Lead generation is a challenge for many startup companies. When individuals have never heard of it or are unaware that they need it, how do you pique their interest in your good or service? It’s not simple, that much is true. However, using a content marketing approach will speed up your lead generation. The skill of producing and disseminating excellent content is what teaches your target market and ultimately guides them down your sales funnel.

However, you need a content marketing strategy to be successful at content marketing. This provides you with a road plan for moving from coming up with content ideas to sharing polished products with your audience.

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy: 10 Steps

Yet only 40% of B2B marketers have a formalized content marketing strategy, according to a report by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

If you belong to the same group, it may be time to take your own content marketing strategy seriously. The following actions should be taken:

1. Set objectives.

Setting goals must be the first step in any content marketing strategy. If not, you won’t be able to tell whether it was successful or not.

So, consider what you hope to achieve. Do you want to generate more sales, enhance social media engagement, or drive more traffic to your website?

Whatever it is, make a note of it. Clearly define the purpose of your content marketing in a mission statement.

2. Add KPIs to your goal-setting.

Make your content marketing plan goals more precise and quantifiable with key performance indicators (KPIs) after you’ve set them. Online views, clicks, and conversions are some indicators you may use to gauge how well your content marketing approach is working.

Establish KPI targets based on your objectives so that you know what to shoot for. Making your goals SMART, or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, includes doing this.

You might also take into account other KPI data, such as social media shares, SEO rankings, and email subscriber count.

3. Decide who your target market is.

You should now determine who your target market is. Your material will resonate more strongly if you know to whom it is speaking.

Start by gathering information on your present contacts’ age, gender, location, income, education, and other demographics. You can perform some of this using website visitor analysis tools like Google Analytics. If so, you might have to rely on clients to provide this information voluntarily through surveys, contact forms, or testimonials. You can better comprehend them by requesting detailed feedback.

After that, you can divide your audience into various groups. Next, develop consumer avatars or buyer personas for each category. These act as descriptions of the ideal client’s preferences, problems, actions, etc. Writing content with the proper audience in mind will be simpler as a result.

4. Conduct a content audit

There’s a good chance that your company has previously released material, including blog entries, social media updates, videos, podcast appearances, and so on. Examine these to determine your position. How are you doing in relation to your KPI objectives?

You can more clearly grasp what has to be done by examining your past content and contrasting it with your objectives (as well as the material of your rivals).

To speed up this procedure, use a content audit tool. You can use it to find areas where you could improve your website, such as relevant keywords you aren’t ranking for or inquiries you aren’t responding to.

5. Identify the top content channels.

Make a note of the channels where your material is shared the most during your content audit. Is it available on forums, social media, or other websites? Again, you may do this with the aid of a web analytics software.

Keep an eye out for trends and focus more on whatever appears to be working. You might choose to concentrate your content marketing efforts on X (previously Twitter) if you see that your content there is gaining a lot of momentum.

6. Select content categories

Choose the kind of material you want to concentrate on after deciding which channels to target for your content. This could take the form of short-form material like social media updates or TikTok videos or long-form content like blog entries and email newsletters.

YouTube videos, infographics, seminars, ebooks, and podcasts are examples of additional content types. Select a few that will connect with your target audience the best.

7. Conceive of content concepts

Start coming up with content ideas after that. Finding out what inquiries your target audience is making is a smart strategy. For instance, you can look for frequently asked questions in your sector or area using Google’s autocomplete tool.

You can then create topic clusters or pillars around which to arrange fresh content concepts. The objective is to structure as many content concepts as you can.

8. Establish a process for producing content.

It’s time to establish your content creation process now that you have your content ideas in hand. You will at the very least require employees to manage and produce the material. This could include a chief editor or manager as well as full-time, part-time, or freelance writers.

To keep your content organized throughout the entire development process, you’ll also want to spend money on a content management system (CMS). Create standardized processes for authoring, finding images, editing, reviewing, publishing, and sharing each piece of content.

9. Calendar your content

You can schedule, monitor, and establish deadlines for various content milestones using a content calendar (also known as a content strategy). You’re destined to produce just mediocre results without one.

Create a content calendar using project management software (PMS) and give impending content items due dates. To speed up the publishing process, make sure that each content gets through the appropriate approval channels.

10. Make some content

It’s time to start creating the content now that you’ve planned and done your research. Make sure your content writers speak directly to your target audience and use your brand’s tone of voice. Each component must be unique and useful. This will make it stand out from the voluminous amount of identical stuff that is already available online.

After that, make sure the content has been reviewed, updated, revised, and finally approved. Utilize both human resources and software tools to check the accuracy and caliber of the content.