, what questions were asked in emails?
  • What information are they looking for on the site and on the Internet, what texts, articles are they reading and why?

In addition, remember that sometimes different categories of customers make purchases and order services, so there can be several portraits of typical customers. Draw a portrait of each character: they may have different motives for buying, different problems that they want to solve with the help of your company or store. We wrote more about determining the target audience in the article “Target audience: where to aim and how to get there” .By understanding the needs, problems and desires of your potential customers, it is easier and easier to influence users and create effective and relevant content. Otherwise, you get shooting from a cannon at sparrows.

You need to know the enemy in person: competitor analysisYou want to beat everyone in the market – a great goal. But rather superficial. You need to clearly know what and with whom you will have to deal with in pursuit of the TOP, trust, customers and sales.Competitive analysis will help you understand how forces are distributed in your niche, what is popular, what is the minimum you need, who customers trust, what are the pros and cons of competitors, what content they use and where they distribute it, why it attracts customers.But remember – you should never copy one to one (or a little better) ideas, suggestions or chips of competitors. You need to compare favorably with them, and not be an improved clone or a complete double. How will customers have to choose among approximately the same sites and companies?Consider 5-6 of your main competitors (you can do more, but it is much more labor- and time-consuming). For evaluation, the same questions that we considered above for analyzing business and website content are suitable.What to evaluate from competitors:

  • what content is presented on the site – volume, information content, optimization, style, focus, content, relevance, etc.;
  • what is the USP, what are the advantages, what are the strengths and weaknesses, what is convenient for customers;
  • whether there is a blog, what materials are published there, with what frequency, what kind of response they find from the audience;
  • whether there are social networks, what content is there, what activity, what users write, how loyal they are;
  • what other channels are involved, where is the content placed, is there a mailing list?

As well as:

  • What types of content are involved: articles, infographics, video reviews, interviews, case studies? What causes a greater response from customers, where there are more discussions and questions?
  • What non-standard elements, tricks and chips are used?
  • What is interesting, convenient and useful for users both in the content on the site and in external publications?
  • How well-known are competitors among users, do they trust them, what reputation do they have?
  • What topics and headlines are catchy, causing heated discussions?

All this data immediately enter the table. You should get something like this:

As a result, we draw conclusions about what we have to deal with, what to do in order to outperform competitors, what materials to publish and what channels we definitely need to use. Remember, the key word here is “surpass”  – you will need to do better and better.

We recommend reading more about complex competitive analysis in our articles here and  here .

Well, actually, the first and very important stage of developing a content marketing strategy has been completed. You have an excellent base in your hands, which both you and the performers will need in their work:

  • what is done now and what are your strengths / weaknesses;
  • who is your target audience, what does it need and how to work with it;
  • what is happening in the market – who will you have to compete with, how to get around them, what are the advantages and disadvantages of opponents.

There is an idea in which way to work – a content marketing strategy has already been outlined.

III. The Core of a Content Marketing Strategy: Preparing and Using Content

So, the preliminary work has been done, and already from it you, most likely, have drawn preliminary conclusions about how to work with content. Now all your thoughts, ideas and research results need to be brought together, take into account the goals and create a global plan of action.

In essence, this will be the core of your content marketing strategy. It summarizes two main questions:

  1. What and how to writeThese conclusions are made on the basis of the analysis – what is missing, what the target audience expects, what kind of content finds a hail, where it is distributed among competitors and where your presence is also required.We determine the types, formats of materials and general ideas for different areas:Content on the siteWithout high-quality, competent, unique in meaning and optimized content on the site itself, it makes no sense to start working through other channels.Therefore, after an objective and sober (we hope) assessment, you saw all the problems, and accordingly, now you need to indicate how to solve them.In a content marketing strategy, you need to consider:
    • which pages, sections on the site need to be reworked;
    • how you will position yourself, your goods/services;
    • in what language will you communicate with your target audience;
    • what problems the target audience will solve the content;
    • what kind of information should be present on the pages and what message it has;
    • how to work with optimization and distribute keys from CL across pages, etc.BlogBlog posts are, of course, also content on the site, but the principle of working on it is very different from preparing typical service and product pages. Here you need to decide:
    • what topics and materials are really needed and interesting to users;
    • how to position yourself and present information, what types and formats of presentation to use and in what proportion – expert articles or information for beginners, educational content or entertainment, long reads or short concise articles, detailed instructions or checklists, video reviews, infographics, etc. .
    • how often you need to publish this or that content;
    • how to expand the semantics at the expense of the blog and what queries to work with, etc.The main thing to remember is that a blog as a content marketing tool  is not a dumping ground for what was not found on other pages, not a place for meaningless PR and pompous advertising. For a blog to be read and useful, it must provide really valuable, interesting and relevant materials for the target audience. Advertising is not. External publications and mailings. All channels have their own characteristics and, ideally, each should have its own unique content. Those. there is no need to duplicate information from the blog on VKontakte and vice versa. In the strategy, you need to note your own characteristics for each channel – what, how you will publish, in what style you will write, and what ideas to convey through this content.Some publications and platforms can be advertising – for example, advertising articles or reviews can be published on major city or federal portals; somewhere you need educational content – for example, a series of videos on Youtube that will recommend you as a pro; you can try interviews in magazines, case studies on thematic sites of the industry; on partner platforms, you can participate in conferences and hold webinars, etc.In general, you need to thesis, on the basis of the research, formulate general ideas and positioning of different types of content, the need for it, determine the points of influence on the target audience and ways of communication.
  2. Where to distribute: At this point, draw a line – which channels you specifically use and why. This will help not to scatter on everything at once – there will not be enough strength, time, or opportunities for this, but to concentrate on the most basic.What distribution channels can be:
    • own website, incl. blog;
    • own distribution;
    • social networks – VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram, Odnoklassniki, Youtube;
    • thematic blogs, forums, portals;
    • partner sites;
    • online and offline media;
    • offline editions, etc.In fact, you can and should use any channels where your target audience lives, which has a need for information, content.Based on the overall strategy, detailed monthly content plans are already being drawn up, where information for each specific publication will be described. An example of such a content plan .

IV. Methods for evaluating the work done, or how we will count the chickens

As part of content marketing, work is always an unplowed field. And in order not to work in vain, it is important to set control points – how and what you will evaluate.

We have common goals set at the very first step, we have a detailed development plan – you can easily set metrics and tools for tracking the effectiveness of each channel. The main thing is not to get carried away and not use all the metrics at once.

Main types of assessment:

  • by traffic;
  • by involvement;
  • by perception;
  • by conversions.

We have already written in more detail about each metric , we will not duplicate it.

But the main thing to remember is that reality will not always correspond to plans, and this is absolutely normal. If any channels, publications and materials are not as effective as we would like, this is an occasion to adjust your strategy, eliminate problems and errors, and try new approaches. That is why the evaluation of each channel is needed.

Summing up again

Developing a content strategy is not a matter of 5 minutes or even an hour. Yes, the work will be meticulous and scrupulous, but it should not be neglected.

If you omit all this research and act on a hunch, at best you will get just good or beautiful content. But will it be effective and will it solve your problems? There is a huge risk of draining the budget and work on the table – you will spend time and money on those channels or those materials that give you absolutely no return and will give you. As a result, you will simply be disappointed in content marketing.

However, if you are not too lazy and prepare everything thoughtfully and thoroughly or entrust this work to us , then launch not just a trending tool, but a real mechanism capable ofchange the world influence the perception of your customers.