inbound marketing

How to Write a Content Marketing Plan in 7 Steps

Once you’ve established your business online with a website, it’s time to start advertising to your audience. The Internet is a huge space with vast amounts of pages and information, so it is unlikely that customers will just happen to stumble upon your website and engage with your business. You have to be the one to put it out there and draw customers to your site. The best way to do this is by using a content marketing plan.

Instead of traditional advertisements that tell audiences what to do, the new and better way to attract customers is to show your audiences what to do. To do this, you need to create informative content that shows readers the benefits of your product or service without directly telling them to buy it. Given the growing number of businesses using content marketing plans, this is clearly a very effective way of making your business known and increasing its sales.

So how do you write a content marketing plan?

1. Set a goal

Figure out what it is you’re trying to achieve with your content. Are you trying to get traffic to your site? From what source? How much? How often? Be specific. Once you have an objective in mind with your content marketing plan, you can create content to fit this goal.

2. Figure out your audience

There is going to be a certain type of audience you want to reach out to. It’s called your demographic. Before you write your content, make sure you have a clear picture of your ideal customer so you can direct your topics and writing style to this potential reader.

3. Find out what’s popular and trending

Check out what other businesses are doing with their content marketing plans so you can get ideas for your own strategy. Try to figure out the types of articles that most customers are reading, and what kinds of content businesses are publishing to become popular. Then write about relevant topics that will interest your audience.

4. Write a good variety of content

When writing your content, make sure to vary the type of article, the topics, and the medium that you use. With the Web full of fast-paced, interesting content, customers will get easily bored if you constantly publish the same articles. Offering different types of content will attract different types of customers in your demographic and increase your following.

5. Write with SEO in mind

A great way to get your content seen online is to use search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your ranking on search engines. To improve your visibility in searches, use specific keywords and phrases in your content that will direct searches to your website. But please, make sure your content is well written and interesting, because articles will be flagged and punished by search engines if they are stuffed with keywords. Writing and publishing SEO content properly will attract readers to your content while maintaining your website’s integrity.

6. Share on social media

Social media are hubs for news and information and have become a popular way of finding content. To spread your content among all of your customers and reach out to other circles, you need to make sure you have a constant presence on social networks. You can achieve this by publishing your content on multiple platforms.

7. Evaluate metrics and use them to improve

Once you’ve published the content from your content marketing plan, you need to ensure that it’s achieving your initial goal. The best way to figure this out is to look at the metrics, such as how many customers have engaged with your content by taking actions like sharing on social media, visiting your website, or purchasing your product or service. You can then use this information to improve your content marketing plan.

Content Marketing: What Is It, Really?

Rarely has a buzzword been so, well, buzzy.

The term “content marketing” is hot, hot, hot right now (check out what Google Trends has to say about it). “Content marketing is the new SEO” reads one headline. “Content marketing is the new go-to promotional strategy” reads another.

All you need to do, so the claim goes, is produce a ton of content, load it with keywords and links, and distribute it everywhere. No writing staff? No problem! Outsource your content overseas for dirt cheap. You can even “spin” it with software to get hundreds of variations on the same piece. Just have the intern manage it all!

And presto change-o, the search engines will happily send hundreds of customers your way. All you need to do after that is open your wallet and let the money pour in.

That’s the promise behind the hype, and frankly, it’s giving content marketing a terrible rep.

While the aforementioned approach might work, any success that it results in will be temporary. Companies that use cheap, badly written, or spun search engine bait will eventually be caught by Google. While they may generate some revenue, they’re really just one Panda or Penguin update away from having zero revenue.

Worse still, this kind of tactic typically only works for dodgy weight loss products or suspect pharmaceuticals, and even then it will only convert a tiny, tiny fraction of site visitors. That means that for every 100 visitors that a site gets, 99 will instantly recognize the cheap content for what it is, roll their eyes, and click away in a heartbeat. What you save in content production you will lose a thousand times over in direct revenue, branding, and reputation.

Does that mean that content marketing is a sham?

Far from it. The truth is that contenting marketing is actually one of the most successful marketing techniques around. In fact, it has been around for centuries.

That’s right: centuries.

Consider Deere & Company, home of the John Deere brand, which is one of the most famous agricultural companies in the world. They began producing a magazine with tips on how farmers could be more profitable in the late 1800s, called The Furrow. Nearly 120 years later, it’s still going strong.

Or what about the Michelin Guides? First published by the tire company in France in the 1900s, they became so popular that they are now a major media brand in their own right.

How about the Be-Ro Cookbook, a bible in British kitchens? The Lego magazine for kids? Heck, haven’t you ever wondered where the term “soap opera” comes from? Those compelling, addictive, serial radio and television programs were originally backed by soap companies, including major brands like Proctor & Gamble.

Content marketing is really just the latest name for a proven, solid strategy: giving your customers what they need or want.

It should be written by humans, not computers, and it should be written for humans, not just for search engines.

Still not sure about content marketing? Still on the fence as to whether you should take the easy road or even do it at all? Consider the companies I’ve mentioned above.

They weren’t big brands when they started, but they sure are now, aren’t they?

Web Content Development Tips

Eight tips that will bring your content to the next level

Help! I know nothing about web content development, but I need to design a website for my business! What do I do?

Do not panic. Plenty of people need to design websites, but very few know every technique for optimizing their site. The first thing you need to know about is developing high-quality web content. The content is what makes the website valuable for your customers. Without informative content, the website cannot serve your business’s goals.

So what do you include in your content to develop it? Here are a few simple tips to get you started with web content development.

1. Use headings

A great way to format your content is to divide it into points and use headers to describe them. This gives your customers a good idea of what information they will get from reading each point. Then, they can decide which ones they want to read and which ones they want to skip. If the text is simply one long document, the customer could get overwhelmed and decide your page is not worth reading.

2. Inverted-pyramid style

From their first look at your page, your customers will decide if they want to continue reading it. It is essential that most of the information that you think is important to your business be included in the first content section that appears on the home page. This way, the customers can get a good idea of your business and what you do, and they can make an informed decision about whether they should invest the time to read the website.

3. Call to action

This is where you direct your customers to what you want them to do. Make sure you explicitly tell the readers how to engage with your business. For example, if your website sells a product or service, write a statement that says something like “buy now” or “purchase today” so readers know how they can use the information on the site.

4. Bold keywords

It’s very rare that a customer will visit your website and read every single word on the page. Instead, you’ll get customers passing through for a glimpse or visiting to find particular information. Cater to this audience by bolding all the keywords and phrases in your content that are important to your business. This makes them jump out at the customer. In addition, search engines pick up on bolded words as keywords and phrases for search engine optimization, which will make your business’s website appear when customers search for those words.

5. Use lists

People like to read short content that flows nicely. A great way to format your web content and make it flow is to use a list. Short, bulleted lists present the reader with a clear layout that will help them retain the information because they do not have to pick it out from long, complex paragraphs.

6. Allow the content to stand on its own

Make each page of your website easy to navigate and understand. That way, if customers begin on a random page, they will not get lost in your web content. Every page should include essential information about your site (such as the business’s name), navigation, and an outline of the website. This will ensure your readers are never confused and always understand the message of the website.

7. Link to other pages

Instead of explaining every last detail to your customers in your web content, use links to direct them to explanations and more information. This keeps your web content short and concise, which is appealing to readers.

8. Pictures

Try to use pictures that complement your content. Visuals will engage readers in a dynamic way and might make them interested in learning more.