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So, you’re thinking about developing a content strategy. You’ve seen the benefit it’s driving for your competitors and you want in on the action. If that’s you, welcome to the world of content marketing. Once your content strategy is in play, you’ll be delighted with the results. The only thing you’ll be left wondering is why it took you so long to get started.
But just how do you create a content strategy? And what’s the best type of content to drive your business? We’re so glad you asked. We have put together five simple steps to help you achieve the marketing results you’ve been looking for.
Define Your Content Strategy’s Goals and Objectives
The best content strategies start with clearly defined goals and objectives. Remember, you can’t be everything to everybody, and neither can your content strategy. By lasering in on your target audience and focusing on content that will resonate with their wants and needs, you’ll be sure to see those desired results become a reality in no time.
When defining your goals, think about what your business truly needs. Are you aiming to attract new customers or keep existing ones engaged? Do you want to increase traffic to your website or build credibility within your industry? Identifying these priorities early will guide your strategy and keep you on track.
Common content goals include:
- Increasing brand awareness: Helping more people recognize and connect with your business.
- Generating leads or sales: Turning viewers into paying customers.
- Driving website traffic: Boosting visitors to your site to amplify your online presence.
- Improving customer engagement or retention: Building stronger relationships with your audience to keep them coming back.
Tips for Setting SMART Goals
- Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve (e.g., “Increase website traffic by 25%”).
- Measurable: Use metrics to track progress (e.g., website visits, conversion rates).
- Achievable: Set realistic objectives based on available resources.
- Relevant: Align goals with your broader business strategy.
- Time-bound: Attach deadlines to create urgency and accountability (e.g., “Achieve this within six months”).
By setting SMART goals, you’ll create a solid foundation for your content strategy and pave the way for measurable success.
Know Your Audience
Remember how we mentioned your target audience earlier? Yes, understanding who they are needs to be a non-negotiable in not just your content strategy, but your overall marketing strategy as well. Gone are the days of one-to-many marketing where we throw anything at the wall, hoping it will stick. Today, personalization and targeting are where it’s at.
Defining your audience is a big step in crafting an effective content strategy. Start by conducting audience research, focusing on key details such as demographics (age, gender, location), interests, and the challenges they face. This helps you understand who your ideal customers are and what drives their decisions.
Next, create buyer personas—fictional representations of your ideal customers. These personas should include details like goals, pain points, and preferred content channels, helping you visualize and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Finally, leverage data from analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics, social media insights) and customer feedback to refine your understanding of your audience and tailor your content accordingly.
Conduct a Content Audit
Provided you have existing content, it’s a good idea to take an inventory of what exists before you get too far along the path of a revised strategy. When you look at what you have, pay attention to the strengths, gaps, and opportunities for each piece. And remember, if you have some great content, it can be repurposed down the road, saving some some time and money.
To evaluate content performance, use tools like Google Analytics to track metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and conversions. Platforms like SEMrush can help assess SEO performance and keyword rankings.
Categorize your content by type (blogs, videos, social media posts), platform (website, email, etc.), and how well it performs. As we suggested earlier, this process highlights what’s working, what needs improvement, and where new opportunities exist.
Develop Your Plan for Creating Engaging Content
Crafting engaging content starts with organization. Develop a content calendar to outline topics, formats, and publishing schedules. This tool keeps your strategy on track, helps you plan ahead, and ensures consistent delivery. Align the types of content you create—blogs, videos, social media posts, and more—with your audience’s preferences and your marketing goals.
To create high-quality content, prioritize storytelling and delivering value. Share relatable narratives that connect with your audience, address their pain points, or provide actionable insights.
Optimize your content for SEO and readability by incorporating relevant keywords naturally and structuring content with headers, bullet points, and concise paragraphs. Familiarize yourself with EEAT—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are key principles that search engines use to evaluate content quality. Demonstrating these traits in your content not only improves rankings but also builds audience trust.
Incorporate visuals and multimedia elements such as images, infographics, and videos to make your content more engaging. Adding data points and research-backed insights enhances credibility while providing deeper value to your readers.
Measure & Optimize Content Performance
One of the best ways to create new engaging content is to look at past content that drove engagement. Makes sense, right? If you have content out there with low engagement, look into why that might be. And if you have content out there that drew in a lot of viewers, look for common themes to see what those viewers enjoyed. Look to replicate that in future content.
That said, content performance measurement needs to be an ongoing part of your overall marketing strategy. Tracking the right metrics, in particular, is super instrumental in helping you understand how your content is performing. Based on your goals, focus on metrics like traffic (how many people visit your site or view your content), engagement (likes, comments, shares), conversions (sales, sign-ups), or retention (returning visitors or customers). These data points help you identify what’s working and where adjustments may be needed.
Use insights from audience behavior and feedback to refine your strategy. For instance, if your audience prefers shorter videos or interactive content, adapt your formats accordingly. Likewise, if certain topics consistently resonate, prioritize similar themes in your calendar.
Examples of continuous improvement include refreshing outdated content with updated statistics, new examples, or a fresh perspective. Experiment with new formats, such as infographics, podcasts, or videos, to keep your approach fresh and engaging. Diversifying platforms—like expanding from your website to social media or email—can also broaden your reach.
Content optimization isn’t a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process. By regularly evaluating performance and listening to your audience, you can create content that remains relevant, valuable, and impactful over time.
Need Help Bringing Your Content Strategy to Life?
When you’re focused on fulfilling customer orders and managing day-to-day operations, finding the time to work on content can be a bit overwhelming. And let’s face it: not everyone has creative talent. This is where LAMA Marketing can come in and help make your life a whole lot easier.
We’re a full-service marketing agency which means we can handle all of your content strategy needs, soup to nuts. You read that right. We can do it all, from developing your strategy to creating amazing content to pushing it out on your website and social media platforms.
Ready to get started and see how great content can help push your business to new heights? Contact us today.
