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TO DIVE IN9 STEPS
Content Marketing Plan:
for the first time is way harder than actually swimming.
INTO THE POOLDIVING“
LET’S DIVE!
(But once you jump in, you’ll get used to the temperature in no time.)
SET GOALS AROUND A CAMPAIGN
STEP 1:
WHAT’S THE
POINT?
You can create pages and pages of content, but if there’s no PURPOSE
and no GOAL behind it,
Every piece of content you create should have a SPECIFIC
MARKETING OBJECTIVE IN MIND.
A CAMPAIGNLAUNCH
The best way to do that?
A campaign should be focused on ONE GOAL, such as:
Drive more email subscriptions
Encourage repeat purchases
Sell more of a new product or service
Convert more contacts of a specific buyer persona
Let that goal be the driver for every blog
post, social media update, email, and
landing page you craft for the campaign.
KEYWORD RESEARCH
STEP 2:
Now that you have a goal, you’ll want a plan for
creating content that YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER CAN EASILY FIND ONLINE.
Search engine optimization is one of
the best ways to get found online. But how do you identify SEO
targets?
AHOY, KEYWORDS!
The key is KEYWORD RESEARCH, which should:
Be done early in the campaign process
Guide the strategy of all (or most) of your content topics
Determine the angle of site pages, too
Be implemented naturally — never stuffed into content!
There’s a lot to learn about SEO best
practices and keywords when you get started
with your content plan. Visit our full blog post for a list of resources!
PLAN CONTENT FOR A WORKFLOW
STEP 3:
BUT HOW?
When done correctly, content marketing is meant to turn strangers
into customers.
MARKETING & SALES FUNNEL.
By consistently providing contacts with helpful and relevant information, you can swiftly send
them through the
There are a few key pieces of content
you need for these workflows:
CONTENT OFFERSPREMIUM
First, you need
for every stage of the Buyer’s Journey.
The Buyer’s Journey consists of three stages of content:
Awareness: Top-of-funnel content (like blog posts and eBooks) that addresses/alleviates buyers’ problems — should be majority of content.
Consideration: Middle-of-funnel resources (like white papers and eBooks) that suggest solutions and introduce your product. Less of this content.
Decision: Content (like demos or case studies) that explain why you’re the best choice. Few key pieces.
You’ll also need a series of nurture content
(often emails) to move contacts from one stage to the next — and down
the funnel.
DOWNLOADS TOP-OF-FUNNEL
OFFER
NURTURE EMAILS
DOWNLOADS MIDDLE-OF-
FUNNEL OFFER
These emails persuade contacts to take a subsequent action — and move
from point A to point B.
You’ll need blog posts to publish periodically
throughout your campaign. These are
related to your premium content offers.
LANDING PAGES
And finally, you’ll need
to tie it all together. These are “gated” pages that tease your premium offers.
Utilize forms to gain information on leads before they can download.
How it all fits together:AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
Top-of-funnel content
Landing page w/ form
Nurture Nurture
Top-of-funnel offer
Middle-of-funnel content
Landing page w/ form
Middle-of-funnel offer
Bottom-of-funnel content
Landing page w/ form
Bottom-of-funnel offer
Create a list of the content you’ll need
for every stage of the campaign.
CREATE YOUR EDITORIAL CALENDAR
STEP 4:
Now, determine when to publish your content.
You’ll particularly want to space out your blog posts (i.e., one post per week).
FREQUENCY of posting is unique to your business — based upon your capacity,
writing process, and industry. Be realistic and reliable!
CONSISTENCY IS KEY.
Above all,
Be it daily, weekly, or monthly, your readers should know when to expect
you. Push yourself to stick to it!
There are plenty of tools for creating a calendar, like Google Calendar, Trello, or HubSpot’s
built-in calendar. Choose what works for you.
OUTLINE EACH CONTENT
PIECE
STEP 5:
DON’T DIVE IN!
When starting to write your content,
Start with an outline. Heading 1: Have only one designated H1. It is the title of your piece and should include the keyword you identified earlier.
Heading 2: Decide up on the body of your piece with a few H2s, or section titles. Keywords are good here, but don’t overdo it!
Heading 3: If you need to break it down further, use H3s. Keywords aren’t as important here.
in the outline stage. It’ll shave time off your writing process. This includes gathering links.
DO YOURRESEARCH
“
Also gather feedback at the outline stage to make sure you’re on the right
track. (It’s a good time to request assets from your
designer, too!)
DRAFT EACH PIECE OF CONTENT
STEP 6:
LET’S WRITE!
All right — no more procrastinating. Your plan is in place... now,
When you start writing your masterpieces, remember:
Your buyer personas and their questions
The buyer’s journey stage you’re targeting (awareness, consideration, decision)
Keywords identified in your keyword research
The campaign “next step” readers should take
COMPELLING STORYCRAFT A
It’s beneficial to
with your content to pull readers in.
Make sure your writing is hyper-focused on the topic
you identified for your buyer persona. Give them a clear takeaway — and a
next action!
BUILD, REVIEW, FINALIZE
STEP 7:
Now’s the time to take your writing live. Have a teammate look over your work for any last-minute
edits — and proofread!
When your writing is ready, take these final (important!) steps:
Build your blog posts in the website’s editor
Insert graphic or photo elements
Add hyperlinks and anchor them to keywords
Optimize with a meta description and tags
And, finally, link your pieces together to create a true pathway for your reader. Use links, calls-to-action,
and landing pages!
DISTRIBUTESTEP 8:
Your content is ready, but you’re not finished yet!Now’s the time to get
your content out there. It’s an active process that includes several channels.
EVERGREENSOURCE
of traffic if you keep posts optimized.
Organic traffic will do its job if your keywords were on point. It’s an
But social media is YOUR BEST TRAFFIC
MAGNET. You must promote to social across
all of your channels.
UTILIZE EMAIL to promote your content to existing contacts. Include it in a
monthly newsletter or weekly blog update email.
ANALYZE AND ADAPT
STEP 9:
WITH ANALYTICS
The content marketing process ends the same way most marketing
processes do:
IF IT WASEFFECTIVE?
if you launch a campaign but don’t measure its metrics,
how will you know
Seek out data that aligns with YOUR
CAMPAIGN GOAL. Use the data to refine
your process for next time.
For example,
If you wanted email subscribers, track the new size of your email list compared to the old.
If you wanted more qualified leads, note your new conversion rate.
If you wanted increased traffic, pay attention to where new traffic came from, and how big the increase was.
You’ll continually refine your content process with time — but
you’re off to a great start!
ON YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN!CONGRATS“
Want to step up your marketing process with an inbound marketing
strategy? Grab our guide:INFO.SPARKREACTION.COM/IMPLEMENT-
AN-INBOUND-MARKETING-STRATEGY