Did you know that content creation is the task that most B2B content marketers outsource? A whopping 45% of marketing professionals report that their content marketing efforts struggle to strike a chord with their target audience. That's why you need a robust content creation strategy to help you both strategize and implement.
From finding target keywords to outlining a content calendar - a content creation strategy involves a series of crucial steps. In this article, we share 30 tactics to inspire your content creation process.
Table of contents
- 1: Performing content research
- 2: Developing a content creation strategy
- 3: Creating the content
- 4: Distributing the content
Why you need a content creation strategy
In the absence of a well-defined strategy, you’ll end up publishing random pieces of content now and then. Worse still, you might post your content at a time when your specific audience is least likely to be active.
The best way to avoid such a situation is to outline a great content strategy framework. It offers a plethora of benefits, such as:
- Establishes a clear roadmap
- Enhances consistency
- Targets the right audience
- Maximizes resources
- Drives engagement and conversions
- Establishes brand awareness
- Enables data-driven decision-making
- Keeps you ahead of the competition
Targeting audience interest, prioritizing organic search, and bringing content collaboration under one roof should all be a key part of your strategy.
StoryChief lets you brief, assign, write, review, publish, and promote content in one place.
It’s time for us to outline a few useful tactics to help you build a content creation strategy that works for your content managers and your writers.
Part I: Performing Content Research
From identifying your target audience to selecting relevant high-volume keywords - gathering audience research insights is at the heart of every successful content marketing strategy. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
1. Use Online Surveys
If you already have an extensive mailing list, you can conduct an online survey to understand your audience better.
2. Leverage Audience Polls on Social Media
Social media polls are particularly useful for understanding your audience’s pain points and aspirations.
3. Monitor Blog Comments
Doing this will give you an idea of your readers’ expectations, problems, and needs. It can be very beneficial when developing or tweaking your content creation strategy.
4. Focus on Social Listening
Monitor branded hashtags, and brand name mentions on various social media platforms. Also, keep an eye on the comments section of your social media posts.
5. Use Analytics Tools
Explore Google Analytics and social media analytics for a more in-depth insight into your existing audience's demographic parameters and content marketing metrics.
Tip: How to Build Impressive Analytics Reports for Your Clients in StoryChief
6. Don’t Ignore Keyword Research
From blog posts and social media captions to video content descriptions and Instagram hashtags - keywords will come in handy at every stage of your content creation strategy. Make sure you identify meaningful and trending keywords in your niche using keyword research tools and keyword gap tools such as:
- StoryChief’s AI-driven AI Keyword Generator
- SEMrush
- Google Keyword Planner
- Keywords Explorer by Ahrefs
- Google Trends
- Google Search Console
- Moz’s Keyword Explorer
7. Define Clear Goals
Using one of the best goal-setting frameworks, the SMART methodology, will help you define smart goals for your brand and content.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
This will help you create detailed goals and high-quality content.
Part 2: Developing your Content Creation Strategy
You can’t jump right into the process of creating and distributing top-notch content. You need to outline a robust content creation strategy first. Here are a few tips that’ll come in handy at this stage:
8. Brainstorm Content Ideas
Gather your team and start jotting down all content types you think will resonate with your audience. Make sure to browse competitors content. You can also use a tool like AnswerThePublic to find the questions your audience is most likely to about a particular topic. When you've got many ideas, list them in an Excel spreadsheet and start researching each topic.
9. Perform a Content Audit
Find your best-performing and worst-performing content assets across various channels. Doing this will help you identify the topics, different formats, and distribution channels that are driving maximum traction.
Inside of StoryChief, you can use various filters and searches to find content that needs to be updated. One easy way to find opportunities is to look for posts with low SEO and readability scores. Our SEO and readability optimizer gives you a score for each and tips on how to improve it.
10. Outline a Content Calendar
A content calendar outlines your content creation strategy and distribution schedule, so you’ll stay on task and consistent. You’ll find a plethora of content calendar templates online to help with your content creation strategy.
With StoryChief, you can manage your content calendar, create content, publish it, and promote it all in one place.
Tip: The Perfect Content Marketing Calendar Template
Don't let disorganization hold you back. Bring content creation, collaboration, optimization, planning and scheduling together into one tool. Start planning your content today.
11. Create a Content Marketing Playbook
A content marketing playbook (CMP) acts as a quick reference guide that outlines your organization's content marketing best practices. It facilitates collaboration and coordination within your team and makes it easier to train new employees.
12. Leverage a Content Marketing Platform
With StoryChief, marketing managers can easily manage their marketing content (blogs, articles, news, etc.) from AI copywriting, AI-driven SEO optimization, content planning, reviewing and approvals, translations, and multi-channel publication to analyzing market impact.
Our content marketing program easily connects to your social media channels and any content management system so that you can publish your content on various channels from one place with a single click.
Iprov, an agency, switched from using multiple SEO tools and copy-pasting content manually into their CMS to collaborating and publishing everything from a single dashboard. This not only saved them time but also allowed them to strategize more effectively for their clients. The team at iProv calls StoryChief "the one-click wonder" because publishing podcast content, social posts, and email workflows are just a click away.
Part 3: Creating the content
This step is the most anticipated part of content marketing. If you've built a strong content creation strategy, this should be straightforward. Here are a few more effective tips:
13. Set Up Your Blog
If you haven't set up your blog yet, it's high time you get started. You can use a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress or HubSpot to build a lovely blog in a few simple steps. You can also leverage StoryChief on WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, Wix, and many more.
