The 5 Ways HOW To Do Content Marketing

Content Marketing is an effective practise today where businesses produces content to connect better with their audience and offer them value, in return for recognition and interaction.

We all understand that WHAT and the WHY about Content Marketing. But what seems to be lacking is the HOW! How do we implement it?

So, here are the 5 ways how to use content effectively in your business strategy.

What we know and don't about about Content Marketing

There are a lot of articles on Content Marketing.

People today are quite familiar with the:

1. what (articles, blogs, videos, social media posts, brochures),
2. who (your business, influencers, your audience)
3. when (frequency, release dates, post times)
4. where (Facebook, business websites, Instagram, Twitter, magazines)
5. why (Key Opinion Leadership, relationship building, offering value)
   
   

But it’s the HOW that seems to be a bit more of a mystery.
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I realised this when teaching one of my Content Marketing classes, where most of the questions were more about the ‘how to’.
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I guess most focus on the theory, and less on the actual practise (the ‘how’).

So, let’s fill in the gap with this blog, and give a step-by-step guide on how to do Content Marketing to see results.

Content Marketing only works successfully today with consistent and regular content creation, using an omnichannel approach. 
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Step One: Your Content Strategy

Start with the goals and objectives that your Content Marketing is aiming to achieve.

These should tie closely in with your Business and Marketing Plans so that your business is all heading in the same direction.

Your Content Marketing should work together with your business, and NOT be an afterthought to "tick that box" (sounds obvious, but I see it all the time...).

For example:

• Business Plan Mission
  To be a prominent figurehead and Key Opinion Leader in Australian Copywriting.
  
  
• Marketing Plan Mission
  To offer our customers and the wider community a source of high-quality and relevant information about Copywriting and Content topics.
  
  THEN...
  
  
• Content Marketing Strategy
  Weekly releases of blogs, articles and social media posts across all business platforms answering a recently asked question that attracts the attention of interest parties and puts them in direct contact with our brand and services.
  
  

In this example, the Content Strategy works to achieve the previous two.

​If these all align (which they all should), it means that your Content Strategy answers your Marketing and Business Plans, which is the whole point. This prevents your content from going off on irrelevant and counter-productive tangents, which is often why a brand’s content campaign fails.

Your Content Marketing should work towards achieving your business' overall objectives, and NOT be an afterthought to "tick that box" (seems obvious, but...)

But your Content Strategy creation step is so much more than this.

It should also establish:

• ​your brand’s tone and style guide 
• the frequency of releases,
• media types and,
• general branding

This mapping out of your ‘content identity’ keeps everything on-brand and consistent, so that it delivers strong results.

Remember: 

• If you don’t include a relevant tone, then your audience will end up confused about your brand’s personality.
  
• If you don’t outline your objectives, then your content ends up an ad-hoc mess of meaningless posts.
  
• If you don’t set out your guidelines, then you can’t establish a clear brand positioning.
• And so on.

There are countless studies and tonnes of research (not to mention common sense) that all show that setting out your overarching content strategy helps guide your efforts to success, and yet only a small percentage of businesses actually do it.
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Start with a simple, but solid content strategy to establish the rules of the game.

Mapping out of your ‘content identity’ keeps everything on-brand and consistent, so that it delivers strong results.

Step Two: The Content Plan

Next, put together your content calendar which outlines your schedule over the coming period, whether it be weeks, months or even the year.

Why? Several reasons:

• It prevents the last-minute scramble to find something to post
• It keeps your content aligned to your strategy
• It ensures consistency
• It allows your business to tie content topics to relevant dates and events
  
  

This plan doesn’t have to be overly complex!

​Open an Excel sheet, put in a yearly calendar, brainstorm regular topics and themes, lock them all in to times and dates, and you’re set. Just make sure you refer to this document regularly and review it often to keep the content themes fresh.

For example, seeing Mother’s Day on your calendar will help your business create mother-themed content around there to reach your audience in a more meaningful way.

A content calendar is a really simple but effective (and easily underestimated) way of keeping your Content Marketing efforts on-track.  

Step Three: The Content Creation Process

Now it’s time to get creating, which involves matching your strategy from Step One with your schedule from Step Two.

This is all about the copywriting, the photography, the videography, printing, editing and so on to produce relevant and interesting pieces of content that your audience will connect with.

But this also includes the procedures around the process too.

For example:

• Who in your team is responsible for curating the content?
• What parts need to be outsourced versus created in-house?
• What is the call to action?
• What are the deadlines?
• Who posts or sends out the content?
• Who needs to approve it?
• Is there a way to use automation or bots to streamline the process?
• Will the content be organic or paid?

And so on.

​Content creation is so much more than just making the pieces. It's also about managing your Content Marketing to get the best outcomes.

Step Four: Track Your Progress

As a business, we undertake Content Marketing to achieve results set out in the strategy, whether it be sign-ups, awareness, click-throughs and so on. As a result, this step is about tracking how each piece is performing.

Fortunately today, most content is disseminated digitally, which automatically tracks statistics, such as Click Through Rates (CTR), Impressions, Bounce Rate and Interactions, which all make it easier to see the results and follow each campaign’s progress. There are also multiple online tools to help you, such as Google Analytics.

From these figures, you can compare them against the goals and expectations set out in the original strategy, and act accordingly.

​Just remember: tracking isn’t just about measurement; it’s about the insights that it provides as well.

For example, if results are surpassing expectations, then it may indicate a really effective message, and to edit your content plan and strategy to capitalise on this approach. But if results and under-delivering, then it may be time to assess the message and relaunch or rework it. 

​You must track your Content Marketing results, not just for ROI but also to learn what to do next.

Step Five: Rinse and Repeat

After all four steps are going through the motions, it’s all about starting the cycle again.

​Assess and update your strategy and your plan, then project new content accordingly, track how it goes and repeat.

This cycle will keep your content fresh and engaging while being flexible and relevant.

To allow Content Marketing to have an impact, you must be producing consistent and regular pieces, while using omnichannel methods to amplify its reach.  
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How Can Melotti Media Copywriting Help You With Your Content?

At Melotti Media, we understand that high quality copywriting is essential for business success, but it is easier said than done.

You’re time poor and spread thin, and writing isn’t your expertise. So, focus on what really matters, while we take care of all of your copywriting and marketing needs!

If you need further clarification about content, or if you need a quality copywriter to get the results you need, contact me now at chris@melottimedia.com.au. Or leave a comment, below.

I can sharpen your words to achieve your goals, today!

Christopher Melotti

Melotti Media Copywriting and Marketing Solutions
www.melottimedia.com.au
 
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