Content marketing is extremely important and having a strategy in place is the key to seeing real results. After all, without a clear-cut strategy, you don’t have a definition of what success looks like. And with content marketing being an industry that is constantly changing, it's important for any brand to create a concrete approach to producing better content its consumers crave.
Why Is a Content Strategy Important?
A robust, cross-platform content strategy can help you define your marketing goals, while also setting priorities. Content marketing is important since it ensures all marketing efforts are goal driven. With a documented content marketing strategy, you can make sure that the content crafted by your team translates into tangible results. At the bare minimum, any robust blog content strategy should include your target audience research and business and marketing goals.
What to Consider Before Developing a Blog Content Strategy
There are a few things to make sure you think about with your team before implementing a blog content strategy:
- Set a mission, measurable goals and crucial KPIs
- Study your audience and their interests
- Perform an SEO analysis on relevant topics
- Determine the problem you want to solve when providing content
- Conduct a gap analysis to determine where you can fit compared to competitors
- Determine how you can schedule and manage content production
- Decide how you’ll measure results
Here we break down eight in-depth steps content marketers need to take in order to begin implementing a blog content strategy of their own.
8 Steps to Creating a Blog Content Strategy
If you want to increase engagement on your blog you must have a strategy go from good to great, follow these steps.
1. Determine Goals for Your Blog
Not sure where to start when it comes to determining your content marketing goals and KPIs? Answer the following questions for some more clarity.
- What do you hope to achieve for my business through the blog?
- Do you want to drive more traffic to your site? How about converting site visitors to qualified leads? Do you want a channel of communication between you and your customers where you can update them on company news and product releases? You could simply want to create a platform for telling your brand story. There is no such thing as a wrong answer to this question!
- Who will be reading your content?
- Chances are, multiple audiences will be consuming your content. Just like you don’t have just one type of consumer, your content strategy needs to cater to more than one type of user. This can mean using a variety of content types to help deliver content that is appropriate for each target audience.
- What makes you unique?
- There’s so much digital noise out there no matter what industry you’re in, and you will need to explain to your potential customers what makes you different and better than the rest. Overall, you’ll need to prove why you’re worth buying from and provide unique content that demonstrates your value.
- What content formats will you use and what channels will you publish on?
- Your brand needs to meet your audience right where they are, so you need to first find where your audience “lives” online. How are they absorbing content? Are they reading it or are they more visual? Where are your potential consumers getting their content?
The answers to these questions will help guide your strategy moving forward.
2. Research What Else Your Target Audience Is Consuming
It’s important to know who you’re writing for, and one of the best ways to discover this is to research how your target audience consumes material online. While you don’t want to copy exactly what your competitors are doing, looking at how they are promoting content can be extremely helpful.
You’ll want to dig deep into what formats your audience tends to consume. Are they readers or do they usually like to watch and listen to their material? Where are they looking to find their content? Do they search from their mobile phones or laptop and computer?
Additionally, you’ll want to focus on the topics of the content itself. What blog topics are the most useful to them, and how can your business provide value? To answer this, you’ll have to determine what stages of the marketing funnel the majority of your audience is in. There’s no one right or wrong answer for this; you may find that your consumers are in the awareness stage of the funnel and require more broad-reaching topics. Or you could find that your customers are pretty well-versed in your industry and want content that is a bit more specific. Once you get these answers, you can plan your content topics accordingly.
3. Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most valuable tools you can have when creating your list of blog topics. That’s because keywords give you insight into what your consumers are searching for online, which in turn explains a bit more about their intent.
We recommend casting a broad net and building out a few lists of keywords, split into themes. One theme could be keywords that describe your products and/or services; another can be answers to direct questions consumers search for; and a third could even be around thought leadership pieces. You’ll want to be realistic with your keyword targets; while it can be hard to rank for every single search query, creating a list will give you plenty of inspiration on blog topics for the future.
4. Conduct a Competitive Analysis
Chances are good that there is a competitor in your industry that is already doing great stuff with their content. Tapping into what your competitors are doing can help you determine what’s working. This may be relative to topics, post style or even the time posts are uploaded. It is highly likely that a similar brand has a similar audience. The people reading a competitor’s posts are most likely the kind of people you want also reading yours.
5. Create a Blog Editorial Calendar
One way to stay organized with your blog content strategy is to implement an editorial content calendar. An editorial calendar is hands-down one of the most helpful tools a digital marketer can have because it provides a complete visualization of every piece of content you are currently producing and will produce in the future.
When it comes to editorial calendars, the more comprehensive, the better. You’ll want to include topics and themes, blog titles, authors, content formats, publication mediums and the estimated dates you want the blogs to publish. It’s always great to have some wiggle room with your deadlines but writing down due dates will help you stay on track.
6. Regularly Create Content for Your Blog
More and more businesses are publishing blogs. To stay competitive, you’ll need to be regularly pushing out content. Consistency in content creation is key because it lets readers know they can trust you as a source and that you care about educating your readers.
You don’t have to post every day if you don’t have the resources. You can choose biweekly, weekly or even monthly. Just stick with it.
7. Incorporate Thought Leadership
Thought leadership content is another way to stand out from your competition and keep your blog schedule interesting. It allows you to offer an opinion and provide educational value that sets your brand apart as a source of truth in your industry. There are many different ways you can demonstrate thought leadership in your content creation. This includes webinars, blog posts, email newsletters and white papers. By leveraging the voices of thought leaders in your field, you can build your brand credibility, while providing new insights on topics that might otherwise become stale over time.
8. Curate News Content
By curating content on your blog, your team benefits from high-quality material at a fraction of the cost. Industry news can be especially interesting for your audience, since it allows your brand to showcase educational content without the risk of appearing too sales-focused. Using journalism in content marketing can also help your brand tell memorable stories while providing powerful insights that can further develop your relationships with potential clients.
9. Determine Blog Production and Consider Licensing Content
Lastly, you’ll want to figure out how you’re going to produce and publish all of your blog content. Will you have an internal team handle the writing or will you outsource some of this blog content development? It can be hard to know where to start.
Creating a robust blog content strategy can be a lot of work. If you’re feeling a bit spread thin, it can be helpful to look into licensing options for your team. Licensing content will give you the ability to harness the journalistic capabilities of world-renowned publications, while supplementing your editorial calendar with content that meets your readers’ needs. Licensed content can also provide additional perspectives and insights on industry related news and trends, without your team needing to dedicate hours toward research and fact-checking.
Final Thoughts
Your blog will be the centerpiece of your business’ marketing strategy, so you will want to make a robust effort to create a blog content strategy that helps you meet your marketing goals. If you need content to supplement your current offerings, The NYTLicensing Group can help. Inspire your audience with NYTLicensing’s expert storytelling — explore more today.
