How to develop a winning content marketing strategy

A Content Marketing Strategy to Increase Your ROI up to 60%

According to Demand Metric, 78 percent of CMOs think that custom content is the future of marketing.

But, if content marketing is so good, why do so many people not see results with it?

The answer is simple: Most people don’t have a documented content marketing strategy. That’s why they fail.

As a matter of fact, a recent research conducted by the Content Marketing Institute revealed that 60% of businesses that have a documented strategy reported effectiveness and good results.

6 steps that will allow you to develop a winning strategy in

record time.

Here It is,

Number:1

Create a planning document

Just create an Excel spreadsheet and name it “Content Marketing Strategy”.

Number:2

Set your business objectives

Every business owner knows that objectives are extremely important.

# 1: State the goals you want to accomplish with content marketing

# 2: Add specific numbers (benchmarks)

# 3: What’s the business impact?

Follow the steps below to define your objectives properly:

# 1: State the goals you want to accomplish with content marketing

In your document, create a box called “Business objectives” and add 1-2 main goals, and 3-4 secondary goals.

# 2: Add specific numbers (benchmarks)

Try to add benchmarks to every business objective. That way, it will be easier for you to track and measure results.

# 3: What’s the business impact?

Now that you have set your goals and specific benchmarks, it’s time to add a “reason why” to each of them. In other words, how will those objectives directly benefit your business?

Number:3

Define your core message

How can you distinguish yourself from other brands and businesses?

# 1: Who’s your target audience?

# 2: Develop your mission statement

# 3: Develop a value proposition

Here are the steps to develop a powerful message and UVP:

It’s simple. By defining your core message and unique value proposition (also known as UVP).

# 4: Secondary messages

# 1: Who’s your target audience?

In order to create a compelling message, you need to understand who your audience is and what their problems are. If you don’t understand that, your content won’t benefit them at all.

# 2: Develop your mission statement

According to Entrepreneur Magazine:

“A sentence describing a company's function, markets, and competitive advantages; a short written statement of your business goals and philosophies”

# 3: Develop a value proposition

“A unique value proposition is a statement that directly communicates a specific benefit to your main audience and distinguishes you from your competitors”

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# 4: Secondary messages

You’re doing this with the purpose of creating content around those topics.

For example, if you are in the SEO space, your secondary messages could be:

Link building Copywriting Content marketing Social media marketing List building

Number:4

Perform a competitive analysis # 1: Define who your competitors are

# 2: Find the right insights and apply them to your strategy

# 3: Borrow competitor’s channels

Here are the steps:

“A competitive auditing is a strategy that consists of analyzing your competitors to find gaps, premises, and marketing channels they use, and then apply them to your business”

# 1: Define who your competitors are

No worry, finding your competitors is not that hard, just follow one of the two techniques below and you’ll be fine:

Option 1: Use Google SearchOption 2: Use BuzzSumo

That’s a good way to find your stronger competitors.

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# 2: Find the right insights and apply them to your strategy

Once you have a list of competitors, it’s time to perform a competitive analysis on their content. Here are the main things you need to analyze:

Their headlines Types of content they use Topics they cover Social networks they use Style of their content How often they publish content The gap

# 3: Borrow competitor’s channels

It’s time to see which channels your competitor use and who their main audience is.

Here are the options:

Option 1: Use AlexaOption 2: Use Similar Web

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Number:5

Choose the right instruments # 1: Choose a CMS

# 2: Define the content types you will use

# 3: Define the channels you use to promote your content

Here are the steps:

Now it’s time to choose the tools and instruments you’ll use to implement your content strategy:

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Number:6

Develop an editorial calendar # 1: Set your frequency

# 2: Structure the workflow

# 3: Track results

Here are the steps:

An editorial calendar is a simple document where all your content is programed and where you can plan your next moves. It’s extremely useful to keep you organized.

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Conclusion

Developing a good content marketing strategy can become really tedious, But all your efforts are worth it.

May your content make the web better…

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