Use platforms that work for you
Before you hit the Internet and decide that you’re ready to blog, do social media, create email newsletters and white papers…stop and think.
What medium(s) will be the best to reach your customers? If you don’t know where your audience spends their time, ask them! You can also spend time researching where your competition spends their content creation time. Do they put effort into Facebook? An email newsletter? Twitter? A blog? All of the above?
What medium(s) will you be able to continuously create content for? Time management is key for content creation. Without it, you won’t be able to devote the necessary energy to making your content marketing work for your business. Assign someone to be in charge of your content marketing strategy and be sure they can maintain it as apart of their job for the long-term.
What medium(s) will convert potential customers into actual customers? At the end of the day, your content marketing strategy is meant to drive business to your company. Decide which medium(s) will help you do that. It’s OK to experiment with different mediums in order to do this. Content creation is nothing if not part experimentation!
Plan, feed the machine, then measure
Create an editorial calendar: An editorial calendar is one of the best ways to plan out your content. Whether it’s for social media, your blogposts, an email newsletter, etc., put it all on your editorial calendar so that you know exactly what’s coming next.
Create stellar content: Here’s what your content marketing strategy is all about. Create valuable content regularly for whatever medium is right for your business. Focus on quality and not quantity; and focus on your customer first. What is going to give them value in order to keep coming back for more?
Measure: Now it’s time to figure out what’s working…and what isn’t. Use tools like Google Analytics and social media analytics here. Continue doing what’s working and change what isn’t working. Your content marketing strategy will constantly evolve.
