How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy

At Monte Verde, we believe in the power of content marketing as a tool to attract and retain the right audience, ultimately, as a catalyst to drive the conversions you want.

But content marketing is a lot more than just pushing out content on a whim.

To help you succeed, we put together a comprehensive guide to building a content marketing strategy that works.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing strategy focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract a clearly defined audience with the goal of driving profitable customer action.

Instead of directly pitching products or services, content marketing aims to provide useful and informative content that addresses the needs and interests of the target audience.

For more on content marketing, check out our guide to why content marketing helps your business.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Content Marketing Strategy That Works

1. Define Your Goals

The first step in building a content marketing strategy is to decide what your goals are in the first place. What do you hope to achieve with your content? Who do you hope to attract?

Common goals we’ve seen include:

• Brand Awareness: Increasing your brand's visibility.
• Lead Generation: Attracting potential customers.
• Customer Engagement: Building a relationship with your audience.
• Sales: Driving conversions and sales.
• Customer Retention: Keeping your existing customers engaged and satisfied.

2. Understand Your Audience

To create content that resonates with your brand’s unique audience, you first need to understand who they are and how your product or service will help them. Before creating content, do some brainstorming to create detailed buyer personas.

A buyer persona usually includes factors such as:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, and/or occupation.
• Interests: Hobbies, preferences, values.
• Pain Points: Challenges and problems they face.
• Buying Behavior: How they make purchasing decisions.

3. Perform a Content Audit

Before you start the process of creating content, look at the content your brand has already created. What’s working, and what could use improvement down the road?

4. Create Your Content Plan

You might be wondering… is it finally time to start the process of actually creating content? Almost, but first we need a plan. A content plan outlines what content you will create and when, usually including:

• Content Types: Decide on the types of content you will produce (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts).
• Content Topics: Identify topics that align with your audience's interests and your business goals.
• Content Calendar: Plan out when and where you will publish your content.

If you’re unsure how to go about creating a content plan, a quick Google search will result in plenty of templates that you can use to get started.

5. Create High-Quality Content

Yes, you can start creating content now! We recommend creating high-quality content that keeps the following in mind:

• Value: Provides useful information or solves a problem.
• Engagement: Captivates and holds the audience’s attention.
• Original: Offers a unique perspective or new information.
• Optimized for SEO: Includes relevant keywords and follows SEO best practices.

What is SEO? Check out our guide to investing in SEO for more information.

6. Distribution

Even the best content won’t be effective if it doesn’t reach your audience. Use multiple channels to distribute your content, including:

• Owned Media: Your website, blog, email newsletters.
• Earned Media: Guest posts, social shares, influencer collaborations.
• Paid Media: Social media ads, search engine marketing, sponsored content.

7. Measure Your Results

To understand the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy, measure and analyze your results. Key metrics to track include:

• Traffic: Number of visitors to your content.
• Engagement: Likes, shares, comments, and time spent on content.
• Leads: Number of leads generated from your content.
• Conversions: Number of sales or other desired actions.
• ROI: Return on investment for your content efforts.

8. Try, and Try Again

So, you’ve distributed your first piece of content. Congrats, but you’re far from done. Based on your analysis using measurement tools, continuously work to optimize your content marketing strategy.

This might involve:

• Adjusting your content plan: Focus more on high-performing content types or topics.
• Improving content quality: Address any weaknesses in your content.
• Refining distribution methods: Experiment with different channels and tactics.

Are you interested in content marketing, but need help putting together a strategy that works? Get in touch with our team of experts.