How to develop a content marketing strategy

Choose your platforms

Choosing your platforms is probably the easiest part of putting together a content marketing strategy. Just think about what type of content you may be producing first, and then think about the most popular platforms for that content. For example, if you plan to publish PowerPoint presentations, you can use SlideShare. If you plan to post short bursts of content alongside an image, you can use Facebook or Google+, and if you plan to create how-to articles, you can use Ezine article directories and websites.

The platforms that I use most frequently are Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Twitter, SlideShare and blogs in general, either mine or a guest blog related to my niche or with which I have an existing relationship and blogs in which I have a small following. every post I publish.

Choose your content

As stated above, you must write specific types of content for specific types of platforms. If you’ve designated Google+, YouTube, and SlideShare as your platforms of choice, you should go ahead and create content that is tailored for each platform. On Google+, you need to get some of your top articles that you can share via links or write short bursts of content to accompany an image, on YouTube, you need a video that engages your audience, on EzineArticles you need to create a resource or piece of information that people are interested in, and finally, on SlideShare, you can put together a PowerPoint presentation that people will find useful and share.

Choose your times

Have an editorial calendar to organize what content will be published, where and at what time. It’s a good idea to organize your content so that it flows and at the end of the month has a particular topic or direction, rather than just spitting out content in any way. It’s also a good idea not to post too often on each particular platform or else your readers may get tired of you and stop following you. You must leave them wanting more, without wishing that they will never hear from you again.

Schedule and Publish

By using tools to help you with your SEO, social media, and content marketing efforts, you’ll be able to schedule when your posts go live, saving you from logging into each platform, every time, and posting your content manually. I personally suggest you use Sendible, but if you already have software to help you distribute your content, you are already one step ahead. Enter your content within your tool, choose a date you would like to publish that content and save it. On that date, at that time, your content will go out to the masses automatically, without you coming back in and doing anything.

Monitor progress

When you know what content you are going to post on which platform and at what time it will be sent, you need to head to that platform at that exact moment and monitor what your audience is saying, manage your community, and engage with your audience. Allow them to express their opinion and then thank them, respond to their comments, and keep the conversation going. The more discussion you can generate around the content you publish or distribute, the more popular it will be, the more reach you will have, the more exposure your business will achieve, and ultimately more sales will be generated.

It goes without saying that this type of content outreach and discussion around your brand will help you in other areas of your overall inbound marketing approach as well, such as SEO. Google has openly stated that it takes social elements into account in its algorithm, so if you can get people talking and sharing your content, the better your ranking will be on Google.

In conclusion

Gone are the days when you could post any old content, include a few links, dominate the search engines, and drive traffic. Google, in particular, is tightening the reins of such practices and guess what, so is its target audience. Make sure you post high-quality content on multiple platforms, keep your audience engaged, and be a constant presence. Not only will this ensure that you are never caught by Google updates or algorithm changes as you will have multiple traffic streams and Google loves the scope of content, it will also ensure that your business gets the exposure it needs and deserves resulting in constant growth and success for your business.