3 Components To Your Content Marketing Strategy

If you are using content marketing for your business you need a strategy. But not just any strategy off the top of your head. You need a content marketing strategy that is well-thought-out in order to be successful. Rushing into it and just throwing everything out there to see what sticks are not a strategy. Keep reading if you want to learn the 3 most essential components to a successful content marketing strategy.

Setting Your Goals

It may seem obvious but how many times have you started working on a piece of content with no clear goal in mind? If you are like most of us when we were getting started there is an overriding need to just get something out there and hope “if you build it they will come”.

The unfortunate problem with this is the sheer numbers involved with content on the internet. There are literally millions and millions of blog posts written every day. Additionally, thousands of companies are putting tutorials and product information content articles online all the time. For your content to have any chance of connecting with an audience you need to solve a problem for them, entertain them, or teach them something they want to learn.

You need to begin looking at your goals and setting your standards for content using the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. What are the S.M.A.R.T. criteria? They are a method of goal setting that helps you make sure you are setting a goal you can reach.

• Your goal should be Specific / Significant
• Your goal should be Measurable / Meaningful
• Your goal should be Achievable / Acceptable
• Your goal should be Realistic / Rewarding
• Your goal should be Time-based / Tangible

Setting your goals using the S.M.A.R.T. criteria will help you to achieve success in your content marketing strategy much faster than simply throwing out a bunch of stuff and hoping for the best.

The criteria help you to focus on specific things that can help you accomplish your goals. You are eliminating things which don’t fit the criteria and narrowing down your focus to what will work. You may need to do some trial and error testing to work out what works best for your specific situation or business. However, using the S.M.A.R.T. criteria will get you much closer to your goal than simply deciding to “wing it”.

Having a SMART goal in place will help you achieve success much faster. You’re basically eliminating the fluff and focusing on what can help you accomplish your goals. You’d probably need to do some trial and error to find out what works best for your business, but you’d still be closer to your goals than if you decided to just “wing it”.

Build an audience persona

Do you have any idea what your audience looks like? Who are the people or customers you are trying to connect with when you put your content out there?

If you don’t know who you are trying to reach you can’t tailor the content for them. It may take some time to find out who your audience is, but it will pay huge dividends in the long run if you spend a little time now.

Not knowing who to create your content for will cause you to waste time and energy and eventually cause all your content marketing efforts to fail. How you write your content to resonate with millennials will be completely different from if your customers are baby boomers.

Quality content that speaks to your audience will trump quantity every time. The way to assure you are writing quality content that appeals to the audience you want to reach is by knowing who they are.

Having this information will help you create the type of content that is appealing and grabs the attention of those you want to reach. You then have the ability to present yourself as an authority to them because they can see you understand their needs and their pain points.

Skip creating an audience persona for your content marketing strategy at your own risk. If you fail to take the time to do this step you could be wasting all your hard work and end up with no one reading the content you put your heart and soul into.

Create valuable and shareable content

Once you have set your goals and created your audience persona it is time for the final ingredient in your strategy. Of course, this is the most important part of the strategy, creating the content itself.

Completing the first two steps should make this a lot easier because you now have an idea who you are trying to communicate with, and have a plan for the best way to do that. When you create content that your audience identifies with and wants to interact with you have made it much easier to persuade them to buy your product or follow your recommendation.

When the people you reach see you as an authority they will be more likely to join your mailing list, so they can continue to get the information they want to read and share. This makes it easier to monetize your content by getting them to buy your product or an affiliate product, or to visit your business.

Keep these 3 steps for a successful content marketing strategy in mind as you begin or continue to work on your own content marketing. Using these steps will help you communicate with your audience and drive your business success.