10 Useful Tips to Create a Content Marketing Strategy for your Blog

Content marketing can be described as the creation of compelling content that people actually want to consume. Content marketing is a marketing technique that will turn prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers.

One of the best tools to use for content marketing is blogging. Most businesses who publish information on the internet are using content marketing whether they know it or not.

Joe Pulizzi, a content marketing evangelist and co-author of the book: “Get Content Get Customers”  defines content marketing as:

“the art of understanding exactly what your customers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way.”

Joe believes the percentage of marketing budget that is allocated to content marketing, on average 26% will increase to 51% over the next 12 months.

With content marketing becoming so important, it’s of utmost importance to have a content marketing strategy for your business blog.

The following tips from Joe will help you create a content marketing strategy for your blog:

1.       Identify your goal of blogging. Brainstorm a few options, then prioritize and choose the most important goal(s) for your business. Your goals could be:

a.       Customer retention

b.      Lead generation

c.       Brand awareness

d.      Sales

e.      Thought leadership

f.        Lower customer service costs

g.       Increase traffic to your website

2.       Your blog should be niche focussed. If it is about pets for instance, rather focus on issues pertaining to pet owners who like to travel with their dogs.

3.       Don’t make the blog about you, you and you. Rather give your customers relevant, compelling information and be the trusted expert. Find your customers pain points or needs and provide solutions to their problems.

4.       Know your competition and the quality of their content. Ensure that you provide unique and useful information that is better than that of your competition. This is easier if you stand for something specific. For example Joe Pulizzi who is passionate about educating companies about content marketing and its benefits if done correctly.

5.       Have a blogging calendar. Here are two links to useful Editorial Calendar templates:

a.       http://www.stylesamplemag.com/s010/01/blog-editorial-calendar-template (Google spreadsheet)

b.      www.savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/572231/save-time-stress-blog-editorial-calendar-template (Excel spreadsheet)

6.       Use your employees to create blog posts for you about their specialist areas. This will not only empower them, but will also provide you with additional relevant content and more traffic to your blog.

7.       Don’t expect that visitors/readers will automatically engage with you on your blog. You need to reach out by targeting the top 10 or more blogs or websites in your niche, read them and leave comments.

8.       If your company has multiple employees, ensure that the blog has an owner who will be responsible for the blog and the content being published. This person can be called the “Chief Content Officer” or “Communications Manager”.

9.       If you have no experience with producing content for your blog, hire a freelance journalist or a content agency. This means you outsource your content to experts.

10.   Ensure that you have executive level support for content marketing on your business blog.

Blogging equals content marketing. Use these tips to implement a proper content marketing strategy for your blog and see your business take off on the internet.

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