Developing a content strategy is a complex process that involves several stages and the creation of solid content strategy deliverables that will propel the business further.
It has to start with an in-depth audience and market research. Marketers need to set specific, actionable, and attainable goals. A strategy should provide content creators with effective tactics for brand positioning. Finally, a good content strategy has to include actionable guidelines for creating, distributing, and managing content.
Undoubtedly, doing these things is a complex task. And doing it right necessitates a data-driven, tactical approach. Ideally, that approach allows businesses to achieve their content goals.
When building a content marketing strategy, marketers have to supplement it with key content strategy deliverables. These documents help guide creators and collaborators through the content production process. And they allow them to enforce a plan that is fully outcome-oriented.
This article will help you understand content strategy deliverables. It will cover different types of documents and their function in your marketing plan. Lastly, it will provide tips on incorporating these outputs into your system.
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What Are Content Strategy Deliverables? Definition and Importance
What’s the worst thing you can do when planning your content marketing approach? It’s allowing yourself to take shots in the dark.
Yes, intuition can be powerful. However, a successful content plan requires a highly focused approach. Ideally, one that allows you to track and measure outcomes on multiple plains.
That’s where deliverables come in.
The concept of deliverables refers to any tangible or intangible output produced during a project. In the context of content marketing, these documents:
Guide teams through the production and distribution process.
Set KPIs for measuring success.
Ensure that each content marketing activity aligns with your brand’s business goals.
Types of Content Strategy Deliverables
Like any other strategic guideline, a content strategy deliverable must be:
Specific.
Measurable.
Relevant.
So, if it is to serve your business, it needs to tie in with the different elements of your marketing plan.
With this in mind, you need to produce several types of content strategy deliverables to ensure a seamless marketing process.
Existing Content Audit Report
The number one priority for brands developing content strategies — especially those that have already produced and distributed resources as parts of their marketing tactics — is to conduct and compose an in-depth content audit report.
Study your existing content and its performance in key areas. This can help identify what your business has been doing right (or wrong) in its content strategy. More importantly, it can uncover valuable opportunities to allow your content to go from average to exceptional with just a few tweaks.
Here’s what to include in your content audit report:
Inventory
Creating a comprehensive list of all existing content on your website is an excellent way to gauge quantity, quality, and performance. Moreover, it’s an effective way to determine whether your resources need updates or your website’s content section needs restructuring to better align with the buyer’s journey.
Furthermore, conducting a content inventory is a great way to identify outdated, duplicate, or irrelevant pieces on your website. It should be a crucial document during the later stages of your content strategy, particularly when determining what pieces to include in your content calendar.
Traffic Data and SEO Performance
Knowing how many people are interacting with your resources (as well as where they’re coming from and how they’re discovering your pieces) is essential info for developing a highly successful content strategy. It’s also a great place to start if you want to invest in content marketing to boost brand and product awareness.
If you decide to hire a B2B SEO agency to grow your startup, expect to receive this deliverable as part of their service.
User Intent Alignment
Developing a content strategy that drives results requires that you invest in resources for each stage of the buyer’s journey. By studying how your existing content aligns with user intent, you can check how blog posts and content pages relate to your audience’s intended outcomes.
For example, the FAQ section of the Invest page on CapitalPad is perfectly optimized to align with the needs of prospects populating the lowest stages of the sales funnel.
On the other hand, something similar to Jetboil’sHow to Make Camping Coffeewill be more suited for building product awareness. That’s because it aligns with the informational search intent of people populating the topmost stages of the marketing funnel.
Audience Personas
Any content marketing strategy — especially a successful one — necessitates an in-depth audience understanding. After all, the only way to ensure your content aligns with your target audience’s needs and aspirations is to comprehend those needs and aspirations in the first place.
For this reason, use deliverables to identify and describe your brand’s audience personas. Then, invest in high-quality content that aligns with each target group’s priorities to ensure maximum engagement and conversion rates.
Generally, there are a few key customer persona characteristics to include in your documentation:
Demographic Data
Define each audience personas’ age, gender, income level, occupation, and geographic location. This will allow you to tailor marketing messages in a way that will be relevant to these potential customers and prevent you from spending your budget on campaigns with poor performance.
Online Behavior
Most consumer groups have varying tendencies in online behavior. For example, different age groups populate different social networks. They prefer different content formats. And some generations even have specific preferences regarding how they want to interact with branded content.
Gen Z, for instance, prefers community-driven marketing content. That’s why many businesses vying for their attention heavily invest in sourcing user-generated content that is effective at building brand-consumer relationships.
Psychographic Information
Today’s consumers base their shopping behavior on their interests, beliefs, and values. For example, more than 80% of people are willing to pay more for sustainable products.
Identifying and understanding these sets of beliefs can be hugely beneficial in allowing you to develop a successful content marketing strategy. Plus, it can benefit your product development process — especially when trying to break into new or competitive markets.
This tactic makes it possible to produce tailored content. This is essential, as 71% of consumers expect personalization, and 76% become frustrated when brands fail to deliver it.
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If there’s one irreplaceable document you need in your content strategy, it has got to be a content calendar.
As an organizational method that ensures you’re publishing resources consistently and in a logical order, an editorial calendar can hugely contribute to positive content marketing outcomes.
Even more, when combined with audience insights, a content calendar can reveal ideal distribution channels, posting times, and content formats, helping you get the biggest bang for your buck from your marketing efforts.
Another benefit of having a content calendar to consult during the production and distribution process is that it can help you predict and keep up with seasonal trends.
For instance, when publishing blog posts that get seasonal upticks in consumer interest — like the Best Gifts for Dads from Men’s Health — it’s not just important that they’re online when that uptick in interest happens. Even more importantly, it’s essential that they target the right search terms and even show publication and update dates so that readers know they’re relevant at the time of reading.
A content calendar can help you predict these periods of intensified consumer interest and give you enough time (along with some guidelines) to prepare in the best way possible.
Visual Style, Brand Voice, and Tone Guides
Consistency is key in content marketing. If you want to invest in content that can boost brand awareness, elevate trust, and build relationships with your prospects, you need to ensure your content adheres to a predetermined set of guidelines.
On the one hand, these guidelines need to align with your branding strategy. However, it’s also important that they resonate with your target audience’s preferences and reflect your brand’s unique value proposition.
Style guides are a content strategy deliverable that can make it easy for your team to remain true to your brand’s visual identity, voice, and tone.
Furthermore, if your business outsources any aspect of its digital marketing activity — from content creation to video editing to social media management — this document will be one of the keys to staying true to your brand messaging.
It’s also worth noting that this document will be irreplaceable during the editorial process. It will provide your marketing team with a set of rules on how to format for accessibility and readability.
Moreover, you can include any necessary distribution channel protocols in this deliverable — especially if your brand does something similar to Wendy’s. This brand clearly uses different approaches on Instagram vs. X, with the former being more commonly used to publish commercial messaging, while the latter serves the purpose of community building and sparking conversations.
Key Performance Indicators
Lastly, a well-developed content marketing strategy requires a well-thought-out system that makes it possible to measure and analyze performance.
By defining and including relevant metrics (like engagement rates, traffic, and conversion rates) in your deliverables, as well as specifying what tools you use to study content performance, you can collect data on your digital marketing activity’s effectiveness and make informed decisions for optimizing performance.
