As the world keeps evolving, so does the business world, which means that as business owners, we must adapt to the new and upcoming trends within any marketing strategy. That being said, content marketing should be at the top of your local SEO strategy because without it your overall business plan can’t succeed. Developing a content marketing plan will help your business reach new audiences, new business objectives and gain a higher return on your investment.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than half of businesses in 2015, say they plan to “up the content ante.” In other words, they plan to push more content out than ever because when content marketing is done right, it’s extremely effective.
The Lowdown on Content Marketing
When creating a content marketing plan you want to have a solid plan that correlates to your business objectives. You must know what type of content you will be producing, what the goal of the content will be and where you’re going to place the content. The following tips will help you start developing your content marketing plan.
Tip #1: Use a Content Auditor
As a business and or website owner, you should be conducting content audits on a regular basis. Content audits are evaluations on the strengths and weaknesses of elements within the content. Once you’ve conducted an audit, you should determine if your elements fit your business goals and objectives.
Ask yourself these questions to help you conduct an effective content audit:
- Is the content high quality?
- Is the content easy to find?
- Is the content yielding positive results?
- How could the content be more effective?
- Is the content up to date?
Keep in mind analyzing your own content can be a challenge because it’s hard to see what needs improvement when it’s your company or if you’re the person writing the content. If you would feel more comfortable having someone else conduct your content audit, you can consider using a professional content auditing tool, such as Kapost. Kapost can automate content analysis by simply entering your website URL. It will give you results which will guide you to improve your website and adjust your content marketing plan as needed.
Tip #2: Consider Your Content Topic Selection
Whether you are developing a new content marketing plan or simply revising your old one, make sure you’re investing time into the selection of your topics. Your potential audience could skip over your content just because the topic is irrelevant to them. Try to adapt your business objectives, local SEO and content to your target audience. It is also important to show readers that you are a part of the local community by creating content built around local events and other interesting things that may be happening in the community. But don’t just write about it, whenever possible, get involved and then talk about how the business was involved within the content.
What you should incorporate into your content:
- Give an overview of your business
- Clearly, but not overtly, express to visitors how they can benefit from your products or services
- Provide valuable information to prospective clients, whether or not they utilize your products or services
- Create content around local events and happenings
- Establish your business as an expert in its field
If your content marketing doesn’t meet these objectives, then it needs revision. Don’t stress if you can’t get the job done, there are third party writers with this expertise that you can hire if you prefer.
Tip #3: Duplicate Content and Follow up
One of the biggest mistakes a business can do is to have great content but not have a primary home for that content. You should be sharing your content on your website, blog, and social media. However, this can get confusing if you are just copying and pasting the content onto each of these platforms. Doing this will lead to having duplicate content turning your users off to your pages because they keep reading the exact same thing in each location. Instead, when you’ve created a great post, share it on ONE of your platforms, and then promote that post through your social media using a summary with a link to read more, taking users to your website or blog for the full article.
Once it is posted, don’t forget to follow up with your content. In other words, don’t just post it and never come back to it. You want your visitors to engage in conversation with you and others about your business so be sure to reply or respond it whatever way needed to comments on each post. With both creative content and personal interaction with the content you share, it will drive users to come back and read more of your posts! Also, make sure you are tracking your traffic by using some type of analytics tool. As a business owner or content marketing plan developer, you need make sure what you’re sharing is effective.
These are some of my tips for creating a great content marketing plan. Do you have any more that have worked for you? Join the conversation below!
