Content Strategy and Planning
You know content marketing works – in theory. But do you know what content will work best for you?
Content should be ‘highly effective, developing purpose-built content that keeps audience and business goals in mind.’ Only 11% of marketers think they are succeeding at that.
(Source: CMO Council White Paper ‘Lead flow that helps you grow‘, July 2015.
It’s easy to say ‘content is king’. It’s harder to work out which content can be king. What subject matter to cover. What formats to use. Where to post and promote content. How often to post.
A content marketing strategy answers these questions at the top level.
A content marketing plan maps out the detail you need to implement that strategy. Specific topics and formats. Channels and schedules to publish and promote your content.
With a strategy and plan in place, you have a direction. Where you want to go. How you’ll get there. So even if you stray a little (we all do) – you know what to do to get back on track.
How the NoBull Content Marketing Strategy process works
Starting off
We need your input to understand where you are with content marketing today. We explore questions like:
- Have you defined your target markets and buyer personas?
- What current content do you have? (Online content includes website, white papers, e-books, slideshows, webinars. Offline content includes brochures, fliers and other communications.)
- How do you track performance of your content?
We usually hold a workshop with key members of your team. (For example, Marketing, Sales and General Management. Customer Service often attend also.)
Next Steps
- Review existing content and performance
- Review of existing content distribution and promotion
- Identify gaps
- Develop future content topics
- Assess format options for new content (infographics, interactive tools, video etc)
- Review and refine KPIs and tracking processes
- Investigate new ways to promote content
- Review client resources to implement any plan
During this stage, we contact you and your team on an ad-hoc basis. This helps us fill gaps, sanity-test ideas and make sure our final plan will be realistic.
What you get
At the end of the review, we provide a detailed Content Marketing Strategy and Plan. That includes
- Clearly defined target markets and personas
- 12 month editorial calendar
- ‘Priority content’ recommendations to fill gaps as promptly as possible
- Recommendations for content topics, formats and promotion
- Suggested processes for social media, email marketing and marketing automation
- Recommended tools and suppliers to make it all work
- Measurement and tracking plan (KPIs, tools etc)
The plan includes specific activities for you and your team. They’re calendarised and have time and cost estimates. Where possible we assign work to specific individuals. We also highlight any gaps in resources or skills, along with suggestions to fix the issue. (Recruitment, outsourcing, tools, training etc.)
Who should use content marketing?
Any business can try content marketing, but it’s most effective for
- businesses selling ‘expertise’
- businesses selling high value services
- B2B businesses with complex sales processes. For example, where the buying decision involves more than one person.
If this sounds like you, contact us for a no-obligation discussion.
***
Your website content must be valuable for your target clients. If it isn’t, they’ll just click the back button.
Poor content with no real value is one of the 7 reasons websites don’t generate leads. How does your website perform?