How to Build a Content Strategy From the Ground Up

Content is the currency of the web, and for good reason.

However, a lot of people expect to see instant results once they publish their first post. Content marketing is truly a long-term game. But, when done properly it can help send you traffic for years to come.

It’s the cumulative impact of each piece of content you publish that truly gets your business the results you’re looking for.

It takes some work to build a content strategy from the ground up, but it’s a much better plan than pressing publish and crossing your fingers. Below you’ll learn how you can create a stellar content strategy from the ground up.

Why Content Marketing Is Important

Face it, a lot of advertising is invasive. Today’s consumers are bombarded with advertisements more frequently than ever before.

Most other forms of marketing and lead generation are focused on the short term. Sure, you might see more instant results with other means, but when it comes to long term business goals, your content will help you get there.

Plus, the content you create can help to improve any other existing marketing strategies you might have in the works. For example, content can help to improve your search engine presence, give you something to share on social media and bolster your existing brand.

Benefits of Content Marketing

Beyond enhancing existing strategies content marketing also has certain benefits all on its own. Remember, it’s a long-term strategy, so you won’t experience these benefits right away, but if you stick with it they’ll start to show up.

• Greater search engine presence. The more high-quality content you have the more indexed pages you’ll have in Google, thus giving you a larger online presence.
• More targeted traffic. Every piece of content you publish has the potential to generate traffic for you. Whether that’s from your own posts ranking, or referral traffic from other sharing and linking to your content.
• Increased brand visibility. When people read and engage with and share your content you’re not only growing your online presence, but cultivating a positive relationship with these readers at the very same time.
• Improved customer relationships. The relationships with your customers are everything. By producing high-quality content that solves their problems you deepen your relationship and show that you can be trusted before they even decide to buy.
• Decreasing costs over time. The great thing about content is you only have to pay once, and it can continue to generate traffic and revenue for your business for a long time to come.

How to Build Your Content Strategy

Every great content strategy starts with a plan. The plan highlighted below might seem like a lot of work. But, it’s work you only have to do once and can base your entire content strategy around.

1. Organizing and Building the Backbone

A great content strategy starts with understanding your market. You need to know who your audience is, what their interests are, what kind of questions they want answered, and how they like to consume content.

Some of your best ideas will come from things that are already successful. It’s hard to create content from scratch that’s guaranteed to be a hit. However, you can take ideas and strategies from players in your niche that have worked and put your own spin on it.

This helps in two ways. First, it gives you the certainty that what you create is going to be successful, no need to reinvent the wheel. Two, it immediately positions you as an authority as you have a well-crafted piece of content that puts you in the running.

To seed your idea bank ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there a specific form of content my audience likes?
• How long can I spend on each piece I create?
• Do I have any existing data or content I’d like to utilize?

1. Competitor and Market Understanding

Studying your competitors is a surefire way to see what is and isn’t working in your niche. This will help you differentiate from what’s already out there in your space, so you can avoid treading the same path again and again.

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by Kevin Wood via SitePoint