Whether you're just starting your content marketing plan, or you've already had one you've been working on for a while, it's important as we head into the new year, that you rethink your plan to make sure it's strong and effective enough. The competition is always there and growing non-stop, (according to statistics, the most successful marketers spend more than 40% of their budget on content marketing alone).
Your first step in order to excel in this competition is to have a strong and distinct content marketing plan.
If you're having trouble preparing for your New Year's content marketing plan, or need some fresh and tidy ideas to embrace... read on!
The importance of content marketing
Content marketing is a very important element for you as an online business owner, as it is the first way to give the world an idea and knowledge about your business, what this business offers, and why the public should deal with this business and buy the products or services it offers.
To clarify the idea, let's say, for example, that we are talking about a famous online store, and let's see the nature of the content that can be shared with the public:
Provide advice and ideas to the audience about the products the store sells.
Share customers with the most important news of the store, such as adding more products, or price reductions..etc.
Answer common customer questions and share with everyone.
Providing solutions to problems that customers may encounter while dealing with the store.
Customers share the positive experiences of buyers.
Customers share the competitive advantages of the store compared to competing stores.
All of these points above are templates for marketing content, the goal of which is to increase brand awareness, get new customers, generate more sales, and increase the loyalty of existing customers to the brand.
Also, sharing content with the target audience, represents the nucleus of other marketing techniques that attract customers and generate profits, such as sponsored content, social media platform ads, search engine ads, and others.
How to make a successful content marketing plan
Content marketing should not be done randomly, but a clear and detailed plan must be developed for it, in order to obtain the best possible results through it.
To create a successful content marketing plan, follow these steps:
1- Define the goal clearly
Be clear about the motivation behind developing your content marketing plan. Why do you want to create a new content marketing plan? Is your goal: introducing your project to the market/increasing sales/increasing followers and visitors on social media accounts and the company’s website?
Define your goals before you start planning, this will make your task easier and less stressful. Clarity in goals makes the whole planning process easier, because then you will know what content and tools to include in your plan.
Read also: What is the difference between B2B and B2C in marketing (very important for every marketer)
2- Study the target group well
After you have defined your goals, you need to define exactly your target group for your plan to be accurate. This is a very important step especially for those who are just starting their business, or developing their first marketing plan. By knowing precisely the target audience, the company can produce content that is valuable and relevant to the interests of customers.
You need to determine the quality of this targeting..Do you want to target a completely new category, expand the circle of the current category, or keep it as it is? Who are your target audience… their interests/ behavior/ age/ geographic location/ gender? Also, constantly reviewing the target group of your project is necessary for the spread and development of your project.
Read also: How to make an e-marketing plan (comprehensive practical guide)
3- Renew the previous content body
Most marketers and business owners always start their marketing plan with blogging, but if you really want to innovate and produce new pieces of content, you have plenty of alternatives to choose from and implement. For example, if you've been publishing for the past year, try to compile these articles into a digital book, and offer it free to your readers as a field-specific guide.
This method is a new way to display information in a different format, and we will show some other formats that you can use later in this article.
If your project has been around for a long time, reviewing the marketing efforts of the past years and their results is essential; To figure out what you could do differently this year.
Read also: How to Become a Professional Online Marketer (Your Comprehensive Guide 2022)
4- Choosing the right tools
Tools are a very important component of content marketing, they save you a lot of time and effort, and help you achieve goals.
These are the most important and popular content marketing tools:
Buzzsumo
Through this tool you can browse and explore the most popular content ideas in your field. This platform offers a number of market research tools. This tool uses the number of posts and the rate of interaction on social media platforms, to determine if a particular type of content is popular and widespread on social media. This great tool will inspire you with ideas for the content to make in your next plan.
Tool link:
Feedly
It is a convenient tool for tracking trending and trending topics in your market and finding good ideas for creating content.
Tool link:
Buffer
This tool enables you to publish on social networking sites from one place, through which you can add all your accounts and pages on social networking sites, and then publish what you want from content once to all social networking sites.
Tool link:
HubSpot's Website Grader
You can use this tool to measure the efficiency of your project's marketing performance, as it shows you your blogging activity and your marketing on social media platforms, and sends you a detailed report to help you develop each part. With this tool, You can make your website more search engine friendly, and create new content with fresh ideas.
Tool link:
WordPress
The WordPress tool enables you to create a free blog, through which you can publish marketing content and increase sales of your product or service.
tool hook:
Youtube
YouTube is the best tool for publishing visual marketing content completely free of charge. By creating a YouTube channel, you can upload marketing videos for your business, which help you increase sales and reach a larger audience.
Tool link:
5- Determine the quality of the required content
There are many alternatives to the types of content you can create. Here are the most popular content images to get you started.
Postings
Like the one you're reading right now on Winners. Articles or blog posts should be published periodically on your project website in order to attract new readers and keep readers following.
Posts should provide readers with valuable content that motivates them to share with their circles on social media platforms and other websites.
digital books
It is one of the tools that attract the target customers to visit your site. In general, these books are long and in-depth on the subject covered in them, and they are not published continuously and regularly, such as articles and blogs.
This step is critical to the success of your content marketing plan. As readers visit your website in order to read articles, they are eager for more information and turn to digital books as they are more detailed and clear.
Here begins the role of directing them to the home page of your website, where they leave their contact information to get the book, and learn more about the field they are interested in. In return, you've got a good email list that you can use in your weekly newsletter, or send your offers and discounts to their personal inbox.
infographic
Infographics can organize and depict information and data in a way that is more attractive than just textual content alone, and is faster and more widespread. This form of content is smart and effective if you are trying to present a large amount of information in a more clear and accessible manner.
With the presence of infographic making tools, the task has become very easy, in fact, there are many and many great tools for making infographics.
Read also: The most important 9 e-marketing channels and an explanation of each of them 2022
video clips
Videos are the most popular and engaging form of content, as they are 40 times more popular on social media than other types of content. Clips take a significant investment of time and effort (and possibly money) to create one content of sufficient quality, but the payoff is definitely worth the effort.
Also Read : How to Make money from Affiliate and YouTube in 5 practical steps
Social media posts
In the event that you have already been posting on the website regularly for a while, now is the time to publish this content on social media platforms.
This means directing your content to the right platform you know your target audience is on, and you should post on each platform what it works for, and what your audience expects to find.
Also Read : 8 ways to make money from social media followers you should use
For example, users expect to find photos, clips, and infographics on Instagram, while Twitter is for short tweets, or a link to your blog in a more professional and formal way.
Companies usually publish their content on the following platforms:
The YouTube.
Read also: What is the marketing plan, its importance and components (comprehensive guide)
6- Publishing and managing content
A content marketing plan is more than just creating content, as it should also cover how you manage that content.
With the help of an editorial calendar, you will be able to keep your content posted on the appropriate platforms in a balanced and varied manner.
Next, create another editorial calendar for social media platforms to manage your accounts on.
Do not neglect the content of occasions, such as New Year's, holidays or the beginning of holidays, they can attract a lot of followers if you use them correctly.
Now it's only your business..it will inevitably take time, a lot of organization, creativity and effort to create a successful content strategy. Starting today with a clear vision and planning, ensures that you will survive the distraction and stress at the beginning of the new year.
