Did you know that, according to SmallBizGenius, 72% of marketers reported that content marketing made a positive quantifiable difference when it came to prospect engagement? Additionally, 31% of marketers use short articles and blogs for brand awareness building.
Considering these statistics, it’s pretty clear that one of the most important things any business owner needs to do is develop an effective content marketing strategy.
If you run a B2C company, then you might not be sure where to get started when it comes to creating a content marketing plan.
After all, there are many different steps you have to take, and it can be confusing to know where to start.
That’s why we’ve put together this article. In it, you’ll learn all about how you can develop an effective content marketing strategy.
Finally, you can run a content marketing campaign and find new ways to grow your business online. Read on to learn more.
Know Your Audience
When it comes to content marketing tips, one of the most important ones is to know your audience. If you don’t start with this step, then you can write the best content ever and no one who matters will read it. Okay, someone might read it.
Your mother, maybe. But if you want your actual ideal customers to access your content and start becoming loyal customers, you need to know your audience.
(Don’t worry, though. Your mom will still read it. That’s what mothers do.)
To know your audience, you need to create a buyer persona. This is the fancy term for the person you envision when you’re creating all of your content. Why is this effective?
If you know your buyer persona through and through, then you’ll know what to write, how to write it, what content type to package it in, and when and where to share it.
Building a Buyer Persona
To build a buyer persona, you have to understand specifics about your audience. This includes income, education level, employment, gender, and age. However, you need to understand even more than these details.
You need to understand where your buyer persona is in their life. What their challenges are. What their needs are. How can you provide a solution? What type of information can you provide them with to improve their situation?
Start your work by noting all these details down. Then, do market research. This way, you can ensure that you’re getting every detail right.
If you already have a customer base, you can also get some information from them. You can survey them and use any analytics you already have.
By the time you’ve finished putting together your buyer persona, you should know your buyer persona as well as if they were someone standing right in front of you.
Keyword Research
Another one of the most important content marketing tips is doing your keyword research. Keywords are important because they will be used to make it easier for your customers to find your content. They’re a big part of search engine optimization (SEO).
Basically, whenever someone searches for something on Google, Google algorithms will pick out the most relevant content to appear at the top of the search results.
Part of what powers these algorithms is the presence of keywords in the content, its images, and more.
If you know what the keywords are that your customers are searching for when trying to find a product or solve a problem, you can integrate them into your content to make it easier for them to find your content before a competitor’s.
Because you know your customers well after you’ve created the buyer persona, you should have a pretty good idea of what they’re looking for when they have a problem or need a product.
Start creating keyword phrases that include what you think they would type into Google. Then, integrate these into your content.
Keyword research is something that many of your competitors will be doing, so it’s smart to use a keyword tool or work with a content marketing agency to perfect your keywords list. This will make your SEO even more powerful.
Decide On Your Content Types
Next, you need to decide on your content types. There are many to choose from, including infographics, articles, blog posts, videos, whitepapers, ebooks, email newsletters, social media posts, podcasts, webinars, and e-courses.
Basically, if you can think of any type of format on which you can put useful, delightful information that helps your customers, this is a content type you can use.
But how do you choose which type is best? Well, surprise, surprise! You’ll be using your buyer persona to help guide this decision.
By now, you should know what type of content your customers enjoy the most. This can help you decide which content works best. Do they prefer to be entertained with a funny video?
Or are they more interested in getting a large amount of serious information, in which case an ebook or whitepaper may be a better choice?
You might find that you end up putting together a different variety of content types. That’s fine. You also might find, over time, that some are more popular than others.
That’s fine, too. A lot of this process will be trial and error. Over time, you’ll know what works best.
Decide Where (and When) to Post
Once you know what type of content you’ll be posting, you need to decide where you’re going to post it. Yet again, referring to your buyer persona will help you know where your customers are more likely to find your content. Where do they spend most of their time?
Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn? Are they more likely to find you via a Google search? This will not only impact where you post but also what type of content you create.
After all, an Instagram post is going to be quite different from a LinkedIn post. Keep in mind, too, that as a B2C company, you’re likely to be engaging with your customers quite a lot in a personal way on social media.
This is quite different from B2B content marketing, where there might be a more serious, informative tone to your content. (More on that in the next section.)
In addition to deciding where to post, you need to decide on when to post. Your buyer persona will also give you this answer. You’ll know whether it’s best to get in touch with your customers in the morning, middle of the day, or evening.
You’ll even know what day of the week you’re most likely to reach them.
Once you have all this information, it’s smart to set up a content calendar. This way, you can plan your content out in advance. This will help you align your goals and provide content consistently.
Develop Your Brand Voice
If you’ve ever heard a Bee Gee’s song come up on Spotify, you’re ready to dance the second the beat begins. You’re ready to have fun.
But how do you know this? It’s all about the sound of the music, the feeling it makes you feel when you listen to it.
When a brand has a voice that’s developed, it can have a similar effect on its customers. If you want your customers to enjoy your content, look forward to it, and feel like someone is speaking to them instead of at them, you need to develop your brand voice.
As usual, you want to think about your buyer persona when developing your brand voice. Ask yourself:
“What tone will my customers be most receptive to?”
“Should I be funny? Serious? Informative? Friendly but professional?”
You should also think about what type of language you’re using and whether you should be using emojis or fun punctuation. Think about your business’s values and personality when developing your voice, too.
Analyze Your Results
Once you’ve done all of the above steps, you can start sending out your content according to your content calendar. But your work doesn’t end there. After your content is out in the world, you need to analyze your results. Which pieces were most effective?
Which social media platforms got you the most website visitors? Did customers simply visit your page, or did they also buy a product or service?
You should also analyze which customers are now visiting your page. You might find that you have to adjust your buyer persona a little bit.
Keep in mind that investing in analytics tools can make your analysis efforts more effective and accurate.
Need Content Marketing Strategy Services?
Now that you know all the steps you have to take to develop an effective content marketing strategy, you might be thinking of hiring a content marketing strategy agency to help you with your efforts. If this is the case, we can help.
At DesignLoud Agency, we’re experts when it comes to web design, SEO, and online advertising. To discuss your goals with us, contact us now.
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