Final Thoughts: Utilizing Content Strategy Deliverables to Achieve Your Business Goals
Although you might be confident in your content marketing plan and don’t feel like you need to produce any deliverables, the time may come when these make or break your attempts to boost brand awareness or engage your target audience.
Even more importantly, these documents are crucial for teams that involve multiple content creators or editors. And they’re an irreplaceable part of a cohesive content strategy for brands that publish guest posts on their blogs.
Finally, if your business goals include expansion or a sale exit, you will need these deliverables to guarantee a smooth transition.
Producing (and regularly updating) these documents may not be your top priority — especially if you’re performing multiple jobs within your small business.
Nonetheless, having them on hand is the best way to guarantee a cohesive marketing plan. It’s also a great way to elevate your content’s quality and to make it easier to bring on collaborators once the moment is right.
When trying to put in place a content strategy, even if you have a pretty good idea of what you need to do, an already completed content strategy example would be very helpful.
To give you a hand, I have created such an example using my simplified content strategy template.
By the end of this article, you will be able to create the content strategy for your business with little or no help.
The foundation for the content strategy exemplified will be my content strategy framework which includes all the details for a results-driven strategy.
Click here to download the strategy template or complete the form below.
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Now that you already have the skeleton – the strategy template, let’s put some “clothes” on.
The content strategy is practically a framework that comprises processes, topics, and standards to support your business in planning, executing, and publishing your content.
It’s a blueprint that organizes and manages the teams involved in content marketing activities: content managers, SEO specialists, writers, designers, editors, video producers, analysts, project managers, etc.
Content strategy’s main purpose is to have all the stakeholders on the same page and working toward the same goal.
Your strategy has to be adaptable and your team flexible and agile. In our laser speed era, changes appear in a cascade and it happens often that the situation foretold this month will have very little connection with reality within a couple of months.
No need to reinstate why you need a strategy content. It’s vital if you want to reach your goals in an efficient manner.
When looking to arrive from place A to place B, you use a GPS app. The same situation applies to your business. To reach your goals a clear path is needed, and that’s the strategy.
If still in doubt, check on statistics, organized marketers have higher chances to reach success – by far – like 674% more chances.
Let’s build an example of content strategy for the following business – you are a content marketing agency and you want to create a content strategy for your business. You provide your clients with content strategy services, SEO services, and social media services.
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Content Strategy Example: Create Your Mission Statement
The template starts with the basics: the mission of your company, tailored for the content needs.
The mission is the engagement your company assumes in front of its audience and clients.
From this statement, you can establish the starting point of your content strategy.
The statement might look like this:
[Company] has the principal mission to deliver for our clients [service/product 1] and [service/product 2] via [task one] and [task two].
Example:
Caribbean Experiences exists to provide its customers, passionate travelers, with stellar accommodations and Caribbean-flavored experiences through a network of great beach properties and organized tours.
Define the Components of Your Content Marketing Team and the Associated Tasks
The starting point in the content strategy process is to create a team that will work to define, implement and accomplish it. Who will work and what exactly will execute?
In general, each team accomplishes more or less similar roles, and these are:
Content Manager/Strategist: brainstorms, plans, and decides the content to be created.
Writers: using their writing abilities they create the content.
Proofreaders/Editors: verify and copyedit content to ensure accuracy.
Designers: design visuals (photos, graphics, infographics) according to standards required by the brand.
Distribution Manager: promotes content on established channels.
SEO Specialists: optimize content to rank higher in SERPs and attract more readers and leads.
Content Analysts: analyze content performance and identify which content brings expected results and which does not.
Take into consideration that a person may have multiple roles, or a team member may perform tasks that do not match exactly with their title.
I don’t want to see you running quicker than Usain Bolt from this task, so see below the task completed.
Social media is a significant part of any marketing strategy and, as such, of a content strategy. And is also a very time-consuming activity, that’s why using tools that help you automate part of the process is very convenient.
There are many options for social media schedulers, so you have to choose one that best suits your needs. Prominent solutions are:
SproutSocial
Hootsuite
Buffer
Tailwind
SEO Apps
To help your content rank in search engines and be found, you also need some SEO tools to identify the most reliable keywords, audit your site, measure performance, research competition, etc.
Some of the best tools for SEO today are:
Ahrefs
Semrush
Moz
Marketing Project Management Tools
Managing a content marketing team can be an overwhelming task. And project management tools help to put the order in “chaos”.
Relevant options are:
• Asana • Trello • Wrike • Slack
Content Strategy Example: Content Audit
If your business is not new and has some content marketing activities done, before creating a content strategy for the following period, a content audit is needed.
• Make an inventory of the existing content. What content is already published, where, and what is its format? Create a list with data like the permalink of the article, author, date of publication, number of words, last update, main keyword, page, views, impressions, authority, place in SERPs, etc.
• Audit your content from a qualitative point of view. Answer questions like What articles are the most performant as traffic generators? What is their bounce rate? How about dwell time? Is the published content converting as per the established targets? Investigate and find the answers to such questions.
• Identify content gaps and topics not yet covered.
• Competitors analysis. Check on what content marketing activities develops your competition and what results it gets.
Content Marketing Goals
The guiding line of your content strategy is the goals that your business needs to achieve via its marketing activities. Such business goals are established by the business owners, shareholders, or top management of the organization.
Examples of such goals are:
• Create/increase brand awareness.
• Raise the traffic of your website by x%. Either via SEO – organic traffic and results will take a bit longer to appear. Or via ads – paid traffic, results appear quicker but need a higher budget.
• Boost conversions by x% for your offers.
• Establish your business as a leader/expert in your niche.
Based on these general business goals, the goals for content marketing will be established.
Be aware to define S.M.A.R.T. goals:
Specific: Indicate exactly and clearly what you need to accomplish.
Measurable: an exact level, number, or milestone to define them
Attainable: realistic and approachable
Relevant: goals to be meaningful for your business
Timely: exact deadline in time
Example of SMART goals:
The [company]’s team responsible for X activity will attain [metric] by [interval].
Eagle Advertising’s team responsible for content marketing will attain 6.000 monthly visitors to our website by April 30, 2023
Audience Research and Buyer Persona Creation
Who do you want to reach? Who’s your ideal customer?
Your content marketing efficiency is expressed by the audience, leads, and sales it attracts. If your content generates thousands of views, but only a very small fraction are potential leads who buy your product/services, your content’s efficiency needs heavy improvements.
Identifying your target audience will enable your content strategists to nail what topics, subtopics, and keywords should be covered by your strategy. What your audience wants to know and what are her challenges/problems?
Correctly identify the characteristics of your target audience:
Demographics: gender, age, income, job title, geolocation, etc.
Psychographics: interests, hobbies, beliefs, habits, etc.
Problems: What is the issue that would determine them to look for a product/service like yours?
Pain points: What issues are resolved by your product/services? What is the cause of your audience’s problems?
Where are they scouring for data and information?
What’s their favorite type of content?
In what ways can your content be beneficial to them?
You might have multiple buyer persona profiles, therefore, modify the template as per your needs.
To obtain these details regarding your buyer persona, you can:
• Refer to your Audience section in Google Analytics if you have an existing audience.
• Conduct a survey using tools such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms to gather relevant data.
