Content is a necessity and reality of today’s digital world. A good content that is engaging and relevant helps in attracting new customers, spreading brand awareness, and boosting conversion rate. However, only creating content is not enough. Your content must be relevant, and you build a content marketing strategy. 

Creating content that engages and nurtures the lead helps in building long-term relationships. A well-designed content resonates with the customers. According to SEMrush

69% of brands will increase their budget on content marketing strategy. 

In this blog, we will discuss content marketing strategy, how to create a content strategy plan, and the types of content marketing formats! 

What is Content Marketing Strategy? 

Content marketing strategy involves creating engaging content for targeted audiences to fulfil your marketing goals. It is the process of planning, creating, distributing, and measuring content across all online channels. An ideal content marketing strategy should include a content calendar, different types of content, KPIs, a talented content writer, sufficient budget, tools, various publishing channels, etc. Your content should not be overtly promotional. The content should be engaging, and help in building long-term relationships. Content can be in the form of an infographic, blog, Q&As, articles, videos, newsletters, etc. This content is then distributed via various channels such as social media, emails, etc. 

To create an effective content marketing strategy, you should know your target audience and how you will cater to different segments of the audience. You should help, engage or solve your audience‘s problems. Be consistent and follow a branding strategy. Decide the format and channel of your content. Content marketing strategy helps in fulfilling short as well as long-term goals. It helps in filling the gap between your marketing KPIs and results. 

How to create a content marketing strategy plan? 

A good strategy begins with planning. Here are a few of the steps that you should follow while creating a content marketing strategy. 

• Objective: The first step in building a content marketing strategy is to define the objective of your strategy. How will you solve the problem of your customers? Also decide what your short and long-term goals are. 
• Target Audience: You create your content for the target audience, so you must understand the interests, preferences, and pain points of your audience. Try to find the platform which your users prefer the most. you should research more about your audiences and create a customer persona for them. 
• Brand Identity: Your product and services aren’t unique, there may be more than one or multiple substitutes to your brand. In order to stand out from the competition, you must create unique and innovative content that aligns with your brand identity and voice. According to a report, 88% of customers consider authenticity as an important factor for selecting a brand. 
• Blueprint: You don’t have clarity in your strategy until it is well documented. It is important to create a blueprint for your brand so that there is clarity in the organisation and everyone knows about strategies and their roles. According to a research by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, 63% of B2B companies don’t have a documented strategy. Having a documented strategy also helps in making adjustments and modifications to the content easily. 
• Channels: Multichannel marketing is the new trend where every brand has multiple channels. It means that they promote their content and engage with audiences on multiple platforms. Some of these channels are email, official website, guest post, social media, ads, etc. You should prioritise your resources on the channels which are your target audiences favourite. For example, the content generated for the younger generation should be published on social media, while for targeting B2B firms, you can use LinkedIn. To attract more potential leads,s you can make a guest post on websites that are related to your niche. It is also an important opportunity for creating backlinks.
• Analytics: To check the success of your strategy, it is important to analyze it. Set KPIs wisely that measure the goal of your strategy. Content marketing metrics can be divided into four categories, consumption, lead generation, sales, and sharing. You can include multiple KPIs as well in your strategy. You can also use additional tools to measure its success. Based on these metrics, you can optimize your strategy. 
• Testing: To test the performance of your content, you can conduct an A/B test or split test. For conducting A/B testing, you run two versions of your content or ad simultaneously, where you change only one element in each, such as headline, graphics, CTAs, etc. You should analyze the performance of each version to determine which is performing better. 
• Optimize: All these tests and analytics help in modifying your content, making it more relevant to the target audience. You should frequently optimize your content. It means you can rewrite an article with new keywords, enhance layout, rewrite the subject line of an email, etc, for better results. 
• Repurpose: Creating engaging content is not easy and requires time and resources. If a content is working, then you should not let this opportunity go to waste. By repurposing content you can increase its lifetime value. It means you can update, rework, adapt your content for other uses as well. It’s recycling the content. For example, you can create an infographic or case study by using a blog. You can promote it further by using advertisements. You can also create a presentation or a video by using a blog.  

Types of content marketing formats

Here are some of the content marketing formats that you can include in your content marketing strategy.

• Blog: Blog posts are articles that are live on your official website. If this format of content is part of your strategy then you should publish more frequently in order to attract more potential leads. It should contain valuable information that can solve customer’s problems. 
• Ebook: It is used for lead generation that users can download after submitting a form. They provide more in depth information as compared to blogs. They are rarely created. 
• Case Studies: It helps in learning more about the success stories and customer’s experience with your brand. It helps in building trust and credibility. They are versatile as they can take any form and highlight how it can help potential customers. 
• Videos: It is one of the most engaging formats of content and is suitable for social media. Video marketing can yield higher ROI. 
• Infographics: It helps in organising and visualizing data for the better understanding of your customers. When you are dealing with multiple data  then you must create an infographic. 
• Email: Emails are effective for building long-term relationships and maintaining a database. Emails should be short, crisp that provide value and highlight customer’s challenges. You can also use it for making important announcements. 
• Thought Leadership: It can include a wide range of formats such as webinars, white paper, blogs, etc. for B2B organisations this is an ideal content format. 
• Social media: You can use social media for distributing your content. Regular posting on social media can enhance your reach and engagement. 
• Interactive: You can create interactive content such as quizzes, surveys, games, etc. You can hold a contest as well. Make sure these quizzes and surveys contain short questions that are engaging. 

There is a lot more to content marketing than creating a blog. It requires a strategy about how and where to post it. An effective content marketing strategy requires effective planning, execution and giving attention to small details. An effective content marketing strategy doesn’t occur at night, it is created after brainstorming ideas and information. Lumia 360 provides digital solutions to small and medium enterprises. We have created well performing and engaging content of multiple formats for our audience. Which resulted in better engagement and conversion rates. To know more about our tactics and tips email us at info@lumia360.com or call us at 514-668-5599. 

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