Simple steps to start a content marketing strategy

This post will provide some simple steps to help you outline what needs to be done when developing a digital marketing strategy. Sure, there’s a lot more to go along with this, but this should help you create the foundation.

Social / digital media evaluation
The first step will be to become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of your existing digital communication process. This will help define how to move forward with each existing process that we develop from scratch.

Content audit
Immediately after the evaluation, the content audit begins. A comprehensive review of existing content will be carried out. The agreed content should be viewed as digital assets that can be used within the overall strategy.

Competitor analysis
A review of the competition will also be conducted. Data will be collected to study and compare performance across competitive media channels. For example, study competitor websites, social media channels, and audience reach. This data will be used to shape entry into competing digital media channels.

Trend research
Investigation of digital media consumption habits among stakeholders. Key findings will help identify who, where, and when to communicate with different types of stakeholders. This will also help define a posting schedule.

Person Development
Identify key stakeholder personalities and assign a personality to them. The criteria used to train the person will consist of media consumption habits, demographics, needs, and location. The person will be used to determine the digital voice and communication strategy.

Audience development
The main focus of this stage will be finding the audience you want to speak to. This stage will also be used to identify the where and when of audience participation. A smooth entry into the digital media channel will be necessary to develop this stage.

Publication
Start leveraging the digital content assets that were identified in the content audit stage. Use this content to create blog posts, white papers, case studies, tweets, email campaigns, and whatever else is necessary to communicate your voice. Develop an editorial calendar and stick to it. Treat your business like a publisher.

Surveillance
Analytics software and digital media monitoring tools allow you to track when people interact with SHP. The data obtained at this stage can be compared to industry benchmarks and can be used to help us define a success metric.