Content Strategy Example: Identify the Content Pillars and the Associated Topics
This is the foundation of your content creation efforts. The content that you produce must pertain to the products or services you offer and address the inquiries, requirements, challenges, and difficulties of your audience in relation to them.
For our content marketing agency example, for its SEO services, the content pillars may be:
– SEO audit
– Off-Page SEO
– On-Page SEO
– Increasing traffic
– Technical audit
– Ranking Algorithms
Each pillar will have topics and types of content assigned.
For example, a pillar called “Off-Page SEO” may include topics like:
– Outreach strategies to get backlinks
– How to guest post with maximum success
– Skyscraper strategy
– How to create infographics
What Type of Content to Create?
There are numerous forms of content that you can utilize to captivate your audience.
Content marketing is a vast field that extends beyond conventional blog posts, despite being its cornerstone.
What are the most common types of content?
Articles/Blog Posts
Case Studies
Videos
Infographics
eBooks
Reports
Webinars
Guides
Social Media Content
White Papers
Newsletters
Identify your audience’s preferences and choose the right types of content to create accordingly.
Choose Which Will Be the Voice and Tone of Your Brand
Defining the voice and tone that will be used throughout all your content marketing is important for consistency and coherence.
The voice of your brand is an expression of the personality outlined by your brand. Your brand’s tone represents the manner that you use to express things, to speak.
To profile your voice, choose a couple of adjectives to outline your brand personality.
You could choose: humorous, laid back, original or intelligent, influential, respectable. It’s up to you to decide according to your preferences and purposes.
Also, include writing guidelines. Your online content should be formatted for readability, skimmable, with short paragraphs, headings, bullet points, and visuals.
Create Design Standards
It is essential to establish design principles and standards to provide guidance to your designers when developing visual content for your brand.
Listed below are the fundamental visual design elements that the marketing team should take note of:
Choice of typography
Brand color palette
Logo specifications
Image styles and guidelines
Layout and composition rules
Iconography and graphics standards
Key Pillars of Content
The pillars of content indicated above are to be organized and scheduled based on the corresponding campaigns that are scheduled for that period.
Content creation flow example
Generally, the content creation process encompasses all stages until the content is handed over to editors and designers.
The content execution process involves the creation and editorial processes, with a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities, order of tasks, and deadlines. The people involved in this phase may include content managers, writers, editors, designers, and SEO specialists.
Example of content creation flow:
Topic brainstorming – 2-3 days
Setting the publication date and populating the publishing calendar – 1 day
Researching resources on the topic – 1 day
Conducting interviews or gathering data – 3-7 days
Researching and determining the Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords to be used for the topic – 1 day
Creating the content structure – outline – 2 days
Reviewing and approving the outline – 1 day
Producing the initial draft of the content – 2-3 days, depending on the length
Revising, editing, and proofreading the draft – 1-4 days, depending on the type of content
Consider the duration of this process when setting the start date for writing each piece of content based on the publication date.
After the content is created, it proceeds through the editorial process.
The editorial process involves organizing the steps involved in preparing the content for publication, the publishing itself, and analyzing the results.
Editorial process flow example
Content editing: 1-4 days
Requesting revisions from writers (if necessary): 1-2 days
Content design and graphics: 1-5 days
Approving the design: 1 day
SEO optimizing the content: 2-4 days
Publishing the content: 1 day
Setting up the promotion campaign: 2-4 days
Approving and executing the promotion campaign according to the strategy
Analyzing the post-publication results.
Make sure to factor in the length of this process when scheduling the writing process for each piece of content based on the publication date.
Publishing Cadence
Now that you have the content execution process established, the next obvious step is to organize the publishing cadence and schedule. Meaning what type of content gets published, when, and how often.
The publishing cadence might be something like this:
1 article/blog post a week – 2000 words +
a case study monthly
1 infographic monthly
an ebook each 4 months
one lead magnet each quarter
Editorial Calendar
Once your content is published, the content execution process is complete. Content calendars are crucial for organizing tasks efficiently among team members.
Your content calendar should include the following details for each content type you plan to create:
Title of the piece of content/article
Scheduled publication date
Content pillar it belongs to
Stage of the buyer journey
Content format
Distribution channels – where the content will be promoted.
Determining the appropriate channels to promote your content is a crucial task. It is essential to consider being present on the same social platforms as your target audience.
Your primary channel should be your website, which serves as your primary platform and asset.
The second important channel is your email list. It is often emphasized that the email list is the most valuable asset of a business in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.
Social media is a collection of platforms where you should have a presence and promote your content. Select and concentrate only on social media networks where your ideal customer is active.
Choose wisely, based on analytics. I recommend focusing on no more than 2-3 channels to maintain a strong presence.
Identify additional channels to bolster your outreach strategy, such as guest posting. Develop a roster of influencers in your industry or related industries to approach about guest posting on their websites.
Once the social media channels are decided, the following step is to create a plan and schedule to promote your content.
Each piece of content will religiously respect this schedule.
Free Distribution Plan
For the free distribution of your content, you need to complete:
the promotional channels where your content will be published, aka Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc
frequency of publishing
the objective of the page, where appropriate
who is the targeted buyer persona
what do you want your reader to do – for instance, subscribe to a webinar, download a freebie, etc
select the performance indicators that will indicate your results.
A promotion schedule on social media channels might look like this:
Day of publishing:
One Pin on Pinterest
One Facebook post
1 Instagram post
Three Twitter posts
One week after publishing:
1 LinkedIn repost
Two Twits three days a week
One Medium repost
One Pin daily on group boards
Following weeks till one month after publishing:
One LinkedIn repost after one month of publishing
Two Tweets three days of a week, four weeks after publishing
1 repost weekly on Facebook
One Pin daily for one month in group boards and own relevant boards
Paid Distribution Plan
Similar to your free distribution plan you should have a paid distribution plan.
For your paid distribution you might take into consideration:
Native advertising
Influencer marketing
Paid social media promotion
Measure KPIs and Results
Measuring the success and effectiveness of marketing content is a significant challenge for marketers.
It is important to not only identify the appropriate metrics but also interpret them correctly. For instance, the impact of the bounce rate on the success of your content and whether page views are a significant indicator of success are subject to debate.
Below are some metrics that marketers should consider when measuring the success of their content:
Pageviews: A high number of page views suggests that the right audience has been attracted to the content and products.
Time on page: The longer a visitor spends on a page, the more useful they found the content.
Social shares: The more a piece of content is shared on social media, the more successful it is perceived to be.
Bounce rate: A low bounce rate indicates that the audience is interested in the content, whereas a high bounce rate suggests that the audience was not engaged.
Once the appropriate metrics have been selected, marketers need to determine how frequently they will generate reports and create templates for these reports.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
To measure your progress and success you need to establish some indicators to guide you on whether you are on the right path or not. These are specific metrics relevant to your goals.
KPIs are different for each business, depending on the services or products they provide and on their targeted goals.
The most common KPIs are:
Number of new customers or users for the planned period
Total revenue
Unique or total views/impressions
Number of subscribers to the newsletter
Number of content shares
Remember your KPIs should match your goals.
Metrics and Content Analytics
After deciding on KPIs, it’s time to establish the metrics that are relevant for you and that you need to constantly review. To avoid any confusion, keep in mind that all KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are considered KPIs. Meaning a metric that is considered KPI for one business for one might be irrelevant.
