When planning, it’s important to decide what you want to accomplish before you decide how you’ll accomplish it. So we start with your objectives for content marketing. I’ve broken the process into steps so it’s easy for you to see what decisions need to be made, and in what order. But realize that, while some decisions are simple, others feel like guesswork. That’s okay. Content marketing is like any marketing strategy. You need to test your ideas to see what works.
Make an educated guess for now. You can easily change your mind if you find that your original decision isn’t giving you the results you need. I recommend making a plan and sticking with it for three to six months. Then evaluate your results. If some of your decisions don’t pan out, tweak them and give it another three to six months. That gives you enough time to test your decisions while allowing you to find your best methods quickly.
What you wish to achieve
There’s no right answer here. Just pick one. From a high level perspective, what do you want to do? For example:
- Generate leads for follow-up by sales and marketing teams.
- Help your sales team close sales more quickly.
- Generate interest in your products.
- Build and repair public opinion about your brand and products.
- Develop friends and fans who interact with your brand socially.
- Customer support. Help customers get the most from your products.
- Thought leadership. Develop name recognition and respect, and to influence your industry.
Set Goals
EACH CHANNEL CAN (AND SHOULD) HAVE A UNIQUE PLACE IN YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY. SET ONE OF THESE 7 GOALS FOR EACH CHANNEL:
- drive traffic to another channel (your blog, for example)
- engage
- build community
- generate leads
- inform
- educate
build thought leadership