Content has an important role to play in every digital marketing strategy.
Whether you believe it or not, as per the Content Marketing Institute, nearly 50 percent of businesses expect increased spending on their content marketing and content creation initiatives in 2020. With this trend, you too will need to emphasize a Content Plan to stay atop the competition.
So what is a Content Plan?
In simple words, a Content Plan is – ‘how to’ and ‘what information’ to provide the target audience about your company/brand/product/service.
A 4 step content plan, includes:
i. Define your goal
What do you plan to achieve with the content marketing plan? New customers, relaunch new territory, brand building, etc.
ii. Define your target audience
No content plan can be successful if you have not earmarked your target and identified their need which your product/service/brand can fulfill. If you are targeting local visitors, firstly ensure your website is mobile-friendly since, 88% of mobile users searching for local information take action within a day of finding, and secondly, four in five consumers want search ads to be customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings, as per Think with Google
The next step to follow is to determine which type of content is most suitable to achieve your goal and that which will appeal to your target audience.
There are different content types and sometimes it’s best to try a combination. These include:
i. Blogs
As per Statista, 47% of internet users read blogs daily.
So, now is the time to curate blogs on your website which are informative and interesting to read, and which include elements like images, statistics, videos, etc. that influence a reader most. Preferably the blog should carry a topic related to your product/service/company ideology. Added keywords in the blog will help generate traffic to the website. Further, blogs written by experts in the field, carry a trust factor for the target audience. And don’t forget the Title, 6 to 13-word titles attract the most amount of traffic in blog posts.
ii. Videos and Podcasts
Videos are 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than any other type of content. It is becoming a preferred form of content for – how-to videos, technical videos, medical videos, product specification videos, etc. As per the 2020 report by Content Marketing Institute, there has been a 69% increase in audio/visual content usage for B2C marketers from 2018—2019 and as per Hubspot, 87% of businesses used videos as a marketing tool in 2019, which is up from 81% in 2018.
Podcasts are also gaining in popularity. In 2019, 17% of marketers incorporated content podcasts into their marketing strategy. An estimated 73 million people listen to podcasts each month (as per Edison Research). Also, it is said, brands that advertise products and services during business podcasts have a 14% higher chance of purchase.
iii. Templates
In today’s digital age who would not like a ready format that saves time and energy? A template offered on your website is a fantastic content idea. As long as it serves a purpose for your target audience, it will be downloaded and your best tool to collect their basic information as a lead.
iv. E-books
An E-book is a lead-generation tool that is highly informative. E-books offer – best ways to, top 10 ideas, how to maximize/improve/lead, etc. that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. An E-book written by a professional or an expert (e.g. a doctor) in his/her subject is a good idea.
v. Social Media
While the content on the website is extremely important including what’s written on the landing page and other pages, social media content cannot be ignored. Depending on your goal and target audience do take a look at platforms like YouTube and Snapchat that are influencing newer audiences than the already established Facebook and Instagram.
If you have established what type of content you will use for your product, it is also important that you now prepare a monthly calendar to manage your content, getting it ready for publication on your own website/other channels. Tools like HubSpot’s Marketing Plan Generator are available for first-time planners. Which platforms or channels to use to publish your content will depend on its format – written, videos, infographics, webinars, etc. For example, if the content is for the teens, use Snapchat to post content.
No efforts are worthwhile if the performance cannot be measured and the subsequent result shown.
There are a few free tools available to analyze content on the net, that you can avail of to start understanding where your content is successful and where it is failing. Some of the most frequently used tools are:
– Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the most commonly used tool by all content marketers. It helps you monitor your campaign at every stage from the number of visitors, to how many are going through every stage in the sales funnel. The information is useful for marketers to improve/adjust their strategies to convert a visitor into a final customer.
– Bitly: Bitly can be used beyond a free link shortener. Bitly not only saves space but provides the tools to efficiently share the links and evaluate their performances. Bitly helps to collect results from all your links to enable you to measure how your content has performed over the past hour, day, week, and month.
– SEMrush: Without keywords, your content will be lost in the vast digital world. Keywords form the basis of any and every content. So, before you begin to write any content, it helps to know which keywords will boost your visibility. With SEMrush you can research keywords in display ads, organic and paid search, and link building. By just entering a domain, a keyword, or a URL in the search bar, you can gather a fair idea of what to incorporate in your content. Users can get to know a website or keyword’s traffic breakdown by organic search, paid search, backlinks, and display ads. In addition, there is live information on organic keywords and organic competitors, paid keywords and paid competitors, and sample ads. A tool worth exploring.
– Moz Keyword Explorer: A recent addition fast gaining popularity is Moz keyword explorer. Moz provides suggestions of up to 1,000 related terms, ranked by relevancy and volume. It’s new, it’s comprehensive and offers easy keyword research process to compare, sort, and rank the keywords by importance. Get the analysis.
As much as we discussed keyword analysis and importance of content don’t neglect interactive content and the growing importance of voice search, as people increase their searches on smart devices like Alexa and Google Home. It is estimated, in 2020, 50% of all online searches will be voice searches. To ensure your business remains relevant and up to date with new developments in the industry and a step ahead of competitors, you must have a mix of high quality content strategies in your digital marketing plan.