At this point, you should simply translate the goals you set, into measurable metrics related to your KPIs:
Reach X views per month on the blog.
Generate $X in revenue.
Gain X new followers on X social media channels.
Add X new subscribers to the email list each month.
Reach X number of shares per post per month.
Always keep an eye on the performance of your content.
Check regularly Google Analytics or Analytics sections of social media channels to observe the evolution of your content results. Optimize and adjust accordingly.
You are just about to complete your content marketing strategy. The final step is the budget!
To correctly forecast the costs of producing and distributing your content (except the tools that you pay monthly or yearly) check the offers you have from the contractors you work with or the hourly rate for your in-house employees.
For content writing, take the editorial calendar and see how many words you need to create monthly, and then multiply the result by the cost per word.
Let’s say you need the first month of 12,500 words written for all the content types, you have an average cost of $0.3 per word, which would be $3,750 total cost with content writing for the respective month. Add the cost for each month and you obtain the total cost for the year.
Finally, after following the content strategy example you have your content strategy created and documented. If you feel you still need help with your content strategy framework, consider hiring an expert.
FAQs
How do you document a content strategy?
To document a content strategy you have to write down and follow all the following steps of a content strategy: * Define your mission, * Establish your team, * Decide your marketing toolbox, * Audit your content, * Set your content marketing goals, * Define your buyer persona * Determine your pillars of content and topics * Create an editorial calendar and flow * Decide on content distribution channels and craft a distribution plan * Establish KPIs and measure the results * Set a content strategy budget
What is the content strategy process?
The content strategy process is the concert activity of documenting a content strategy with all its components: strategy goals, content audit, buyer personas, pillars of content, editorial calendar and flow, content distribution plan, KPIs and results measurement, budget, content marketing team, and toolbox.
What is a website content strategy?
A website content strategy is the part of the content strategy that refers strictly to the website of a company. Taking into consideration that all the content created via a strategy will be first published on the website, this is its core part. It refers in principal to the pillars of content and topics published. And may include blogs, articles, how-tos, infographics, case studies, videos, and white papers, among others.
Want more relevant organic traffic? Put in place an SEO content strategy to help you achieve that!
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What Is SEO Content Strategy?
SEO content strategy is the core part of a powerful content strategy and practically decides what topics to write about, how to write them, and how to optimize them in order to rank in search engine results pages and attract organic traffic.
It includes all the tactics applied from identifying the content pillar topics and target keywords to creating content briefs and procedures of on-page optimization.
The main purpose of the SEO content strategy is to create content that will help the business reach its goals. And to offer guidelines for doing this in an efficient manner.
Having a documented SEO content marketing strategy in place has several consistent benefits:
Keeps content creation organized and inflow
Prioritizes tasks and allocates resources better
Supports attracting more qualified leads into your sales funnel and ultimately improves the chances of converting more leads to paying customers
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How to Create an Effective Google SEO Content Strategy?
Since Google gathers more than 90% of the search requests, it is pertinent to say that businesses looking to rank organically have to optimize for Google search.
Creating an effective SEO content strategy may be a daunting task but it will ease the operations and execution of content down the line. Thus, it is preferable to craft it from the very beginning, then have to correct and clean up after that.
SEO content strategy is an extension of the content strategy and will be built on its canvas.
Here are the detailed steps of the SEO content strategy:
Consider Each Buyer Persona and Their Buyer Journey
Even if we are discussing the content strategy from an SEO point of view, one cannot discard the fact that first and foremost you create content for your buyer persona. You need to answer its pain points, questions, and interests concerning your offer.
Your buyer personas and their associated buyer journeys were already created and established by your content strategy. As such, now you just have to transfer them to the SEO content strategy and keep them in mind when completing the subsequent steps.
Primarily you should have a clear understanding of what’s your business offer, what its goals are, why would a potential client choose your company instead of the competition, and who’s your target audience.
SEO Content Audit
Unless you are a brand new company or haven’t yet dug into content marketing, you have already published content. And you need to audit it from an SEO perspective and have a clear picture of its quality and performance in the general framework of your content strategy.
A content audit was most probably executed within your content strategy. So, now you have to take the list with the articles and pages of the site and review them taking into consideration the on-page SEO best practices.
You should verify at least the following:
Topic and its importance for the topical authority
Main keyword, LSIs, and PAA questions
Search intent for the main keyword
Content format and length
Content structure
Permalink
Keyword insertion
Images, graphics, and visuals
List all the improvements and updates that are needed and establish their priority in the function of the performance of the page and its importance for the topical authority.
The Output of the Competitor Analysis
Keeping a close eye on the competition can offer your business an edge. It’s a task that should be executed at least quarterly. Hence, the reality is quite different. Research sustains that 40% of B2C content marketers only check out their competitors yearly, if ever.
An SEO content strategy is incomplete without researching in detail what is your direct competition doing. Identify your direct competitors and check their content strategy, see what keywords they rank for, what are their most performant posts, etc.
Getting inspired by your competitors will offer some valuable insights into what is working in your niche in terms of content.
To research your competition you need an SEO and keyword research tool like Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush, or similar. Check for each competitor KPIs like:
Domain authority (DR)
Number of organic keywords
Number of organic keywords in the top 3
Monthly organic traffic
Linking domains
Organic traffic value
Source: Semrush
Competitors analysis can provide you with valuable content ideas, topics that you are missing, backlinks that you are missing, among others.
Metrics Setup
SEO and Marketing managers will be interested in calculating the ROI of SEO activities. And which specific activities bring the most revenue. To be able to determine that, you need to establish and monitor the key performance indicators that are relevant to your business in the next period.
The most used KPIs are:
Organic traffic
Dwelling time
Number of organic keywords
Content pieces published
Backlinks acquired
Number of featured snippets
Subscribers
Leads
Conversions
You should be tracking your metrics at least quarterly if not monthly.
Topical Authority Should Be the Foundation of Your SEO Content Strategy
In SEO, topical authority refers to how many topics and to what extent a site covers relative to a certain topic.
For example, if you have dozens of articles published on the subject of “content strategy” and its subtopics, Google will consider you an authority on that topic. And the more semantically related keywords you cover, the more authority your site gains.
To identify all the subtopics that will help you build authority on a given topic, you have to use Google and/or a keyword research tool. And filter all the related keywords and all the semantically related ones pertinent to your topic and business.
Creating SEO content strategy based on topical authority is a laborious process, but it’s a useful methodology if you want to pop up in SERPs.
Based on Your Product/Services Identify the Key Content Pillars
Knowing what are your services/products, who’s your buyer persona, and what are your content marketing goals you can start searching for keywords and content topics.
Conduct a keyword research and identify keywords that have:
Business potential
Ranking perspective
Organic traffic potential
Start by searching in Google for the term you are most interested in ranking. Use a broad term. After that check the search suggestions, PAA (People Also Ask), and related searches for the first 10-15 pages. Filter just the topics that are relevant to your business.
For example, if you offer content strategy services, you will search for “content strategy”. Additionally, you can do this in a keyword research tool like Ahrefs or SurferSEO. This will be the basis of your SEO content strategy.
Once you have this list with keywords you have to group them into topics clusters. In a tool like SurferSEO, the topics will look like this:
You don’t necessarily need a tool to do this, you can do it manually, but it will save you time.
