{"id":8316,"date":"2020-09-14T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propelbusinessworks.com\/?p=8316"},"modified":"2021-11-18T19:47:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T03:47:44","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-building-a-content-marketing-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propelbusinessworks.com\/plan\/what-you-need-to-know-about-building-a-content-marketing-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need to Know About Building a Content Marketing Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by\u00a0Austin Distel<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The art of content marketing<\/a> is essential in today\u2019s online business world. Put simply, content marketing is the distribution of content specifically designed to appeal to your target audience for a specific purpose. This usually refers to online communication, and generally encompasses everything from social media to your website to your blog to your e-newsletter to any ads you run.<\/p>\n

Being such a broad subject, developing a specific content marketing strategy is the best way to ensure your efforts in this area are successful. Creating this plan isn\u2019t as daunting as you might think. In fact, most of the information you need is probably already part of your business plan. Before you start planning, build a foundation by answering these four questions:<\/p>\n

Who do you want to reach?<\/strong> This comes down to your target market<\/a>. Hopefully, you have a detailed mental picture of exactly who your ideal customer or client is. All your content messaging should be worded in a way that will appeal to that target.<\/p>\n

What are you trying to say?<\/strong> Essentially, this is your \u201csecret sauce.\u201d What is it you have that your clients\/customers need? How can you communicate about your products or services in a way that makes your target market realize how much they need what you have to offer?<\/p>\n

What do you want to get out of it?<\/strong> Figure out exactly what your goal is with content marketing. Do you hope to acquire new clients or customers? Are you simply trying to raise brand awareness? Do you want to build a radical tribe of loyal online followers?<\/p>\n

Where do you need to show up?<\/strong> There is a multitude of outlets you can chose from for your content marketing. The key you need to determine is which of them will appeal to your target market. A website, blog, e-newsletter, and some sort of social interaction are universally applicable. Beyond that, your task is figuring out which social networks your target audiences<\/a> use most frequently so you know where to focus your energy.<\/p>\n

After you\u2019ve asked those four questions, it\u2019s time to move on to phase two: creating and implementing your strategy.<\/p>\n

Build your content marketing strategy. <\/strong>There are many different ways to approach this. The main questions you\u2019ll want to answer are where<\/em> you\u2019ll be distributing your content (blog, social media, etc.), how often<\/em> you\u2019ll be posting for each avenue, what<\/em> you\u2019ll be communicating, and the voice<\/em> you\u2019ll use to communicate.<\/p>\n