TO DIVE IN9 STEPS

Content Marketing Plan:

for the first time is way harder than actually swimming.

INTO THE POOLDIVING“

LET’S DIVE!

(But once you jump in, you’ll get used to the temperature in no time.)

SET GOALS AROUND A CAMPAIGN

STEP 1:

WHAT’S THE

POINT?

You can create pages and pages of content, but if there’s no PURPOSE

and no GOAL behind it,

Every piece of content you create should have a SPECIFIC

MARKETING OBJECTIVE IN MIND.

A CAMPAIGNLAUNCH

The best way to do that?

A campaign should be focused on ONE GOAL, such as:

Drive more email subscriptions

Encourage repeat purchases

Sell more of a new product or service

Convert more contacts of a specific buyer persona

Let that goal be the driver for every blog

post, social media update, email, and

landing page you craft for the campaign.

KEYWORD RESEARCH

STEP 2:

Now that you have a goal, you’ll want a plan for

creating content that YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER CAN EASILY FIND ONLINE.

Search engine optimization is one of

the best ways to get found online. But how do you identify SEO

targets?

AHOY, KEYWORDS!

The key is KEYWORD RESEARCH, which should:

Be done early in the campaign process

Guide the strategy of all (or most) of your content topics

Determine the angle of site pages, too

Be implemented naturally — never stuffed into content!

There’s a lot to learn about SEO best

practices and keywords when you get started

with your content plan. Visit our full blog post for a list of resources!

PLAN CONTENT FOR A WORKFLOW

STEP 3:

BUT HOW?

When done correctly, content marketing is meant to turn strangers

into customers.

MARKETING & SALES FUNNEL.

By consistently providing contacts with helpful and relevant information, you can swiftly send

them through the

There are a few key pieces of content

you need for these workflows:

CONTENT OFFERSPREMIUM

First, you need

for every stage of the Buyer’s Journey.

The Buyer’s Journey consists of three stages of content:

Awareness: Top-of-funnel content (like blog posts and eBooks) that addresses/alleviates buyers’ problems — should be majority of content.

Consideration: Middle-of-funnel resources (like white papers and eBooks) that suggest solutions and introduce your product. Less of this content.

Decision: Content (like demos or case studies) that explain why you’re the best choice. Few key pieces.

You’ll also need a series of nurture content

(often emails) to move contacts from one stage to the next — and down

the funnel.

DOWNLOADS TOP-OF-FUNNEL

OFFER

NURTURE EMAILS

DOWNLOADS MIDDLE-OF-

FUNNEL OFFER

These emails persuade contacts to take a subsequent action — and move

from point A to point B.

You’ll need blog posts to publish periodically

throughout your campaign. These are

related to your premium content offers.

LANDING PAGES

And finally, you’ll need

to tie it all together. These are “gated” pages that tease your premium offers.

Utilize forms to gain information on leads before they can download.

How it all fits together:AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION

Top-of-funnel content

Landing page w/ form

Nurture Nurture

Top-of-funnel offer

Middle-of-funnel content

Landing page w/ form

Middle-of-funnel offer

Bottom-of-funnel content

Landing page w/ form

Bottom-of-funnel offer

Create a list of the content you’ll need

for every stage of the campaign.

CREATE YOUR EDITORIAL CALENDAR

STEP 4:

Now, determine when to publish your content.

You’ll particularly want to space out your blog posts (i.e., one post per week).

FREQUENCY of posting is unique to your business — based upon your capacity,

writing process, and industry. Be realistic and reliable!

CONSISTENCY IS KEY.

Above all,

Be it daily, weekly, or monthly, your readers should know when to expect

you. Push yourself to stick to it!

There are plenty of tools for creating a calendar, like Google Calendar, Trello, or HubSpot’s

built-in calendar. Choose what works for you.

OUTLINE EACH CONTENT

PIECE

STEP 5:

DON’T DIVE IN!

When starting to write your content,

Start with an outline. Heading 1: Have only one designated H1. It is the title of your piece and should include the keyword you identified earlier.

Heading 2: Decide up on the body of your piece with a few H2s, or section titles. Keywords are good here, but don’t overdo it!

Heading 3: If you need to break it down further, use H3s. Keywords aren’t as important here.

in the outline stage. It’ll shave time off your writing process. This includes gathering links.

DO YOURRESEARCH

“

Also gather feedback at the outline stage to make sure you’re on the right

track. (It’s a good time to request assets from your

designer, too!)

DRAFT EACH PIECE OF CONTENT

STEP 6:

LET’S WRITE!

All right — no more procrastinating. Your plan is in place... now,

When you start writing your masterpieces, remember:

Your buyer personas and their questions

The buyer’s journey stage you’re targeting (awareness, consideration, decision)

Keywords identified in your keyword research

The campaign “next step” readers should take

COMPELLING STORYCRAFT A

It’s beneficial to

with your content to pull readers in.

Make sure your writing is hyper-focused on the topic

you identified for your buyer persona. Give them a clear takeaway — and a

next action!

BUILD, REVIEW, FINALIZE

STEP 7:

Now’s the time to take your writing live. Have a teammate look over your work for any last-minute

edits — and proofread!

When your writing is ready, take these final (important!) steps:

Build your blog posts in the website’s editor

Insert graphic or photo elements

Add hyperlinks and anchor them to keywords

Optimize with a meta description and tags

And, finally, link your pieces together to create a true pathway for your reader. Use links, calls-to-action,

and landing pages!

DISTRIBUTESTEP 8:

Your content is ready, but you’re not finished yet!Now’s the time to get

your content out there. It’s an active process that includes several channels.

EVERGREENSOURCE

of traffic if you keep posts optimized.

Organic traffic will do its job if your keywords were on point. It’s an

But social media is YOUR BEST TRAFFIC

MAGNET. You must promote to social across

all of your channels.

UTILIZE EMAIL to promote your content to existing contacts. Include it in a

monthly newsletter or weekly blog update email.

ANALYZE AND ADAPT

STEP 9:

WITH ANALYTICS

The content marketing process ends the same way most marketing

processes do:

IF IT WASEFFECTIVE?

if you launch a campaign but don’t measure its metrics,

how will you know

Seek out data that aligns with YOUR

CAMPAIGN GOAL. Use the data to refine

your process for next time.

For example,

If you wanted email subscribers, track the new size of your email list compared to the old.

If you wanted more qualified leads, note your new conversion rate.

If you wanted increased traffic, pay attention to where new traffic came from, and how big the increase was.

You’ll continually refine your content process with time — but

you’re off to a great start!

ON YOUR FIRST CAMPAIGN!CONGRATS“

Want to step up your marketing process with an inbound marketing

strategy? Grab our guide:INFO.SPARKREACTION.COM/IMPLEMENT-

AN-INBOUND-MARKETING-STRATEGY