Content marketing is a crucial part of building a strong online presence. Content marketing covers what the name describes: content you use for marketing. This comes in many forms, from podcasts and videos to blog posts and listicles and so much more. 

With the right content marketing strategy, you can show up for your audience when they ask questions. Not only does good content marketing set your brand up as an expert in your field, but it also helps you build trust with your audience. 

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know and how to get started with this useful strategy for building your brand identity and connecting with your customers. 

Step 1: Understand Your Audience

Before diving in, you must make a content marketing strategy. This first step is to fully know your audience. This is the foundation for your future marketing plans and helps you reach your target. 

One way to understand your audience is to create buyer personas. Say you’re looking to reach a young adult audience. You can use audience data and analysis to build a good example audience for your marketing strategy. Consider what makes your audience tick, and add that to your “ideal audience” persona. For example, Millennials care about eco-friendly businesses, so you can add “environmentally conscious” to your buyer persona. By building out your buyer persona with as much data as possible, you put yourself on the right track with your marketing strategy.

There are other data points you can analyze to create your marketing strategy. For example, once you have a good idea of your audience, you can analyze audience behavior and interactions to find out what they want. You can track different questions they may ask and craft your content to answer them. 

For example, if your user base is interested in eco-friendly solutions, you can provide home hacks to reduce waste or eco-friendly beauty routines. Remember, this part of your customer outreach is less about making a sale and more about connecting with your target audience. That’s how you turn your brand into an authority figure for your marketing niche. 

Step 2: Create High-Quality Content

Investing in different kinds of content is one way to craft high-quality content. While you may think of articles first and foremost regarding content, you can take many other avenues. For example, you can specialize in blog posts, share videos and infographics, offer free downloads, or even share podcasts. Remember, this marketing stage is not about making a sale; it’s all about providing value for your audience.

Publishing high-quality content is a great way to show your business as an authority. When you share in-depth research pieces, how-tos, or data, you become a go-to source of information for your target audience. This helps with growing your brand recognition and spreading your brand identity. Once you’re an authority on the subject, you have more leverage for the sales funnel portion of your marketing strategy. 

Remember, every stage of your marketing strategy leads toward that purchase and making devoted, loyal customers. Be sure to flesh out your content, as it can directly impact your later sales plans. 

Step 3: Do SEO and Keyword Research

SEO is one of the cornerstones of content marketing, as is keyword research. Without strong SEO, your content is unlikely to reach your target audience. SEO puts your content in front of potential customers, while keywords ensure customers find your content when they ask questions. 

Some of the easiest keywords to work with are questions, as many people use search engines to find information. For example, ranking for “What are eco-friendly cleaning products?” is much easier than just “eco-friendly cleaning products,” giving you the authority to answer a question.

While keywords are crucial for website development, they’re becoming even more important for social media platforms. Not only do your hashtags on various sites determine who sees your posts, but your content itself can impact what audience you reach. That’s why developing captions and content that keep SEO in mind to reach your target audience effectively is important. 

Step 4: Plan Content Distribution Strategies

Now that you have your content, how will you distribute it? It would be best to have an effective plan for distributing your content. For example, will you focus on social media or take advantage of email marketing? In all honesty, you should focus on both avenues, as the wider your distribution network, the more likely you are to reach your customer base.

Of course, planning your content distribution network can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve pulled together a content marketing distribution checklist to make things easier for you. This way, you can easily track your distribution avenues without stretching yourself too far. We also have countless other resources for small business marketing, so be sure to check those out! 

Content marketing is one of the most important parts of your marketing plan for your business. Not only does it help you reach a wider audience, but it builds your brand as an authority in your niche. By building your brand authority, you craft a recognizable brand that customers trust to answer their questions. Laying down a strong content marketing base for your business can make later sales planning much easier and help you develop a strong customer base loyal to your products.

If you want to take your content marketing strategies to the next level but need help figuring out where to start, we can help. Planted Marketing takes years of social media and web marketing research and leverages it for small- and mid-sized businesses. We work diligently to help small businesses build the strongest content marketing strategy possible without overtaxing their business. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today.