The ultimate guide to developing a content plan

A content plan specifies ways to execute your strategy, it has to be tactically drafted in a way that it covers all the basics and attracts the audience to go through your content. But you need to realize that having a content marketing strategy is crucial before defining a content plan. My previous articles perfectly sum up the importance of having an explicit marketing program and how you can target your potential audience. In this piece, I’ll be telling you about ways to develop a rock-solid content marketing plan.

 So let’s dive right in.

Define your aim for developing a content plan

First and foremost, you need to effectively choose the best topics that can have a positive impact on your ROI. Look for the topics that are most liked by your audience. Before you draft your first piece, have a strong understanding of whom you are writing to. Keep the profile of your prospect or audience in your mind and write in such a way that your message is powerfully conveyed to them, especially if you are a B2B marketer, make them want more of your content.

Find Low Competition Keywords with a lot of traffic

Each piece of content you write should serve the following purposes:

• Build SEO rankings
• Build sales & connections
• Build awareness

Choosing targeted keywords in your content marketing plan is the key to your business success. But having targeted long-tail keywords with low competition but a wider audience can bring a gigantic change in the success plan of your businesses. Less competition means you will most likely rank well on Google and other search engines more easily. Being aware of the fact that it takes at least a period of six months to make your SEO strategy work on Google and SERPs, instead, low competition keywords are much more easy to rank than keywords with higher competition levels. In fact, a few low competition keywords are high in volume which can prove to be enough to generate profitable conversions.

Just like there are tools available for finding keywords that rank best, also there are a few tools available online that can help you in finding low-impact long-tail keywords e.g. google keywords planner or google instant search, etc.

Conduct a content audit

A firm content audit should be conducted annually. Businesses are posting too much content on a weekly basis that it becomes almost impossible to keep a track of uploaded content. But a good practice demands that you return to your content occasionally to ensure that it is not outdated but as fresh as it should be. You can assess the strength and weaknesses by keeping a track of your content to ensure future marketing activities. By conducting a good audit, you will have an answer to the questions such as: what strategies are working the best? Or what content your audience likes to connect with?

We can have a brief discussion about how to conduct a good content audit in one of my future articles. But there are only two primary reasons for conducting an audit i.e. SEO and Content Marketing.

Choose a good CMS (Content Management System)

CMS is a software that enables you to create and manage content including designs, content, graphics, and even code. There are several CMS software made available online for digital marketing strategy but the one that you select should relate to your business, should be reliable and user-friendly.

Type of content you want to use

Determine what type of content you wish to use to win new leads and drive new sales.

There are a variety of options available such as:

1. Blogging/Blog Posts
2. Long-form Content i.e. blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, and tutorials or how-to guides
3. Case Studies
4. Templates
5. Info-graphics
6. Videos
7. Podcasts
8. Social Media
9. Template & Checklist Downloads

It takes time and creativity to grow a successful content plan, but I truly hope that the above- mentioned points were informative enough to help you at least get started with it. Ensure to always keep an eye on what you post, post timely, and don’t forget to plan your calendar.

Happy creating.