Only 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy in place. Over 60% of the most successful marketers follow a documented strategy. A marketing planner can help you make the most of your budget, leading to more customers!
Not sure how to develop your own content calendar? Read on for the tips you need for success!
Establish Goals
Before rushing to create your marketing calendar, first define distinct SMART goals. SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
SMART goals will give your entire content creation strategy more direction. These goals can help you tie every phase of your campaign together into a cohesive strategy. It can also help you track your progress over time.
For example, maybe you want to generate 20% more followers on social media using live videos before the end of Q3. Other goals can involve:
- Improving search engine rankings
- Gaining email subscribers
- Generating website traffic
- Gaining backlinks
- Generating leads
- Boosting online sales
Define how you’ll achieve each goal and which key performance indicator (KPI) you’ll track.
Next, break your year-long goals into smaller, easy-to-achieve goals with deadlines. If you struggle to accomplish a goal before the deadline, you’ll know to make changes to your plans.
Research Your Audience
Before the content creation stage, gather research. Market research can help you make informed decisions. For example, you’ll have an easier time creating relevant, personalized content if you define your target audience.
If you’re trying to reach a broad audience, create smaller buyer personas based on:
- Gender
- Location
- Age
- Career
- Marital status
- Buying behaviors
- Interest
- Hobbies
- Online behaviors
- Pain points
- Education
Creating smaller buyer personas will help you better understand customers on a personal level. For each buyer persona, gather keyword research. Keyword research indicates the terms a customer looks for during an online search.
You can determine what terms they use to find your products and services or what questions they ask about your industry. Then, you can create content that answers those questions.
Don’t forget to research your competitors as well. Determine what topics they cover, the type of posts they create, and how often readers engage. This data can help you make adjustments to your own content marketing strategy.
Create Content
Use the research you gathered to begin creating content. Make sure you’re creating content that appeals to your target audience. When writing each post, pretend you’re talking to your customers.
Maintain brand consistency during the content creation process. A consistent brand will help customers recognize and remember your brand. Brand awareness will grow into brand recognition, allowing you to linger in the customer’s mind.
Diversify your content creation strategy with different content formats, such as:
- Blog posts/articles
- Press releases
- eBooks
- Newsletters
- Emails
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Infographics
- Videos
- Testimonials
Diversifying your content will help you appeal to customers who are at different points in the buyer’s journey.
For example, people in the awareness stage prefer white papers, editorial content, and eBooks. Those in the consideration stage prefer webcasts, podcasts, videos, and expert guides. Customers in the decision stage prefer live demos, product literature, case studies, and trials.
If you’re struggling to create your own content, consider this website with content services. Relying on a company’s content creation experience can save you time and energy. They’ll complete the necessary steps to ensure your content aligns with your goals.
Consider Channels
When researching your target audience, consider the channels they use on a daily basis. For example, they might prefer different social media platforms.
Each marketing channel can help you accomplish a different goal.
You don’t have to share your content on every possible marketing channel. Instead, choose channels that will ensure you’re reaching your audience.
Once you determine the channels you want to use and their purpose, consider how often you’ll post on each channel. Make a note of how you’ll need to reformat your content for each channel, too. For example, some platforms require you to meet a specific word count.
Establish a Timeline
A marketing calendar will ensure there aren’t any gaps in your content creation strategy. Filling in a calendar can indicate when you’ll post, where, and what message you’ll share. For social media marketing, you can also decide which hashtags you should use along with each post.
Create content a month in advance to determine how much content you have to post.
Reformat your marketing message for each platform or channel. Determine what assets (links, photos, videos, etc.) you’ll share for each post, too.
Then, determine if there are gaps in your content marketing channel. If you post too often, you could annoy customers. If you don’t post often enough, they might forget about your brand.
You could lose followers or subscribers either way.
To save time, consider automating your content marketing schedule. You can use platforms to schedule and post content on different channels automatically.
Monitor Results
Once you begin sharing content with your audience, audit the results of your efforts.
Determine which marketing channels are helping you reach the highest number of customers. Track your KPIs to confirm you’re accomplishing your goals. Consider the topics your customers are most interested in or the formats they prefer, too.
Then, use this data to make informed changes to your content creation campaign. Make changes every month to generate better results over time.
Develop an Effective Marketing Planner Today
A well-thought-out marketing planner can help you engage customers online. Use these effective tips to develop your own marketing schedule. Then, continue sharing content throughout the year to keep your customers engaged and interested.
Experience success with these content marketing tips today.
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