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Content strategy: A roadmap to reach (and exceed) your business and team goals through content

Blog: Monday Project Management Blog

A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

That’s the definition of content marketing according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), a company whose mission is to “advance the practice of content marketing.”

What you are reading now is … content marketing.

In fact, pretty much every B2B email, blog post, article, piece of content you scroll through on your various devices … all of that is content intended to “attract and retain a clearly defined audience” — YOU.

The good news for most marketers is that content marketing — the strategy around it — is working. According to a 2020 CMI report, 59% of marketers say their content marketing ROI is excellent or very good, helping them increase leads, conversions, and brand loyalty.

But tossing out content in hopes that some of it will stick is not really content strategy.

You need a plan, a strategy.

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What is content strategy and how do I create one?

Content (or content marketing) strategy is a roadmap for how to reach (and exceed) your business and team goals through content.

A well-executed content marketing strategy helps boost SEO, generate leads, and increase conversions (more logos!). Even better, it can help define and hone business goals, audience, and unique value empowering your team to create more effective content in every channel.

While there is no “one-size-fits-all” guide to creating a content marketing strategy, we believe these 9 steps will get you on the right path:

STEP ONE: DEFINE MARKETING (AND BUSINESS) GOALS

What is the end goal for your content? Website visitors and/or pageviews? Leads filling out forms? Clicks on social media content? Email opens? There is no wrong answer and the answer may be more than just one outcome. No matter what, it’s important to choose specific business goals that reflect the realities of your business.

STEP TWO: RESEARCH TARGET AUDIENCE

You must know who you are targeting with your content. What are your audience demographics and firmographics and technographics? What persona(s) are you trying to reach with your content? Note: Depending on your product or service, you will likely be serving various audiences.

STEP THREE: CHOOSE CONTENT FORMATS

Will your content be written, spoken, or visual (or all of the above)? Will you choose long-form (eBooks) or medium form (blog posts and articles) or short form (social media content)? Will you use written or visual content, or both? Will your audience find your content through organic search or social media? Focus on the content types that will truly resonate with your audience.

STEP FOUR: SELECT DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS

There are many ways to put your content out into the world — from traditional marketing distribution channels like television and billboards and radio to more online formats like websites and blogs and social media channels. While you don’t have to “be everywhere,” it’s always a smart idea to publish content in the places your audience is most likely going to be spending time.

STEP FIVE: CONDUCT A CONTENT AUDIT

Unless this is your first foray into content marketing, it’s likely you have some pieces of content living somewhere. Before you begin writing and creating content, compile a list of every content asset you have and evaluate whether it’s helping you reach your marketing goals. If it’s not, scrap it. If it is, refresh it. If possible, consider ways to repurpose older pieces of content to be relevant to today’s world.

STEP SIX: CREATE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR

Plan. Plan. Plan. Use the results from your audit to begin planning out your calendar. Consider monthly themes. Determine what channels you are going to publish content in and how often. information you’ve gathered to schedule content 3 to 6 months in advance. Start listing tasks and assigning work to your team.

STEP SEVEN: EXECUTE THE PLAN

This is where the rubber hits the wrote. It’s time to create. Write. Post. Publish. Share. CREATE. Put your pieces of content out into the world. Yes, it can be scary at first, but go for it!

STEP EIGHT: TRACK METRICS & REPORT OUT

This is an important – yet often (unfortunately) overlooked step. Track what’s working (and what’s not working. Create weekly and monthly reports that are aligned with the business goals you created in Step #1. Report these data to various teams in your organization. Be transparent (it’s really the only way to get the best results).

STEP NINE: ITERATE AND TWEAK

There is always room for improvement. Not every aspect of your content marketing plan will be a home run. Expect to have to iterate and make adjustments along the way. That’s part of the game.

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How monday.com helps with content strategy

There are many ways monday.com can help with the various steps of your content marketing strategy — from defining goals to scheduling content distribution to reporting on success — our Work OS has you covered.

Once you’ve defined your business and marketing goals, it’s time to put your marketing plan into action. And that means writing it down and sharing it in a visual manner.

The monday.com marketing plan template is your answer.

monday.com's marketing plan template screenshot

This template means you and your team can:

Optimize marketing strategies: Track and manage all projects and align them with marketing and business goals. Timelines. Charts. Your choice.
Budget efficiently: Manage marketing initiatives in one place to more efficiently plan your budget.
Stay on track: Set automatic reminders and notifications so you never miss a deadline.

Next up: A good content calendar (see this template):

This template empowers teams to:

Plan content: Visualize all upcoming content pieces in a calendar view. Assign writers, designers, editors, and other key team members to your projects to plan effectively.

Stay on track: Set automatic reminders and notifications so you never miss a deadline again. Automations help improve your team’s collaboration and reach your KPIs.

Streamline workflow: Stay up to date with all content initiatives by collecting information in one place.

And so much more.

Need something that focuses specifically on social media? Create a holistic social media schedule like the one below. Start by downloading our Social Media Calendar template.

monday.com's social media schedule template

Planning your social media in a calendar tool helps maximize your strategy’s potential for success.

It can be challenging to keep up with all the various social media channels. A plan coupled with a template helps keep everything in one place — from design to content — so you can plan accordingly.

But that’s just the tip of the monday.com iceberg.

Why monday.com is the best solution for managing content strategy

At monday.com, it all starts with picking a template (or two) that best fits your needs. And when it comes to templates, we have a TON to choose from.

For content strategy, we recommend starting here.

From there, start customizing your template(s) to fit your team’s specific marketing and business goals.

Then, start browsing through our various integrations to find out how you can weave in the software you already have working for you.

Finally, consider automating as much of the process as possible.

Join the over 100,000 productive teams worldwide who trust monday.com.

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The post Content strategy: A roadmap to reach (and exceed) your business and team goals through content appeared first on monday.com Blog.

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