Many people don’t know what a content strategy is or why they need one. A content strategy is an overall plan for your business’s content. It helps you figure out how to increase the visibility of your website and generate more revenue by providing customers with the information they are looking for on your site.
This blog post will discuss what a good content strategy should look like and how it can benefit any business!
Why do you need a content strategy?
For you to survive in the world of online content, you need a strategy. If you are in Columbus, Ohio and your business is not doing well with its current web presence, there are probably several reasons this might happen and you need the services of SEO expert Columbus.
If you have recently started an eCommerce website or new blog, it may simply take some time to increase the number of visitors and sales that come through your site daily. However, if you have had no luck getting traffic after six months to one year, something needs to change!
A content strategy can help get more people back to your site for years by providing them with the information they want at every stage of their decision-making process. It’s also crucial if you’re trying to rank higher organically on search engines results pages (SERPs). Today’s consumers do the bulk of their research online and before making a purchase. This means they will probably go straight to Google or Bing if you don’t have what they are looking for on your site.
Creating this strategy is not as difficult as it sounds, but can be time-consuming depending on how much content you publish and which channels you plan to used to distribute that information (more on these later). Content marketing also allows businesses with limited budgets an opportunity to compete against larger competitors by building trust over time without having large ad spending at one’s disposal.
Defining a content strategy for your business
If you want an effective relationship with your content, you’ll need to define what it is. That means setting goals and developing a strategy for achieving them by doing:
1.Set your goal(s)
What do you hope to achieve? What’s your desired outcome for each piece of content you share with the world?
Here are some examples:
- Increase brand awareness and visibility
- Improve social media engagement rates
- Gain more subscribers to a blog or email list
- Turn current customers into repeat buyers
- Convince prospects to buy your product/service
- Generate qualified leads from organic search engine traffic, etc.
If you can’t define your goals properly, then a local SEO expert is what you need. To find one, just go to Google and search for “SEO expert near me”.
2. Determine your target audience
Who are you trying to reach?
Your target audience is NOT everyone on the internet. Instead, your audience consists of those people who share a common interest or need with you and would be receptive to receiving information from you about it. They care enough about solving their problem that they’re willing to listen, learn from and engage with what you have to say – if not now, then at least in the future.
You’ll want several personas (ideally) for each goal. For example, one person for blog posts; another for social media updates; yet another group of prospects/leads, etc. You can create separate personas around different content by segmenting them based on where they consume content (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).
Like we’ve said before, if you have a hard time with stages like this, try searching “SEO consultants near me” and you’ll find experts willing to help.
3. Work at the SEO angle and do keyword research
Doing some keyword research will help you better understand what types of content your prospects/customers are searching online.
Once you have a list of keywords, the next step is to create blog posts that target those specific terms and phrases. You can also add them into any other relevant content – videos, white papers, etc. Remember this: if someone’s searching for it online (including with Google), there’s probably demand for information on that topic!
That way, when they find their way to your site and start engaging in conversation via comments or social media shares, they’ll already be engaged and listening because you’re speaking about something they genuinely care about; not just selling those products or services at every turn, as most businesses do.
4. Analyze the competition
Who are you up against?
How big is their audience?
What are they doing to engage with them and steal market share from your competition’s customers/audience – the people you want, too!?!
Please take a look at what content types they’re producing. Is it similar to yours or very different? If there are differences, do some research into why that might be? Maybe theirs is better than yours in some way (lesson learned!) but maybe not, meaning there could still be an opportunity for you here if you can think outside of the box more creatively about ways this information gap can benefit both businesses somehow.
5. Choose your distribution channels
Once you have a good idea about your content strategy, it’s time to choose which channels you’ll use to distribute the information.
These are just some of the most common options:
- Social media (Facebook, Twitter)
- Blogs and industry publications
- eBooks and other downloadable resources
Remember that every company has different goals for their business – so think about yours as well! What do you want out of this? Will sharing your eBook on LinkedIn help with one purpose but not another? Tailoring each channel towards those goals will be vital in seeing success.
6. Create content for the entire customer journey
You also have to think about your target audience regarding where they are in the customer journey. For example, someone just starting with their business might be interested in things like how to start a blog or what content marketing is all about – while you can create relevant content for that person, it will probably not lead them to become a paying customer quite so quickly.
On the other hand, if you know your perfect client well and have nailed down exactly when they buy from you (and why), then crafting super specific content aimed at this stage of the cycle could help speed up sales even more!
7. Develop an editorial calendar
An editorial calendar will help you stay on track and ensure that your content is going out promptly. If you’re having trouble thinking of what to post or can’t create enough evergreen content yourself – then it might be time to hire a writer.
The advice here is the same as with so many other outsourced tasks: find somebody who knows their stuff but doesn’t have too many clients they need to work for – this ensures they’ll deliver consistently excellent work every time!
Having an editorial plan laid out helps establish credibility by showing visitors how often you publish new material and keep them up-to-date with developments within your industry. It also gives Google valuable something to index, which may increase search engine traffic over time.
8. Mix it up
A content strategy means repetition. Once you’ve got your plan in place, the last thing you want to do is publish an article that follows it strictly!
Mixing up what you write about and how often will keep readers engaged for extended periods, leading to more conversions on whatever site they are reading your blog post from. Make sure all of this information still fits with your company’s overarching goals, though – otherwise, why bother having a ‘strategy’?
9. Build credibility on your topic
If you want to stay in business, you can’t afford to write something untrue. If it is not the truth, people will find out, and your credibility will be shot (not to mention, many other businesses would love for their competition’s content strategy to fail).
So, make sure everything you publish regularly is factually correct. If anything in an article needs more research before publishing, it’s fine as long as the information contained within is accurate once it goes live! You’ll need consistency with this, though, so set up some ground rules for what gets published where and when.
Conclusion
To help you get started, we’ve created this step-by-step guide to developing your content strategy. We also want to hear from you – what challenges are you currently facing?
What questions do you have about how content can drive revenue for your business? Let us know in the comments below, and any SEO expert Columbus in our team will be happy to answer them or connect with you directly via email or phone if needed!