When you have these clusters defined, prioritize them in the order of their importance for your clients, for your business, and from an SEO KPIs point of view. You also have to consider the difficulty for each keyword, the search volume, and CPC.
Your top priority is the money-generating pages, those need to be first created, fully optimized, and hopefully rank.
Then choose the topics for which you want to be an authority in your niche. And second, those for which you can rank the easiest, meaning the so-called “low-hanging fruits”. Those who need the least resources and have the greatest chance of bringing traffic and leads.
Bear in mind that your expertise and your main purpose should be the core of your content creation strategy.
Next, for each cluster brainstorm a corresponding topic. Each topic should cover and solve a buyer persona’s problem, should have a unique angle if possible, or a different approach from your competition.
Having a strong SEO content marketing strategy based on topical authority in place has a compounding effect. The more content you produce to build authority, you will rank for more keywords and your domain authority will increase and will be able to rank for keywords with higher difficulty.
Pay Attention to Search Intent
When using keywords to produce optimized content, you should also take into consideration the search intent behind that search. Meaning what the user is looking for.
Google’s supreme purpose is to offer its users what they want, in the fastest possible manner. It knows what users expect to find when making a certain query.
For example, when people are looking for “how to make pizza” Google knows they are looking for a recipe. Or when looking at “how to create a GIF”, users expect to find a how-to guide.
By figuring out the search intent you are in a better position to create more relevant content.
Thus, Google will guide you regarding the search intent behind each keyword from your list. Search each keyword on Google and identify
The type of content you need to create – blog post, product page, video, etc.
Content format – how-to, list, recipe, reviews, etc.
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Write Search-Focused and Qualitative Content
The SEO content strategy has the purpose to equip your business with the best chances of attracting relevant organic traffic that will buy your services/products.
As a consequence, you have to produce high-quality content – meaning content that your audience finds useful, solves her problems, and drives her to consider your services.
And also search-focused content – in other words, content that is created for the correct search intent and is optimized via current on-page SEO best practices.
To create optimized and high-quality content you need first to draft content briefs and implement correct on-page SEO procedures.
Draft Content Briefs for Your Writers
If you want to create content smoothly, without many revisions and supplementary rewriting activities, creating detailed briefs is a must.
An SEO content brief includes the necessary instructions for the writer to write a correctly optimized article, with the right structure and keywords. Clear instructions and guidelines to follow. Thus offering the article the best possible chances to rank in SERPs.
In a content brief, the following information should be included:
Title
Summary, search intent, and angle
Target keywords
Target buyer persona and stage of the buyer journey
Tone and voice
Structure of the article (H2 headings)
Resources
NLP words
Lengths of the article in words
Deadline
You can create the briefs manually (still the best way in my view) or use a brief generation tool. There are countless tools out there ready to generate your briefs, but all of them need manual reviewing and corrections.
You can view below a sample content brief generated via SurferSeo.
Define On-Page SEO Best Practices to Be Implemented in Each Piece of Content
On-Page SEO is the foundation of SEO, it’s compulsory if one wants his articles to rank and it’s an SEO task under your control.
On-Page SEO is a must-have, as most businesses already implement it. Implementing current on-page best practices right from the writing phase will spare future efforts of rewriting and optimization.
When Creating Content Consider the E-E-A-T Principles
Google clearly stated that a core part of its metrics revolves around E-E-A-T (Experience – Expertise – Authoritativeness -Trustworthiness). In other words, they are emphasizing the quality of the content delivered to the user.
The content produced should prove that the business has first-hand experience and expertise on the topic to be granted higher chances of ranking.
Each site will be evaluated for a certain topic based on the E-E-A-T template. It is also done for each query and for each result.
Consequently, you have to produce content for your target audience while positioning your business as an authority in your niche. And build trust.
Pay Close Attention to Your Internal Links Architecture
Internal linking structure is important for your users and search engines alike. First, your users should be able to find their way and navigate with ease your site to get the information they need. And second, search engines should be able to crawl your site and find all the published content.
Plus, search engines should be able to identify which are the most important pages for your business, the ones that you want to rank for, and the supporting pages for the latter. In addition, a pertinent anchor text will indicate to Google what keywords you are looking to rank for.
Your site’s internal linking structure is like a map with main roads and secondary streets. All connecting with each other in some way. This internal links architecture is important as the link juice is redirected from performant pages to those needing supplementary support.
Internal links play an important role in SERP ranking.
Perform SEO Content Audits Regularly
To continuously improve your site rankings you have to keep an eye on your most important keywords. Track them with a keyword research tool to help you identify ranking improvement opportunities.
It’s not enough to write and publish qualitative content. You have to perform audits, update it and review it periodically.
There are several reasons to do that. It might happen that your content doesn’t rank or it loses rankings. Or search intent changes. Or content gets outdated.
Search engine algorithm updates are frequent and SERPs are dynamic, they change continuously.
When executing an SEO content audit you have to check on the following:
What is the situation of your traffic? Is It growing, stalling, or decreasing?
Which are the most performing pages? Which drive the most traffic? How about conversions?
Which pages do you need to rank and they actually don’t rank for the right keyword?
What can you do to improve the rankings?
Based on this information you can adjust your future plans. Prioritize performing pages, update those that are less performant following the model of those that bring the most results, etc.
Keep an Eye on Google Algorithm Updates
There is no news that Google updates its algorithm several times a year (core updates). Even if minor updates might not impact your rankings, core updates may at times have a significant impact.
Consequently, you have to keep updated about what future algorithm updates require to maintain the performance of your content and site.
Conclusion
A date-based and successful SEO content strategy is an absolute must if you want to attract organic traffic in a more complicated and crowded environment. Plus, the challenges brought by the newly developed AI technology. Following the above-mentioned steps and keeping yourself updated will help solve future challenges.
The top 5 SEO strategies may be considered the following: High-Quality Content Creation Topical Authority On-Page SEO Off-Page SEO Technical SEO
What is an SEO content plan?
An SEO content plan is a document that clearly defines what content will be created, what keywords will be targeted, guidelines for content creation, and on-page optimization. All these have the purpose of reaching the business goals.
Is SEO a content marketing strategy?
SEO is a core part of a content marketing strategy. SEO doesn’t exist on its own without a content strategy.
What is the key to SEO?
The key to successful SEO is clearly defining your business goals and defining and implementing an SEO content strategy to show you how to reach those goals.
How to integrate SEO into your content?
To integrate SEO into your content, you should put in place an SEO content strategy to define the keywords to rank for, the topics to write about, and the guidelines for on-page SEO optimization.
Is SEO part of content strategy?
Yes, SEO is a core part of the content strategy.
What is the core of content strategy?
The core part of a content strategy is creating content that is considered useful by the buyer persona and is optimized to rank in search engines. Its mission is the help reach the business’s goals.
What are the 3 C’s of SEO?
The 3 C’s of SEO may be considered content, credibility, and conversion.
Can meta description be the same as content?
The meta description is not the same as the content. It is a brief summary of a page and is an HTML element.
Successful companies are always sustained by strong lead-generation strategies and tactics. A booming industry such as Software as a Service (SaaS), expected to reach over $716 billion by 2028, will need the best SaaS lead generation strategies to fuel its staggering growth.
In our informational era, customers have easy access to all the data they need to make informed decisions. Research from Forrester explains that the customer journey is self-directed in a proportion that may vary between 66% and 90%.
