Content marketing: 7 steps for improving your business strategy

One of the most important questions a business can ask nowadays is, "Why do users visit my site"? Besides offering a great product or service, you also need to provide resources. Great resources make you helpful and trustworthy, which are both critical for building page authority. Page authority determines your rank among search engines when people look for keywords related to your business. The best way to improve page authority is through effective content marketing.
Consider this: fewer than 1/3 of businesses have an optimized strategy in place for content marketing! This leaves a great window of opportunity for your business to stay ahead of the competition. When starting out, you'll first want to review your current strategy, and hone in on the areas where you can improve. Do you have a consistent flow of captivating content that answers the questions your users have? Take a look below at our summary, as well as the excellent infographic (provided by Smart Insights) for a full picture of what your strategy should include!

Content marketing: the 7 steps to improve your business strategy

1. Benchmark your current use of content marketing
   —How well you determine ROI
   —How you plan and schedule new content
   —The overall quality of content you're creating
2. Develop a content marketing strategy
   —Determine where you need to invest 
   —Integrate content marketing with business goals
3. Understand customer and brand needs from content
   —Determine your customer's persona
   —Build an editorial calendar
   —Analyze your outreach efforts: are you finding and targeting influential users?
4. Make smart investments in content marketing
   —Are you creating new content frequently enough?
   —Are you utilizing AdWords or social advertising campaigns to get your message out?
5. Select the best mix of resources
   —Content strategy vs content creation
   —Consider paying for quality content
6. Create the most effective content formats
   —Analyze your audience
   —Determine usage of blogs, newsletters, contests, etc.
7. Use analytics to review ROI and value
   —What are your KPI's (key performance indicators)?

 
Does your business use an editorial calendar? If you're not sure, or have questions about developing a content marketing strategy, we're happy to lend a hand. Drop us a message or give us a call and we can work together to determine what your website needs to rank successfully!