Content Strategy 101by Daniel Cuttridge

of http://www.66dseo.com/

Content Strategy Is...A Content Strategy is important because you use what information you have available on your target market, your competitors and your own goals to find the intersection of what will work to achieve your desired outcomes

About That Funnel...Quality Content drives visitors, retains them and brings them into your funnel for a longer period of time.

A successful Content Strategy negotiates a number of goals and allows you to create methods forachieving them.

Content Strategy takes time and thought!

Set Your Goals...By asking important questions you can begin to decide on your goals!

Example:

What do I want the visitor to do after they’ve read the content? Share? Subscribe?

Goals Set!Once you have asked every relevant question you can think of, you can start to think about how to achieve these goals.

You can revisit this later and revise as you get additional data.

The Types of Content You Create Should Align With The Goals You’ve Set!

Map It Out...Next, start mapping out your topics based on what you do and what your audience are interested in- specifically in your area.

Ensure each sub topic is also mapped out.

You will notice common themes occurring, these are the intersections of your topics and your audiences interests.

Mapped out and ready to go!

Goals > TopicsMake sure your topics will help achieve your goals.

If you have a topic on productivity and related subjects, list posts work well. These posts are highly sharable and so will fit with ‘sharing’ goals.

Research Yo!Your competitors can be ‘spied’ on by using SocialCrawlytics to find out their most shared content.

If this is one of your goals, you should do your due-diligence.

Use This New Data To Re-Think Your Topics and How Your Goals Relate To Them!

By and large. Content Strategy is about thinking laterally.

Is it S.M.A.R.TYou’re getting a good idea of what your content should be now...

Now you should ensure your Content & Goals follow the Business SMART Rule.

Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-Related.

Measuring!To Measure on a basic level you should install Google Analytics.

Pay attention to visit duration and bounce rate.

Mo’ bounce rate, Mo’ problems.

You Should Also Consider Using The SocialMetrics Plugin If You Use WordPress, To Track Shares.

Structure.In general your Content Strategy should account for structured content.

You can do this by keeping each new piece of content related to the last. In effect creating a story and a real conversation with your audience.

Create A Schedule.Now you have everything in place, create a schedule.

Use Excel, create a spreadsheet and create columns for headline, topic, goals, content type, length, ideas for promotion and keyword ideas.

Use Keyword Research To Come Up With A Couple Of Keywords To Target For Each Post & To Help You Create A Headline.

Test It...If you have the budget, test your content by sending paid traffic to it.

Track how well it performs based on your goals. If it does well you can continue, but if it doesn’t perform, revisit the initial strategy.

If Your Bounce Rate % Is Higher Than The Industry Average, Your Content Could Be At Fault!

Going Forward...Before you consider your Content Marketing strategy, keep in mind that you must always measure and learn from what data you have.

Doing this you can continue to go back and refine your content strategy until it’s perfect for your goals and audience.

Conclusion:A good Content Strategy will give you a good audience, one that will grow your business and create long-term relationships with you.

When every other aspect of your business is taken seriously, content strategy should be the foundation you build from for marketing efforts.

Credits:Created by Daniel Cuttridge of 66 DING SEO.

Twitter: @dcuttridgeWeb: http://www.66dseo.com/

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