Getting started with content marketing

In modern marketing content is king. You need high-quality, consistent, on-brand content to build those all important client relationships. Most businesses fall into creating content out of necessity. 

Hasty social media posts, a cobbled together website, stock images. They don’t come together to create a cohesive, polished brand. That’s why sometimes you have to hit reset on your content marketing and start again.

Where to begin

If you’re at the start of formalising your content production it can feel daunting. How do you move from creating reactive content to planning and strategising? 

It all comes down to having absolute clarity on your services, your audience and your values. 

The best content is laser focused on one audience, their problems and how you’re going to help them. Once you’re clear on that you’ll find a treasure trove of content ideas. 

Create a content bank

I like to start by creating a bank of ideas. Noting down every topic, idea or subject that springs to mind. This isn’t a one-time activity, your content bank should be a living, breathing entity that everyone adds to. That way at any given time you can draw on a good idea and find inspiration. 

Once you’ve banked all of the ad hoc ideas you’ve already got, it’s time to do some keyword research into what your audience are already talking about or searching for. Head to Google and put in your ideas and see what comes up before jotting down the best ones. 

Plan it out

The biggest shift from creating reactive content to having a strategy in place is planning. Start by adding any key campaign dates into your calendar - are you promoting key services at certain times or perhaps you’re away for August so need to adapt your messaging appropriately. 

When you’ve got your sales calendar in place, overlaid with calendar dates such as bank holidays, Christmas etc you can begin to plot in your content campaigns. 

Think about what you want to promote and when you want to promote it and you can work backwards to plan out your full campaign.

Multi-platform

Now we have our core message, we know our audience, we’ve got a bank of good ideas and a calendar we can start thinking about how we’re going to roll that out across different platforms. 

Start by identifying your hero platform, it’s not your favourite, it’s the one that has the highest return on your time, the one that generates leads and traffic. Worked out which one is your hero platform? Now rank your other platforms in order of importance, that’s the order you’re going to prioritise your content. 

Create your content with your hero platform in mind and then adapt it to the others, spending the appropriate amount of time depending on the importance of that platform. For smaller businesses, repurposing is your secret weapon. When you’ve got a limited marketing team and budget it’s impossible to prioritise every platform. Successful multi-platform campaigns for smaller businesses rely on prioritisation. 

Consistency

A strategy without consistency isn’t worth a penny. Time is the most important thing when it comes to content marketing. Take your plan and put it in your diary, make sure important dates are marked, deadlines are highlighted and you allocate yourself time to bring your content plan to life. 

Sound difficult? Then scale back your plan. Make sure it’s realistic and once you embed the basics in your working week and after 6-months you’re still creating on-plan, on-message content then add in the next layer. That might mean adding extra platforms or putting our more content. Remember, walk before you can run. 

It’s all about going back to basics. Clarity on your messaging. A structured plan. Relevant topics. Combine that with consistency and you’re onto a winner.

Of course, sometimes even with the best intentions you still don’t have the time, or, let’s be honest, inclination to put it into practice. That’s where I come in. Get in touch and we can come up with a plan of action.