14. Publish Keyword-Rich Content
If you’re writing blog posts, make sure you optimize them using the right keywords. However, avoid over-stuffing your content with irrelevant keywords. Instead, place your keywords in the following sections:
- Page title
- Meta title
- Meta description
- Introduction
- Heading (H1) and subheadings (H2, H3)
- Image alt text
- Conclusion
StoryChief’s SEO copywriting tool can help you with the correct keyword insertion in your blog posts too. All you have to do is enter the focus keyword on the platform, and it'll show you what needs to be done! You can try this and many other content marketing features for free for 7 days.
15. Optimize Your Content Structure
No one likes to read a long wall of text. While long-form content performs better, you need to make it readable and scannable. Use short sentences and paragraphs. Also, divide your content into individual sections using meaningful subheadings.
With StoryChief, you can optimize your blog for both readability and SEO by following specific instructions based on your unique content.
16. Write Compelling Headlines
Use a crisp, snappy, and eye-catching headline that piques the readers’ curiosity and creates a sense of urgency.
AI can easily come up with more (and often better) headlines faster than a human writer can. Here is an example of headlines created by AI Power Mode on the topic ‘AI in content creation’:
- The Future of Content: How AI is Revolutionizing Creation
- Unlocking Creativity: Exploring the Role of AI in Content Production
- From Algorithms to Art: How AI Technology is Transforming Content Creation
- Writing with the Machines: The Rising Influence of AI in Content Generation
- The Power of AI: Enhancing Content Creation through Artificial Intelligence
17. Use New Content Formats
Apart from blog posts, you should also consider using other content formats such as:
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Memes
- Social media posts (tweets, jokes, one-liners, captions)
- Animations
- White papers
The final selection of content formats depends on your target audience, marketing objectives, and budget. Also, it depends on the distribution channels you plan to use to reach your audience. You can create blog posts for different types of content, such as podcasts and videos, and promote them from your blog, so you boost organic web traffic and drive visitors further down the sales funnel.
18. Use Awesome Images
Make your blog posts more valuable and enriching by including relevant, high-quality images, illustrations, and infographics. We have a media library, full of all of your previously used content (so you can add images from old blog posts). Plus, we integrate directly with Unsplash for free access to high-quality stock images.
19. Include a CTA
Whether you’re publishing a blog post or a YouTube video, make sure it includes a compelling call to action. Here are a few examples of attractive CTAs you can use:
20. Publish Case Studies and Checklists
Publishing case studies is an excellent way part of a content creation strategy to build credibility, authority, and trust. List your client's problems and highlight how your products/services helped resolve their issues.
On the other hand, checklists can be a simple compilation of useful tips, tricks, and hacks presented in a downloadable format. You can use them as a lead magnet to build your mailing list.
21. Optimize and Repurpose Existing Content
Update existing blog posts to ensure that they continue to be relevant and drive traffic. Likewise, you need to check whether the keywords they're ranking for are still relevant to your goals and brand.
It's a good time to repurpose your blog posts into more engaging formats such as infographics and SlideShare presentations. You can even turn a podcast episode into an insightful blog post and further repurpose it as an animation.
22. Curate Relevant Content
Keep an eye on the trending and popular content in your niche. Get creative and think of ways to incorporate trending content on your blog or social media profiles.
23. Host Interviews & Webinars
Interview relevant influencers and industry thought leaders on your podcast. Repurpose it as a blog post or even YouTube videos. Share snippets on social media to garner tractions.
On the other hand, webinars help you interact with your audience and better understand their needs. You can even use them to influence purchase decisions.
24. Leverage Guest Posting
Do you want to breathe new life into your content creation strategy? Consider inviting a renowned writer in your niche to contribute to your blog.
Tip: Become a guest blogger and reach more than 20,000 marketers
25. Try Newsjacking
Watch out for the latest industry trends and news and try to piggyback on relevant news. It's a great way to make your content viral.
26. Harness the Power of User-Generated Content
Publish client testimonials and user reviews on your website and social media profiles to build reputation and trust. You can even reward customers for uploading pictures or videos featuring your products on their social media profiles.
27. Use a Project Management Tool
A project management tool is instrumental in helping your team monitor the progress of each content asset. That, in turn, ensures that every content piece has been revised and edited before the scheduled date of publishing.
Part 4: Tactics for Effective Content Distribution
A great content creation strategy is of no use unless it reaches the right people at the right time. Here are a few tips to distribute and promote your content:
28. Use the Right Channels at the Right Time
The key to efficient content distribution is to ensure that you share it on your audience's most preferred channels. Also, make sure you select the most appropriate channels for each step of the buyer's journey. Here's a simple guide to help you:
Timing is everything. Use website and social media analytics to determine when your audience is most likely to be active on various distribution channels.
29. Leverage Social Media
Irrespective of your product and niche, your potential customers likely already use one or more social media platforms. Ensure you identify the right content formats into your content creation strategy and publishing times of each social media channel for maximum traction. Using a social media tool can help you determine the best times to post for each channel.
30. Don’t Ignore Emails
Emails are beneficial for nurturing active leads and building a long-term relationship with your existing customers. Make sure you reward your email list subscribers with unique content in the form of:
- Newsletters
- Insider tips
- Free trials and demos
- Early access to new products
- Free resources such as e-books, tools, guides, et cetera
Conclusion
It's impractical to execute an inbound marketing campaign without outlining a robust content creation strategy in today's day and age. Start by identifying your target audience and focus keywords. Next, create a content calendar outlining the content creation and distribution schedule.
When it comes to creating content, the key takeaway is to use various formats that will connect with your audience and communicate your brand story. Also, it’s essential to repurpose your existing content and share user-generated content. Lastly, don’t forget to promote your content across the right distribution channels.
Pro tip: You can use StoryChief to do all this: Brief your team, write your content, optimize SEO, and distribute your story, all in one place. Get started free today.
