It’s essential to have a rock-solid content strategy in place for 2020. Your content strategy must be designed to help you manage all forms of media revolving around your business including written, visual, and/or downloadable content. This is the piece of your marketing plan that continuously demonstrates who you are and the expertise you bring to your industry.
Your content strategy must serve a well-thought-out purpose. That purpose? To guide your prospective clients from the initial discovery of your brand to become a buyer of your products and services. Here are some things you should take into consideration while designing your 2020 content strategy…
Ask yourself these questions:
Whom it is that you’re creating content for
The problem it’s going to help solve
What is it about you and your solution that makes your health and wellness business different
How you will go about formatting your content
How you’ll manage the creation and publication of your content
Why You Need a Content Creation Strategy
Your content marketing strategy is at the very top of your marketing funnel. When you have a strong marketing funnel in place, it increases your odds of gaining more clients and closing more deals. An evergreen content strategy that is high in value will help to educate, entertain and inspire your audience, making them more inclined to go through you for services or products.
Steps to Beginning Your Content Strategy
Define your goal. What are you trying to achieve with your content strategy? Are you trying to build up your email list? Are you trying to build brand awareness? Know exactly what it is you are trying to accomplish through your content marketing strategy.
Select a content management system. Have a system in place where you can easily manage your content. A few vital parts of content management include content creation, content publication, and content analytics. Find a software program (Google Docs., Excel Spreadsheets, Trello) that allows you to manage your content in one place.
Brainstorm different content ideas. Spend time considering what it is you’d like to share with your ICA. Come up with a list of questions that your ICA may have for you if they wish to learn more about your products or services.
Decide What Type of Content to Create
There are various ways to create and publish valuable content. Here are some of the most popular content formats marketers are using as well as the tools and templates to get you started.
Blog Posts - Should be live on a website and published regularly in order to attract new visitors. Posts should provide valuable content for your audience that encourages them to share your posts on social media and across other websites.
Ebooks - Lead-generation tools that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. They're typically longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which are written to attract visitors to a website.
Case Studies - Also known as testimonials, case studies give you the opportunity to tell the story of a customer who succeeded in solving a problem by working with you. A case study is perhaps your most versatile type of content marketing because it can take many different forms -- some of which are on this list. Case studies can take the form of a blog post, ebook, podcast, or even an infographic.
Templates - Template tools offer various content formats to try. These will generate leads for you while providing tremendous value to your audience. When you provide your audience with template tools to save them time and help them succeed, they're more likely to keep engaging with your content in the future.
Infographics - Infographics are an image and words crafted in a very compelling way. These are great content formats to use if you're trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
Videos - Videos are a highly engaging content medium that is shareable across social media platforms and websites. Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity (it's 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content) it's a medium worth experimenting with.
Audio Files - Audio files and/or podcast episodes will help audiences find your brand if they don't have the time or interest in reading content every day. It can be more cost-effective than video creation and it allows your audience to listen and learn on the go, in the car, doing cardio, washing dishes, etc. It also helps to gain their trust by hearing your voice.
How to Pick Which Platform Is Right for Your Business
When selecting the perfect platform for your health and wellness business, take into consideration these four questions:
Who is your audience?
Where do they hang out?
How can you reach them?
What are your health and wellness business goals?
Then do your research. Just because you may love hanging on a particular platform doesn't mean that your ICA is there.
Map Out a Content Calendar
It’s important to create a content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on your website.
Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen. They should be just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn't ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate more traffic.
If there are niche holidays that might appeal to your ICA, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media. We know this is a lot of information, but the work has just begun. It takes time, organization, and creativity to grow a successful content marketing strategy.
From building the foundation of your content marketing plan to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your strategy for the new year won't be a hassle if you follow the steps and explore the resources here.
Get Ahead by Batching Content
What is batch creating?
It’s setting aside an allotted amount of time to write X amount of weekly blog posts at once or record X amount podcast episodes at once.
When it comes to batch creating there isn’t a perfect method. You’re the boss so you get to decide what kind of schedule and the number of content pieces produced works best for your health and wellness business.
To help you batch create consider...
#1 | Creating content in themes or series
#2 | Create time to actually make the content at your highest creative peak
#3 | Create outlines before you create your content
The Importance of Consistency
Your content doesn’t have to be perfect, but it MUST be consistent. Dependable weekly content of your chosen subject of expertise is a huge authority builder for your brand. Your ICA will learn to trust you and your brand when they realize you’re here to stay. So no matter what, strive to produce relevant content for your audience regularly.
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