Your content marketing strategy needs to be well thought out. You can’t just rush into it and expect to succeed. In this article, you’re going to learn the 3 most essential components of a successful content marketing strategy.
1. Setting the right kind of goals
Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. They should be:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-based
Having a SMART goal in place will help you achieve success much faster. You’re basically eliminating distractions and staying focused on what can help you accomplish your goals. You would probably need to do some trial and error to find out what works best for your business, but you’d still be closer to your goals than if you decided to just ‘wing it.’
After you’ve set your SMART goals, check that they’re doubly smart by also fulfilling the following criteria:
Significant
Meaningful
Acceptable
Rewarding
Tangible
2. Building an audience persona
Content marketing strategies fail when the content is directed at the wrong audience, or the wrong kind of content is directed at the target audience. Knowing who your audience is, is critical to creating quality content that fully resonates with them.
Develop an audience persona and imbue it with relevant traits, characteristics and lifestyle habits. Identify their interests and demographics. Being able to clearly picture your audience makes it easier for you to craft your messaging and content marketing strategy to make your brand highly relevant and valuable to your audience.
3. Creating valuable and shareable content
The final ingredient to a successful content marketing strategy is the content itself. When you create content that strikes a chord with your audience, it will be very easy to persuade them to follow your call to action.
Identify what their needs and pain points are and create content around those. Zero in on questions they have that you can provide answers to. Once your audience becomes comfortable with you and starts seeing you as an authority, it will become easier to convince them to join your mailing list.
They’ll be more likely to listen to your recommendations, and you can easily monetize your content by inserting your own products, or other brand products that you’re affiliated with!
