5 Most Important Stages in the Content Marketing Process

By Soko Directory Team / Published June 25, 2022 | 10:43 am

KEY POINTS

Content is king; you’ve probably heard marketers say. And today, marketers are investing more in content marketing than before. In 2021, 82% of marketers reported actively using content marketing in their strategies for growth.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Preparing a content plan that resonates with the right target audience isn’t easy. It involves many moving parts. There is a long list of things to do, ranging from planning to implementation and unending communication.
If you’re ready to optimize your content marketing process and effortlessly create quality content, follow the step below:

While aiming to enhance brand awareness, increase traffic, and generate sales, there is none more effective than content marketing.

But how effective are your content marketing efforts? Do you realize any returns? And if not, what are you doing wrong?

Despite the increased adoption of content marketing strategies for generating revenue, marketers face many challenges.

The most common ones include:

Creating lead-generating content
Getting ideas for new content; and
Generating highly interactive content

Fortunately, you can get rid of these challenges by optimizing your content marketing strategy. A carefully thought content marketing plan is instrumental to achieving your organizational goals.

Nevertheless, preparing a content plan that resonates with the right target audience isn’t easy. It involves many moving parts. There is a long list of things to do, ranging from planning to implementation and unending communication.

As such, if you do not have the right strategy in place, publishing consistently will prove difficult. This is mainly because you will be left wasting time trying to determine the right approach.

Lucky for you, you can save time by eliminating all the guesswork through this 5-point guide. Follow it for a precise, goal-oriented content marketing approach pivotal to the success of your brand.

5 Crucial Steps of a Content Marketing Process

If you’re ready to optimize your content marketing process and effortlessly create quality content, follow these steps:

Content Research and Planning

During the content research and planning stage, you formulate a strategy depending on who your customer is. Determine who they are, their interests and preferences, their preferred channels, and browsing behavior.

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Next, design a content marketing plan by creating customer personas alongside identifying your goals and metrics. Then, determine the type of content depending on the customer’s preferred channel. Finally, create a content marketing funnel to guide you.

Content Creation

During this stage, you can brainstorm ideas with your team on the suitable topics to write about, then develop the content.

Here, keyword research is fundamental. Use the right keywords and optimize the content to rank better on search engines. Statistics show that content creators who research keywords report “strong results” in terms of SEO.

Here’s an image showing how:

Content Marketing

Image: Orbit Media

After finding the relevant keyword, you can then create your content.

Content Scheduling and Publishing

In theory, by now you have a ready content calendar for publishing. If so, you can publish your content on the appropriate channel – as identified in the first step.

Depending on the content created, you can schedule some to be automatically published later. Ensure that your content is customized to fit the right audience.

Content Promotion and Distribution

Remember, your audience won’t just stumble upon your content and read it. Therefore, promote the pieces for free on social media or through ads linking to the web page. Guest posting is another brilliant way of promoting your content.

Content Analysis and Strategy Revision

Your content marketing strategy isn’t complete without analyzing its performance. Review the plan and identify areas that need improvement. Where they fall short, revise the strategy. This way, you will consistently improve and get better.

That said, you can now get into action.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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