Content Marketing Strategy Checklist
7 steps to create a solid content marketing strategy
You're just an alien from another planet until your content strikes a chord with your audience. So:
Here are some great tools to help you identify your audience and their interests:
- Collect data about your audience and analyze it
- Create your target personas and content themes around the topics they're interested in
Here are some great tools to help you identify your audience and their interests:
- Typeform and Survey Monkey are great for asking questions in fun ways.
- Think With Google: Marketer's Almanac and AnswerThePublic help you with market research.
- Google Analytics and Moz Analytics allow you to monitor your web traffic or other channels
- CoSchedule's Headline Analyzer, BuzzSumo, and Feedly can help you to define topics and create killer headlines
- Usepanda.com to find trending articles
- Intercom's resources are a killer way to gain timely key insights.
RESEARCH
1. Know your target audience
Why are you bothering with a content marketing strategy to begin with?
For example, make sure your goals are:
Platforms like StoryChief help you meet your end goal, where you can create content and collaborate before distributing and tracking performance.
For example, make sure your goals are:
- Realistic: "I want to publish 1 piece of content daily." This is both specific and doable.
- Measurable: "I want to increase our blog traffic by 5% by next month." There is a timeline and way to measure this.
- Relevant: "I'll increase the quality of leads by providing valuable content that builds trust." This aligns with the business strategy.
Platforms like StoryChief help you meet your end goal, where you can create content and collaborate before distributing and tracking performance.
SET GOALS
2. Unearth your goals
"Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today" - Tim Fargo
audit
3. Create an inventory
What do you have in-house already? Perform a content audit so you're not reinventing the proverbial wheels.
You can do this manually or use one of these great tools:
While you're at it, make sure to set your brand's tone and voice. Mailchimp's Content Style Guide and our Content Writing Checklist will help you level up your content marketing for sure.
You can do this manually or use one of these great tools:
While you're at it, make sure to set your brand's tone and voice. Mailchimp's Content Style Guide and our Content Writing Checklist will help you level up your content marketing for sure.
Powering up your content marketing strategy is key. But before you blast off, make sure to...
1) Decide on your format:
2) Decide on your publishing channels:
1) Decide on your format:
- For Brand Awareness: Social Media Posts, Blog Posts and Articles, Infographics, Videos
- For Lead Generation: Ebooks, Case Studies, Templates, Webinars, Podcast
2) Decide on your publishing channels:
- Social Networks: Hootsuite, Buffer, Zoho, Kontentino, StoryChief
- Email Marketing: Mailchimp
- Referral Marketing: Co-workers & Ambassadors
- Content Syndication: StoryChief
- Guest Blogging/Content Swaps
- Promotion through ads and PR/Influencers Linkpizza.com
PLAN AHEAD
4. Get to planning it
manage
5. Document it all
A solid content marketing strategy yields documented and repeatable workflows. Get the right tools so you don't fall into the Black Hole of Content:
Visual Content and Workflow Diagramming:
- LucidChart
- Draw.io
Notes and List-Keeping:
- Evernote
- Microsoft OneNote
- Google Keep
Project Management:
- Trello
- Airtable
- Basecamp
- Asana
- Notion
Visual Content and Workflow Diagramming:
- LucidChart
- Draw.io
Notes and List-Keeping:
- Evernote
- Microsoft OneNote
- Google Keep
Project Management:
- Trello
- Airtable
- Basecamp
- Asana
- Notion
You've got your content in place and you know where it's going. It's time to launch it.
But before you do:
Now go and get your brand out there!
But before you do:
- Be sure your content is optimized for mobile.
- Avoid duplicate content issues.
- Prioritize using a Content Calendar.
- Don't forget about SEO:
- Ubersuggest is super easy to use for keyword research
- StoryChief's very own SEO tool was ranked #2 of the day on Product Hunt. Make sure to take a look!
Now go and get your brand out there!
PUBLISH
6. Blast off and promote
Equally as important as the launch is nailing the landing.
You need to determine what works and what doesn't work, and where. The behavior of your visitors will dictate your future content plans:
Then you can go huddle with your team live or via Slack or Whereby and do it all over again!
You need to determine what works and what doesn't work, and where. The behavior of your visitors will dictate your future content plans:
- Google's Campaign URL Builder is a gem for tracking where your visitors are coming from. The UTMs identify your flow of traffic.
- Kissmetrics
Then you can go huddle with your team live or via Slack or Whereby and do it all over again!
IMPROVE
7. Measure your landings
Question:
How do I create content that generates leads?
Tips:
No worries, we've got you covered!
- 25 Best Resources for Finding New Content Ideas for Blogs
- B2B Lead Generation: A Step-By-Step Guide For Content Marketers
- The Ultimate Guide to How To Write A Top-Performing Blog Post
- SEO Marketing Checklist for B2B Content Marketers
- The Top 8 Content Marketing Objectives to Focus on Right Now
- Hands-On Guide to Getting SEO Leads from your blog content
Good luck with your
content marketing strategy's lift-off!
content marketing strategy's lift-off!
Disclaimer: We don't have any affiliate connections with these tools. We just find them very useful and think you might think so too.