Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Content is king. It is a popular expression that digital marketers love to use to justify the use of blogs, social media and other strategies. And it’s true, content is king. And it has been for much longer than the marketing world because human beings love a story and, at its core, content is all about the art of storytelling.
You don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway to write effective content; you just have to be able to tell a good story. And that’s something that is naturally ingrained in all of us.
That said, content marketing can be an extremely daunting task. Where do you start? This step-by-step guide will break down the process so that you can spend less time worrying about the minutiae and more time telling awesome stories for your audiences to engage with.
The Content Marketing Process
Content marketing is an involved and ongoing process that starts before you sit down at your desk to begin writing. And, it continues after you press the publish button. You can treat it as four stages:
- Plan
- Execute
- Review
- Repeat
Each stage has a number of smaller steps that content marketers need to perform to consistently deliver effective content that enchants readers.
Stage 1: Planning
Any marketing strategy, content or otherwise, requires a plan. Your plan is going to cover all of the major details associated with the creation and marketing of your content assets. There are several questions that should be answered in your plan.
- Who is responsible for creating each piece of content?
- When will each content asset be finished? When will it be published?
- What’s the goal of each content piece?
- Where will each piece of content be published?
- What’s the topic, title, targeted keywords and other important details?
- How much does the asset cost to make?
It’s good to create an editorial calendar that details a lot of this information in an easy to read format. You can see when every piece is expected to be finished and by who.
This is also the part in the process where you will conduct your topic and keyword research. There are a number of free and paid tools available that will show you data on keyword searches and popular topics relevant to your business. You need to write content that your target audience cares about! Otherwise, you won’t have much of a readership.
Stage 2: Executing
Now it is time to get to the creating. If you were thorough in your planning stage, you already have a topic, list of keywords and even a title selected. All you have to do is put together the meaty details. This is where your ability as a storyteller should shine!
It’s good to create a general outline that includes each section and detail you want to convey. Even expert content creators rely on outlines. It saves time and keeps your thoughts better organized. An organized, logical story is much more appealing than one that jumps all over the place!
If you get stuck and need some inspiration, look at other content assets that focus on the same topics. You may find fresh angles that you hadn’t thought of before. It’s also wise to back your claims up with images and data. Audiences love both!
Stage 3: Reviewing
Once your content is created and you’ve published it on the relevant channel(s), you need to review your work and this doesn’t mean proofreading or editing (that’s work for the execution phase!). What’s meant by reviewing content is tracking how it performs.
- How many views is it generating?
- Are there any comments or other engagement metrics worth looking at?
- Is anyone linking to the content from their own site?
- How can these metrics be improved?
- Where and how can the content be promoted?
You should keep a close eye on your content KPIs closely after publishing and promoting a content asset to see how well it is performing and whether or not it is completing its intended purpose.
That said, the reviewing process is ongoing, for as long as your content asset lives on the Internet. You never know who may link to it or mention it down the road, which will cause a resurgence of activity on the page.
Don’t neglect monitoring your content assets, even if they are at the very back page of your blog. If you are looking for some blogs of 2022 so you can look at this guide: Best smartwatches 2022.
Stage 4: Repeat, Repurpose, Recycle
Given the impact and significance of content, you want to repeat this process as often as possible. Creating a steady stream of engaging content will keep audiences on your pages for longer and encourage them to repeat for more interesting stories! However, the repeating stage in the content marketing cycle isn’t just about continuously creating new content, it also has to do with repurposing and recycling old assets.
Great content lives many different lives. It’s the whole reason that our favorite movies are remade again and again. If you have a particularly stellar and high-performing asset, think about how it can be repurposed. A compelling blog post can transform into a much larger ebook or even an awesome video.
Also, look at your dated content and see if you can bring it to the current era. No one is still searching for the fastest cars of 2015. They are looking for the fastest cars of this year! You don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, simply update your past content with the newest information. It will save a lot of time!
Repurposing and recycling your content assets will give them new lives and your business new traffic and opportunities to connect with customers and tell your story.
Conclusions
Every business looking to make its mark in the Digital Age needs to create effective content, which sounds easy on your paper, but it is incredibly challenging in practice.
Considering the sheer volume of content on the Internet, it is an absurdity to think that your own content can reach thousands of viewers and help you obtain your key marketing goals.
But it can!
With the content marketing process outlined on this page, you can create better content that uses fewer resources and provides more value to your customers and your company.
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