{"id":45480,"date":"2020-10-14T20:35:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T13:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/act.com\/content-marketing-strategy\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T10:50:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T17:50:16","slug":"content-marketing-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/products.act.com\/en-gb\/content-marketing-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to develop a compelling content marketing strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Content marketing<\/a>\u00a0can help your business reach its goals. However, before starting to create content, it\u2019s important to put in place an effective content marketing plan.<\/p>\n

In this article, we\u2019ll show you how to develop a content marketing strategy by breaking the process down into the following steps.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Define your content marketing strategy goals<\/li>\n
  2. Define your buyer persona<\/li>\n
  3. Decide on the types of content you will produce<\/li>\n
  4. Decide where you will publish your content<\/li>\n
  5. Create an editorial calendar<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Read on for more information about each step.<\/p>\n

    1. Define Your Content Marketing Strategy Goals<\/h2>\n

    The most important part of creating a successful content marketing strategy is to define your goals.<\/p>\n

    Without clearly defined goals, you have no way of knowing if you are succeeding in your strategy. This may ultimately lead you to waste time creating ineffective content.<\/p>\n

    Below, we\u2019ll look at some of the common reasons brands create content. Of course, it\u2019s also possible that you may have multiple goals. For example, you may want to both build brand authority and drive traffic to your website.<\/p>\n

    Build Brand Authority<\/h4>\n

    When building brand authority, you\u2019ll need to create content that provides original insight into your industry.<\/p>\n

    This can be through reports, surveys, or through sharing the unique knowledge or opinions about your industry. If the content you publish is interesting enough people will link back to it and you\u2019ll become an authority in your industry.<\/p>\n

    A good example of this is App Annie, a platform that provides data on smartphone apps.<\/p>\n

    \"App<\/p>\n

    Part of their content marketing strategy is\u00a0publishing<\/a>\u00a0reports and data about app trends. These reports are regularly picked up by technology news websites which link back to the report on the App Annie website.<\/p>\n

    This has helped make the company one of the most trusted names in the app data industry.<\/p>\n

    Increase Exposure on Search Engines<\/h4>\n

    SEO is one of the number one reasons websites create content. It\u2019s probably also one of the most<\/a>\u00a0misunderstood.<\/p>\n

    Ranking highly on Google requires a lot more than simply writing articles about things people search for.<\/p>\n

    Instead, you\u2019ll need to spend time searching for keywords that you have a chance of ranking for. You then write highly optimised content targeting these keywords. You\u2019ll also need to spend a lot of time gaining backlinks to increase the trustworthiness of your website. Check out\u00a0our list of free SEO tools<\/a>\u00a0that can help you with your keyword research.<\/p>\n

    When you begin your SEO strategy, you\u2019ll have the most success with long-tail keywords that don\u2019t have much competition. However, as your business grows and your website authority increases, you\u2019ll be able to target keywords that can drive more visitors to your site.<\/p>\n

    There are plenty of great examples of companies with effective SEO strategies. International money transfer app\u00a0TransferWise<\/a>\u00a0is a favourite of ours.<\/p>\n

    It has a ton of great content informing people about how to transfer money abroad and it ranks well on Google. Look at the screenshot below to see what happens when you search for \u201cHow to send money abroad.\u201d Two of the top results are from the company.<\/p>\n

    \"Google<\/p>\n

    Generate Leads<\/h4>\n

    A common way to use content to generate leads is to offer a report, case study, eBook, course, or white paper in exchange for the lead\u2019s contact details.<\/p>\n

    The key thing to do here is to create a piece of content that is compelling and useful enough for people to want to hand over their details to access it.<\/p>\n

    At Act! we offer our website visitors a beginner’s guide to lead generation that helps businesses create more quality leads online. You can download the guide\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"Lead<\/a><\/p>\n

    2. Define Your Buyer Persona (or Personas)<\/h2>\n

    The second step to creating an effective content marketing strategy is to define the type of people you will aim your content at. This will most likely be your ideal\u00a0buyer persona<\/a>, a fictional representation of the type of people you want to target.<\/p>\n

    If you don\u2019t already have a buyer persona, you\u2019ll need to make one.\u00a0To help you with your buyer persona, we have provided a\u00a0persona template<\/a>\u00a0that you can use to easily create your own personas.<\/p>\n

    Information you can include when creating a buyer persona includes:<\/p>\n