Thus, the SaaS lead generation mission is to find the right customer, no matter where it is in its journey, and offer him the right content while educating and demonstrating how your software can help solve his problems. In other words, it has to find the ideal client and convince him to buy your software service/product.
Before establishing which SaaS lead generation strategies are the best for your business, you have to decide on a few fundamental aspects:
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For the success of your campaigns, it’s vital to correctly define your perfect market. Who is your ideal client, what’s his business, in which niche, which are his needs, which are his interests, which are his main pain points, which are his buying behavior, etc
SaaS companies usually have more than one buyer persona depending on their product/service offer.
What criteria should a lead meet?
Set scoring parameters to be able to quickly identify the qualified leads and renounce the others that are less lucrative. Concentrating the efforts only on qualified leads saves time and streamlines your lead generation activity.
Each company sets its own criteria considering its offer, goals, and strategies. For example, if your SaaS is dedicated to large companies with international operations, there is no point in contacting a national medium-level business.
Which are your lead generation goals?
Set clear, realistic, and measurable goals for your lead generation campaigns. Since SaaS is a data-driven industry by excellence, it’s obvious that SaaS marketing efforts should be heavily based on data.
Consider KPIs like site traffic, click-through rates, traffic-to-lead ratio, conversion rates, marketing qualified leads (MQLs), sales qualified leads (SQLs), cost per lead, etc. Track your KPIs evolution to know if your strategy brings the desired results or if you need to adjust it.
What tools do you need for lead generation?
B2B SaaS lead generation strategies and SaaS lead generation in general, need several tools for successful implementation and partially automate some tasks. Such tools might be:
Marketing planning system to manage all marketing campaigns, from content production to ads and promotion.
Landing page builder to help create pages that elevate the user experience and maximize conversions.
Software to manage payments – most often subscriptions.
Email marketing app for lead nurturing.
Conversion rate optimization app for split test and optimization.
Live chat software that allows instant interaction with site visitors.
Obviously, different strategies will have different results for various businesses. You just have to pick those that bring the best results for your own business, in your particular market and context.
Top Saas lead generation strategy: Put in place a site optimized for conversion and search engines (SEO)
Optimize for search all the pages of your site, landing pages included, for the keywords that you want to rank for in search engines.
Consider optimizing for the keywords used by potential clients when searching for a SaaS company like the one you have. Also, take into consideration the keywords related to the problems that your app solves. Keep in mind that people are looking to solve their problems and are tirelessly looking for the right solutions.
Organic traffic, when the SEO strategy is executed correctly, can be a great source of leads and is by far more cost-effective than paid traffic. It’s an opportunity small SaaS companies still have at their disposal if they don’t have massive advertising budgets to generate traffic.
Conceive your site pages with user experience and conversion in mind. Follow a logical flow, insert catchy call-to-actions, and lead magnets that attract the attention of your audience. And highlight the steps needed for the visitors to take action.
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Stay up to date with technical SEO and eliminate conversion barriers
The latest Google algorithm updates pay more attention to parameters like sites’ speed and mobile-friendliness. Thus, they have a heavier impact on search engine rankings.
Ensure that your site has a good loading speed, that’s usually under five seconds on a slow connection (3G) upon Google’s recommendation. Nowadays, users have little patience (under three seconds) with sites that are slow and bounce.
Research from Unbounce reveals that the conversion rate decreases by 12% for each supplementary second that your page needs for loading. Most landing pages do not have an acceptable loading speed. And even if marketers are aware of that, most of them do not treat it as a priority.
With the proliferation of mobile phones and features that allow users to surf the web, having a mobile-friendly site is a must. Thus, your site’s content has to adapt to the dimension of the device used. You can either hire a developer to make your site mobile friendly or upgrade to a theme that adjusts automatically.
Identify the elements that hurt your conversion funnel. Such barriers may be complicated forms, slow pages, onboarding problems, too many steps in the conversion process, UX issues, CTAs that don’t convert, etc.
Choose the right pricing model for your SaaS business
The pricing strategy is of paramount importance to attract leads and clients. Today, most SaaS companies work with monthly price subscription models and have elaborated pricing structures tailored for multiple buyer personas.
Some of the most used pricing strategies by software companies are:
Tiered pricing strategy – several pricing plans with different price levels considering factors like usage, features, etc.
Feature-based pricing strategy – usually three types of plans with different prices based on the features included.
Pricing strategy based on usage – a tiered system with price levels based on usage criteria – for example, number of subscribers, storage space, etc.
Pay-as-you-grow pricing strategy – a pricing system that considers the business size and provides upgrades as the business evolves.
Pay-per-user pricing strategy – a pricing model that takes into consideration the number of users needed.
Freemium pricing strategy – a free plan, usually providing a product/service with basic features and paid add-ons that can be added as needed.
One-time fee pricing strategy – a fixed fee is paid for the lifetime usage of a product as it is at the moment of purchase without future upgrades.
Each SaaS business will probably test several pricing strategies until identifying the one that works best for it.
Here is an example of a pay-as-you-grow pricing strategy combined with usage. Convertkit proposes three plans, and the price grows with the number of subscribers the client has in his database.
For most marketers, content marketing and SEO are two of the most successful lead-generation strategies for software companies. Some may consider them as separate strategies, but the reality is that they deliver the best results when done together.
According to a study made by mikesonders.com on a sample of the 50 most important SaaS businesses in the U.S., organic search is the major source of traffic and leads. It counts for up to 77% of their traffic. And on average it contributes 26.4%.
Creating useful content that is relevant to your ideal client and simultaneously optimizing it for search engines, is a winning strategy and a powerhouse for SaaS lead generation. A sort of gold mine.
Content marketing is a long-term game, you have to publish quality content, in a consistent manner to obtain the desired results. Meaning organic traffic and qualified leads for your business.
This is a long-term strategy, it takes time to bring results, but once your content ranks the results will be steady for a long period of time as long as you keep up with the search engine updates.
Create content catered to your customers’ needs and pain points, showing how your software application can work out their problems – they will take the time to research, inform themselves and make informed decisions.
Valuable and relevant content gains the trust of your audience and the status of an expert in your industry.
Create videos that present your SaaS product/service and its features.
Write specific content focused on user intent – what does your visitor want to know?
Match your buyer’s persona questions and needs in terms of knowledge and information with your business’s goals.
Craft content for each stage of the buyer journey, and offer each visitor the information he needs when he needs it.
Format your content for readability and insert visuals to support your text (images, screenshots, infographics).
Craft case studies to explain how your software helps your clients in a particular case.
Build lead magnets based on your best content and add interested visitors to your email list.
Insert clickable pop-ups to attract the visitors’ attention to an action you want them to take.
Repurpose content to make the most out of your content creation efforts and offer your clients the type of content they expect (i.e., merge a couple of blogs to create an ebook, take a blog and write a script for a video or a podcast).
Guest-post on prominent sites within your industry, that have similar audiences, to generate leads.
Email marketing is still a powerful tool for lead generation
There are many reasons why email remains a solid B2B SaaS lead generation strategy. For some SaaS businesses, it is even the main channel for gathering leads and moving them down the marketing funnel.
First of all, the email list is a channel owned by the business, it is composed of persons that have shown some interest in your business, content, product/services, etc.
