Checklist for the right Content Marketing Strategy

Whether you are a pro or amateur on the internet. You must know a good piece of content can break or make your brand. It is, hence, important to have a thorough understanding of what you want in the digital space. Here are my two cents on the checklist for the right content strategy.

Right content for the right audience is the key to success in the digital web world. A good content marketing strategy allows you to focus on traffic, sales and growth. It allows you to start a conversation with your customers, thereby building trust. Trust brings in referrals, more business and more business.

So, here’s a carefully curated checklist that assures more website to traffic or your posts, greater conversion rates, and a better awareness of your brand.

1. Define your audience: Always start your content keeping the audience in mind. It is an absolute must to know who you’re catering to. Invest some time in conducting market research to get an idea of what kind of clientele will suit your product the best. For example, if you’re a company that makes shaving products for men, then you would have to do a thorough study on what kind of men your products would appeal to; what age group would be more inclined to buy these; will these products be suited for city dwellers or can work their way to the interiors as well. Having answers to these questions would then simplify your content strategy, which would then help in creating a marketing plan to generate leads. So, narrow down your customers to a niche group to reap the best results.

And if you’re already into a successfully running business, revisit your customer database each year to know how you can do better, and how you can grow your community of buyers by attracting new audience.

2. Make SMART goals: SMART goals are a way to give direction to your marketing strategy. This is a 5-point goal system, with specific area to work on.

• Specific: Don’t be random with your goals. It is quite alright to start with abundance of thoughts, but at the end you must know what you want to achieve. For example, if you want to sell your product in a particular metro, it always works to know which method to adopt that will help create awareness about the brand. Whether it is going to be through social media channels or ads in print; be clear to the last point.
• Measure: It is always a good idea to put a number to your target. Let’s say, you want to increase your sales in the next six months. Have a figure in mind and work towards attaining it. Like, we’ll increase the web traffic by 10 per cent and it is going to be through blog posts. Targets like these always work. Measuring metrics, in all real sense of the word, is a big task. But it gives you warning signs in case you’re failing somewhere and allows you time to change track. Google Analytics is one such tool and has proved useful to many businesses. There are plenty in the market, and all you need to do is spend some time and check which one works the best for you.
• Attainable: We all make the mistake of giving ourselves challenges that are hard to come by. Hence, have something attainable in your target, something you know can be achieved by putting in a little extra effort.
• Relevant: Okay, so now you’ve set a target and are working your way towards achieving it, but stop for a minute to think if it is really important for your growth. By investing time on creating something that will look good on papers, but not really help grow your business is just a waste of time. So, every time you come up with something awesome, have a moment to think if that will actually help you achieve a business goal.
• Time-bound: All your efforts are wasted if you don’t set a deadline for yourself. You can’t have a goal that takes an eternity to complete. So, have a fixed timeline in the picture and work towards accomplishing it within that time frame.

3. Set a budget: Alright, now that you know which media to put your money on, set a budget for your content marketing strategy. If you are a first-timer always seek the help of professional agencies or digital marketing firms like First Choice media to suggest you right social media mix. Then do a quick check to find out whether you’d need to hire designers to make the content for you, such as artists, content writers or editors; or would you need to spend money on buying software or technology to create those jaw-dropping posts. Would you need to pay for ad space on Facebook or Instagram; or invest in tools to measure that help you understand the demographics? Once you have answered these questions, you’d have an idea of how much to invest and where. We recommend hiring a digital agency as they would guide you better and save you the burning of money.
4. Select the right media: With over 4.70 billion people using social media around the world, it becomes imperative to have a strong digital footprint. So now that you know who your audience is, it becomes important to tell them your story, about the products you’re selling, and also about the success you’ve had so far. But at the same time, you can’t have an equal presence on all the social media channels. So, if you see that it is Twitter your audience is hooked on, put in a post every day and keep your interaction open. But if you see them being engaged on Instagram, create videos to share your story. In a way, it all boils down to creating content that helps you sell your products the best way, be it through Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Podcast, paid ads, or Twitter.

That’s where we come in. At firstchoicemedia.ca, we provide the right content marketing strategy which is specially customised to help businesses like yours succeed online. We can help you with everything from website design and development, content writing, and newsletter marketing to SEO and social media marketing.

So if you’re looking for a partner to help your business to 10x digital growth, contact us today or email us sales@firstchoicemedia.ca . We would be happy to be part of your digital journey.