content marketing strategy - 26 tips for defining your content strategy

Content Marketing Strategy: 26 Tips For Defining Your Content Strategy

Content Marketing Strategy

Before diving into content marketing, it’s important to have a strategy that outlines what you want from content marketing, and how you are going to achieve it. There are no inherently right or wrong ways to create a content marketing strategy, so I’ve provided various ideas and examples to help you consider what may be best for your content strategy.

#1 use a large range of tactics

Credit: MarketingProfs / CMI

#2 Aim very high with your goals

In Good to Great, Jim Collins suggests “It’s just as easy being great as it is being good. It just takes more discipline”. I believe this applies to content marketing. Create the best content in your industry. Don’t settle for good.

#3 scaling your content marketing If you want to scale your content marketing, consider user-generated content.

#4 persist for at least one year

It’s hard to get content marketing right the first time round. Stick with your content marketing strategy for at least a year. Measure what’s important to you so you can iterate effectively and learn what is and isn’t working.

#5 when everyone zigs, zag.

If everyone in your industry is creating one type of content (e.g. blog posts, videos, podcasts), do something different. When everyone zigs, zag.

#6 OPA – Other People’s Audiences

Leverage the reach and influence of major publishers in your niche by offering to write guest articles for them or hosting your content on their site.

#7 focus on the longtail If increasing search traffic is an aspect of your content strategy, be sure to create long-form content targeting

the long tail.

Credit: Kiwanja.com

#8 plan ahead, but also be spontaneous

#9 create a content calendar

Content calendars are a useful planning tool to ensure that you’re creating a high enough frequency of content, and aren’t missing opportunities such creating topical content on public holidays & major events.

#10 write long-form content All things being equal, content that is at least 2,000 words long is more likely to rank for competitive terms (and lots of long-tail variations) than

shorter content. This is not always the case, but very often.

#11 focus on what works in your niche Infographics and case studies are typically the most shareable form of

content. In the music industry, we analysed the number of shares & links for over 15,000 pieces of content and found that, on average, infographics

generated 198% more shares than blog posts.

#12 manage & plan your content strategy in trello

#13 create a strategic plan document

This exercise is incredibly valuable when outlining your content marketing strategy. I recommend using the template provided by Quicksprout as a starting point.

#14 recycle your existing content

With so many different mediums of content, recycling content is a huge opportunity. Turn your long-form blog posts into eBooks. Record screencasts of your presentations and upload them as videos to YouTube. Turn blog posts into presentations.

#15 consider other territories Make your content relevant in different countries. Don’t just

translate your content, localise it in different territories.

#16 curating vs. creating

We received over 800 social shares on this post, which is just a curated post of 30 inspirational quotes in the music industry. You don’t always need to invest in producing new content, when you can curate

existing great content.

#17 evergreen vs. Topical

Pick whether you want an evergreen strategy or topical content strategy. Both work, but evergreen content marketing lends itself to compounding results over time. If you go down the topical content route, you have to commit to it.

#18 create content at each stage of your buying cycle

It’s important that your brand appears at all stages of the customer buying cycle to ensure that you’re most likely to be the option they choose. Consider what balance of content you need at different stages e.g. two thirds of our content should have a primary aim of being discovered in the search phase.

#19 build content partnerships

Team up with the best people in your industry to add credibility. We recently released a whitepaper with Midem, who are a respected brand in the music business. Having them as a partner added a lot of clout when pitching the whitepaper to the press.

#20 ego-baiting influencers

Say nice things about the people you want to influence, and make them look good in comparison to their competitors. I’ve used this to get Bloomingdales, EMI, Guy Kawasaki, and various other social heavyweights to share my content.

#21 share timeless content repeatedly

If you’re building an evergreen content strategy, then you can promote your content for a much longer duration as it never becomes irrelevant.

#22 make people angry

For content to be highly shareable it must provoke a strong emotional reaction. Anger is one of the strongest emotions that can be provoked. Creating content that angers your audience (without the anger being directed at your brand) is a very powerful strategy.

#23 create A referenceable resource

Consider what content you may be able to create that will be highly referenceable in your industry. The Moz Algorithm Change History tools is a great example of this in the SEO industry.

#24 mark public holidays & national events on your content calendar

Public holidays & events, such as Halloween, April Fools Day, Christmas and Easter are great opportunities to launch relevant themed content. However, be sure to mark these events long in advance to give you enough time to prepare your themed campaign.

#25 take advantage of news jacking

When news breaks, journalists are often in need of expert opinions and quotes to feature in their write-ups. Be the first to respond and offer opinions. Also use tools like HARO.com to help journalists looking for quotes.

#26 Take risks, protect the downside

“It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.” – Richard Branson

Brainstorm everything you can think of that could possibly go wrong and then mitigate against it as best as you can.

Need Help With Your Content Marketing Strategy?

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