What Is Content Marketing? Why Is Content King? How Do You Create a Content Strategy?

The phrase "Content is King" has become a mantra in the content marketing world. It sounds so simple, and yet what does it really mean? And how can you develop an effective content strategy?

The "content is king" concept emerged as Google's search engine algorithms matured, blogs with relevant, interesting content achieved notoriety, and companies with high-quality inbound marketing campaigns and an engaging social media presence cultivated true customer loyalty. The bottom line is that high-quality content gets shared. If you want more visibility for your brand, you need high-quality content across multiple content marketing channels. Content is king.

Okay, but what content should you produce, and where?

Content is everything you post and publish - every blog post, article, email, video, slide presentation, LinkedIn interaction, and tweet. All of these pieces of content form a picture of what your business is about and why your potential clients might want to work with you.

Content marketing often strikes fear in the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs and C-level executives alike. If you feel some trepidation about your own content marketing efforts, you're not alone. These are some common reasons why people are afraid to fully engage in content marketing:

• It's overwhelming. There are so many tools to learn and master.
• It feels like you need to be everywhere at once.
• You feel "exposed."
• You fear that your content will be poor quality or contain errors.
• You worry you will start a blog or email marketing campaign and not keep up with it.
• You feel left behind.

How to Create a Content Strategy and Establish Effective Content Marketing Activities
To succeed with your own content marketing, the first step is to get strategic. When you create a content strategy, you will have a road map to follow. You will feel far less overwhelmed.

Here are some content strategy tips to help you get on track:

1. Assess your current content marketing efforts. What is working? What needs improvement?


2. Identify every type of content your company produces and how often. Is it scheduled or sporadic? What content marketing channels would you like to add to your content strategy?


3. Google a range of topics related to your company's niche, products, and services. What companies show up in those searches? What are they doing well? Do they have a company blog? Is their website content customer-focused and easy to navigate? Is there a good lead capture system on their home page? Have they incorporated video? Is all of their social media in place and visible?


4. Evaluate your customer base. Who are your best customers? What problems do they have? How do you solve them?


5. Create a complete laundry list of problems you solve and topics you can cover in your content.


6. Layout an "editorial calendar" with the frequency you want to post or publish social media updates, blog posts, newsletters, articles, videos, press releases and so on.


7. Identify the staff members who will be responsible for each type of content. If your staff lacks the capabilities or time to produce your content, identify which pieces you need to outsource, and who is responsible for talent scouting.


8. Define the voice and personality of your business. What adjectives describe the tone that should carry through all of your content? Is it serious? Edgy? Light-hearted? Authoritative?


9. Research your keywords. Using a tool such as the Google keyword research tool, find keyword phrases for your business niche that many people are searching for, and that have low competition from PPC campaigns. For each piece of content you publish, identify two or three targeted keyword phrases to use, and incorporate them into headings and copy.


10. Put quality control measures in place. How will you ensure that all of your content is consistently high quality? Do you have editorial oversight in place? Who will prove your blog posts, email newsletters, and other content prior to submission?


11. Establish regular staff editorial meetings to review your editorial calendar, the roles and responsibilities, the keyword phrases and "personality" that should be infusing all of your content, and the effectiveness of your campaigns. Review what types of content get the most interaction from your clients and social media community and refine your strategy to do more of the same.

It sounds like a lot. But when you create a fine-tuned content strategy and put your strategic content marketing measures in place, it will galvanize your team, shape up your company image, improve your search engine rankings, and dramatically enhance the quality of your content. And these activities will then lead to more engagement with your community, which will bring you more business.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jayna_Locke/37273

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