Then, you have the possibility to segment and personalize your emails and enroll potential leads in personalized nurturing sequences. This approach will facilitate massively the sale process.
Put in place lead nurturing sequences
The huge majority of your site visitors are not ready to buy when they end up on your site. They have a certain interest and if they manifest it, it’s your chance to develop the relationship further and demonstrate you are a reliable provider.
Using lead nurturing sequences is a solid strategy to build credibility and convince potential customers about the benefits of your product/service. All this while increasing the conversion rate.
Engage your site visitors with chatbots
Answering instantly to your site’s visitors’ questions can be a great source of valuable leads. And chatbots can execute this task 24h a day.
Installing a chatbot that responds right away can improve your conversion rate and increase the number of signs up to the newsletter, demo sessions, or free accounts.
Organize webinars for your target audience
Webinars offer a great opportunity to interact directly with your audience and answer their questions and concerns in real time. To build relationships and nurture leads that are in a “decision” phase of their journey and showed interest in your software services.
60% of marketers consider webinars a reliable venue to obtain qualified leads. B2B marketing specialists may generate between 500 and 1000 leads per webinar.
What makes webinars a great tool for SaaS lead generation is the possibility to showcase your expertise and gain the trust of your leads while channeling them to conversion. Plus, it can be a great source for content repurposing.
Provide a free trial to prove the value of your software solution
Your software solution is your business’s best ambassador and has the highest impact on attracting new customers.
In the software world offering a free trial is a common SaaS lead generation strategy. And if your app is up to the challenge and delivers what it promises in a demo, it’s a sure way to win new leads.
Put in place a smooth onboarding process and showcase the full power of your soft during the free trial period. Include the premium features to convince your customer to buy. Conceive workflows generated by the user behavior to show how various functionalities work.
These days B2B journey is mostly self-service. Clients will read your content, the reviews of your software, your case studies, will check on your social media channels, and try a demo. And only after that will consider contacting your sales team.
In case you have a high-ticket service that implies knowing more details about your client’s business, you have the option to propose a personalized demo. Walk the client through the app and present it from the point of view of his pain points.
Generate leads via free tools that present interest to your customers
As a SaaS company, you can choose to capture new leads by creating a small tool that you can offer for free and that your clients find useful. A tool that has some connection with your main product/service.
Such a lead generation tool example is HubSpot’s Website Grader. It is a free tool to evaluate the performance of your site, but you have to give your email address in exchange for the results.
Even if nowadays the inbound strategy prevails when referring to SaaS lead generation strategy, there are cases when outbound strategies still bring the most value. Plus, statistics reveal that 51% of business owners prefer to be contacted by phone by a sales representative, than by other communication venues.
Outbound strategies, meaning reaching clients directly via various channels like LinkedIn, cold calling, and email, are the top lead generation strategies for B2B SaaS companies that have complex, personalized offers and long sales cycles.
For this type of SaaS company, ads are not exactly effective, and inbound might not generate a sustainable flow of leads, as needed. In such cases, using customized outbound brings better results.
Build or hire a SaaS lead generation company, specializing in SaaS, that has deep knowledge regarding the software offer and is able to present it in a personalized way, tailored to the client’s needs. A team able to do proper prospecting according to your buyer persona, identify the ideal potential leads, and set sales appointments.
Customized outbound enables opportunities to build brand awareness, shorten the sales cycles and generate more leads in a cost-effective way.
Profit on online communities to spread the word about your product/service
Another SaaS lead generation strategy that brings interesting results is posting on communities like LinkedIn, Quora, Reddit, etc.
You have to identify the communities where your audience is present, and which are the most common questions and pain points your audience has. And answer them with a detailed response that addresses the respective problem. This way you can insert a link to an article you have on your blog on that topic, and redirect traffic and potential leads to your website.
Pay attention and provide a pertinent answer that solves the issue. And avoid just copy-pasting a link to your website, as the moderators will not approve such answers.
Identify partnerships that can support your SaaS business growth
Build a network of partners to help you spread the word about your SaaS and attract new qualified prospects. You may consider influencer marketing campaigns, guest posting, joint marketing campaigns with complimentary offers, partnerships with review sites (like Capterra, Software Advice, G2, Product Hunt), working with affiliates, etc.
For example, if you have an app that helps build landing pages, you could partner with marketing agencies and marketing experts to recommend your app to their clients. Or you could put in place an affiliate program that rewards with commissions the persons willing to promote your software solution and generate sales.
Building partnerships with SaaS influencers could be a great source of leads. Take into consideration that SaaS influencers don’t look like the typical influencers in other industries. They most likely have large followings on professional avenues like LinkedIn, not on Instagram or TikTok.
Having a recommendation or a feature from a SaaS influencer may generate a huge buzz for your SaaS accompanied by an important number of high-quality leads. A pipeline that will generate results in the long run.
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Exploit the power of referrals and make them work for your SaaS
When speaking about generating leads their quality matters more than their quantity. You may gain a plethora of potential leads, but if they don’t buy or buy and renounce your software solution shortly after that, it won’t help.
The best leads are those who generate constant business and became evangelists for your SaaS by recommending it to their connections. Happy clients are your SaaS’s best ambassadors. Thus, the word of mouth remains one of the strongest lead generation tools.
Potential clients will trust more the opinion of their acquaintances or that of your existing clients than any other marketing approach from your business, be it content, ads, demo, etc. Not to mention referrals convert better and quicker because they already trust your business thanks to the recommendation they received.
Establishing a referral program to reward loyal clients and the leads they referred is often a winning strategy.
Leverage on testimonials and reviews
For SaaS companies, having good reviews on comparison or app aggregators like Capterra or AternativeTo can be extremely lucrative. And a great source of reliable B2B leads.
Today SaaS clients know very well what their needs are and what type of solution they want in terms of features and functionality. They do their research, they test various apps, or they already have a solution that they are not happy with.
And they check these aggregator sites that compare features of various apps and allow clients to choose the best fit.
Even if having good reviews on such sites is a powerful source of leads, your marketing team can use them further to gain even more leads and awareness. Use ratings and reviews on other marketing channels like PPC ads, social media posts, case studies, email sequences, or other campaigns.
Take away
There you have it, a condensed list of the best lead generation strategies proven to be successful today.
Though the SaaS industry experiences exponential growth, it is still a highly competitive arena. That’s why SaaS lead generation strategies implemented can be a game-changer for the future of any SaaS business. Choose wisely, test, keep only the strategies that bring you the best results, and reiterate.
A direct comparison of content strategy vs. content plan is necessary to clearly understand what is the scope of each of them and how to obtain maximum benefits from using them correctly.
What Is a Content Strategy?
Content strategy refers to the strategic approach and framework employed by businesses in developing and managing their content assets. It involves the careful planning, creation, distribution, and analysis of content to meet specific business goals.
Each content strategy takes into account factors such as target audience, brand positioning, and market research to ensure that the content resonates with the buyer persona and achieves desired outcomes.
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A content plan is a tactical roadmap that outlines the specific actions and steps required to execute a content strategy effectively. It provides a detailed schedule and action plan for content creation, distribution, and promotion. The content plan is the core part of a content strategy.
Typically it includes elements such as a content calendar, content types and formats, distribution channels, and strategies for amplifying content reach. It serves as a blueprint for businesses to implement their content strategy in a structured and organized manner.
