Essential content creation strategy for 2021

Content marketing has a higher chance of success when a company has built a plan around it. Many companies do not have a content creating strategy. A company’s content marketing efforts is without a strategy is like shooting arrows in the dark.

Steps for creating a content strategy

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) conducted research and found that 63% of businesses lack a documented content marketing plan. Mentioned below are a few tips for stepping your content creation game up:

1. Mission statement- The first step to building a solid content writing content marketing plan is to lay down your content marketing mission statement. The statement is there to remind you of your priorities and to stay focused on it. The statement will define your target demographic, the type of content you will generate to reach them, and how your content will add value to your audience.

2. Company goals- After planning the mission statement, it is time to analyse what the strategy has to offer your business. Your business goals come in here. Revenue generation is a must for the sustenance of your business. Making more sales and gaining traffic can be a few goals to foster revenue.

3. Key performance indicators- It is time to quantify your goals and be specific by setting key performance indicators for your content marketing strategy. The performance indicators will serve as a yardstick for gauging the achievement of your goals. The indicators may include targets related to revenue, SEO, traffic, and sales, among others.

4. Time-bound performance- Do decide the time frame you intend to achieve your revenue or sales target. It can be within a month, quarter, or year.

5. Know your audience- A company needs to be clear about its target demographic. You can gain information on your email subscribers, visitors, and social media followers. The web and social media analytics will provide you with information such as your audience age, gender, education, and income. Web analytics also provide information about audience interest. 

6. Customer feedback- A company can benefit significantly from customer feedback. Collecting feedback from your existing customers will help you gain insight into how your audience relates to the current content you are putting out. It will also let you know how can you meet their urgent needs with your content.

7. Buyer personas- The collected data and feedback will enable you to create buyer personas. The buyer persona describes your ideal reader or customer. The buyer persona lets you know your target audience's pain points, challenges, and behavioural motivators. It helps you place your product better.

8. Assess where you stand- Most businesses have an excellent output that already exists in the form of blogs, social media content, videos, and podcasts. Hence, the next logical step is to inquire whether your content is helping you meet your objectives. A content audit will help you gauge the usefulness of your blogs and videos and identifying the gaps. 

9. Trace content gaps- Start tracing gaps that can be filled in your performance. The gaps can be in the form of keywords that you are not using, but you can use in your content to target a niche audience. It will also make you aware of your audience's questions, but you are yet to answer.

Finally, most successful content marketing strategies choose video marketing since it is a proven method to engage and keep visitors on-site for longer. It also enhances lead generation. So, have a central core of content published on your website. It can be repurposed and shared on various other sites.

Knowing where your audience is hanging is going to help your content marketing strategy by leaps and bounds. Checking competitor sites and streamlining content creation based on a type that has universal appeal will help your business grow optimally.