Importance of Content Strategy vs Content Plan in Digital Marketing
Content strategy:
Provides clear direction, goals, and guidelines
Identifies target audience and tailors content accordingly
Increases brand awareness, engagement, and conversions
Content plan:
Translates strategy into actionable steps
Streamlines content creation and maintains consistency
Content strategy: Considers overall brand messaging and integration across various channels
Content plan: Focuses on channel-specific details and content distribution tactics
Complementary nature of content strategy and content plan
The content strategy and content plan work hand in hand to achieve overall content objectives.
Content strategy sets the foundation and strategic direction, while the content plan translates strategy into actionable steps.
The content strategy is the foundation on which the content plan is built, guiding decisions on the target audience, content themes, and messaging.
Effective execution of the content strategy is the main task of the content plan, providing structure and organization.
Content strategy and content plan are interdependent and mutually reinforcing, with the strategy driving the plan and the plan implementing the strategy.
The Content Strategy Process
Overview of the content strategy process
Research and analysis
Conduct market research, competitor analysis, and audience insights
Identify content gaps, trends, and opportunities
Goal setting and objective definition
Define specific (SMART) goals aligned with overall business objectives
Identify target audience demographics, behaviors, and preferences
Segment the audience based on relevant criteria
Content ideation and creation
Generate creative ideas for content that resonate with the target audience
Develop high-quality, engaging, and valuable content pieces
Content distribution and promotion
Determine the appropriate channels and platforms for content distribution
Plan and execute content promotion strategies to maximize reach and engagement
Measurement and analysis
Track key metrics and performance indicators to assess the effectiveness of the content strategy
Analyze data to gain insights, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions
Case Study/Example of a Successful Content Strategy Implementation:
Company X, a fashion retailer, executed a content strategy with clear actions and measurable outcomes:
Research and analysis:
Action: Conducted market research and analyzed three direct competitors.
Result: Identified content gaps and emerging trends in the fashion industry.
Goal setting and objective definition:
Goals: Increase brand visibility by 30%, increase organic traffic by 20%, and boost conversion rates by 15% in the next year.
Action: Defined these objectives aligned with overall business goals.
Audience identification and segmentation:
Segments: Fashion enthusiasts and trend-conscious individuals.
Action: Identified and segmented the target audience based on demographics and behaviors.
Content ideation and creation:
Action: Developed a mix of content types, including 50 blog articles, 20 style guides, and 100 social media visuals.
Result: Created engaging and relevant content tailored to the target audience’s preferences.
Content distribution and promotion:
Action: Leveraged social media platforms (Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok), collaborated with influencers, and implemented targeted email marketing campaigns.
Result: Reached the target audience effectively through multiple channels.
Measurement and analysis:
Metrics tracked: Website traffic, social media engagement, and sales data.
Action: Monitored the impact of the content strategy and made adjustments based on insights gathered.
Result: Achieved significant growth in brand visibility, increased organic traffic by 35%, and improved sales conversions by 15%.
The comprehensive content strategy process played a pivotal role in guiding the planning, execution, and measurement of Company X’s content initiatives. Through their strategic approach, they achieved measurable success, including substantial brand visibility growth, increased organic traffic, and improved sales conversions.
The Content Plan Development Process
A step-by-step guide to creating a content plan:
Aligning with content strategy objectives
Ensure that the content plan is in line with the goals and objectives defined in the content strategy.
Reflect the strategic direction and messaging of the overall content strategy.
Defining content themes and topics
Identify key themes and topics that align with the target audience’s interests and needs.
Research industry trends and audience preferences to inform content selection.
Mapping content to target audience personas
Understand the different segments within the target audience.
Create content tailored to each persona, addressing their specific pain points and motivations.
Creating a content calendar
Develop a schedule outlining when content will be created, published, and promoted.
Consider factors such as seasonality, events, and campaign launches.
Selecting appropriate content formats
Determine the most effective formats for delivering the content.
Consider the preferences and behaviors of the target audience.
Choosing relevant distribution channels
Identify the channels where the target audience is most active.
Select platforms that align with the content strategy and optimize content reach.
Planning content promotion and amplification strategies
Define strategies for promoting and amplifying the content through various channels.
Explore partnerships, influencer collaborations, and paid advertising opportunities.
Case Study – Example of a Well-Executed Content Plan:
Company Y, an e-commerce platform, successfully implemented a content plan that resulted in significant improvements in engagement and conversions. Here are the clear actions and numbers involved:
Aligned with content strategy objectives:
Objective: Increase user engagement by 25% and drive sales with a 20% conversion rate boost.
Action: Aligned the content plan with these objectives.
Defined content themes and topics:
Identified themes: Product reviews, buying guides, and user-generated content.
Action: Selected these themes to provide value and encourage interaction.
Mapped content to target audience personas:
Segments: Beginners and experienced users.
Action: Developed tailored content addressing their unique needs.
Created a content calendar:
Action: Established a consistent publishing schedule with three blog posts, two videos, and ten social media posts per week.
Result: Maintained audience engagement and met marketing objectives.
Selected appropriate content formats:
Formats used: Blog posts, videos, and social media visuals.
Action: Utilized this mix to cater to diverse audience preferences.
Chose relevant distribution channels:
Platforms targeted: Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) and relevant online communities.
Action: Focused on these platforms to reach the active target audience.
Planned content promotion and amplification strategies:
Strategies implemented: Targeted social media advertising with a budget of $18,000 per month, influencer collaborations, and encouraged user-generated content.
Action: Executed these strategies to amplify reach and engagement.
Through this well-executed content plan, Company Y achieved good results:
Increased engagement by 30% with higher interaction rates on social media platforms.
Boosted sales with a conversion rate increase of 15%.
Maintained a consistent publishing schedule resulting in improved brand visibility.
Utilized diverse content formats to cater to audience preferences effectively.
Targeted active distribution channels for maximum reach.
Amplified reach and engagement through strategic promotion tactics.
Integration and Optimization
Importance of integrating content strategy vs. content plan
Aligns efforts towards a unified vision and objectives.
Ensures consistency in messaging and brand positioning.
Maximizes the effectiveness of content initiatives.
Continuous optimization of content strategy and content plan
Monitoring and analyzing content performance
Regularly track key metrics such as engagement, conversions, and audience feedback.
Evaluate the success of content initiatives based on predefined goals.
Making data-driven adjustments
Identify areas for improvement based on performance data and analytics.
Optimize content elements, such as headlines, visuals, and calls-to-action, to enhance effectiveness.
Staying up-to-date with industry trends and changes
Keep abreast of evolving industry trends, consumer behavior, and platform algorithms.
Adapt content strategy and content plan accordingly to remain relevant and competitive.
The role of content strategy and content plan in achieving business goals
Content strategy sets the overarching direction and goals, providing a roadmap for success.
Content plan outlines the specific actions and tactics required to execute the strategy effectively.
Together, they enable businesses to attract and engage their target audience, build brand authority, drive conversions, and ultimately achieve their desired business outcomes.
The integration of content strategy and content plan ensures synergy and coherence in content efforts, while continuous optimization allows for data-driven improvements and staying ahead of industry trends. Ultimately, the combined role of content strategy and content plan is crucial in aligning content initiatives with business goals, driving growth, and fostering long-term success.
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