Inbound marketing and Content Marketing, in particular, relies heavily on having a plethora of engaging and educational content to nurture your leads from strangers through to delighted clients. For some marketers, the idea of having to create enough high-quality content is daunting. But you CAN do it, and here are 6 easy steps to get you going!
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your target customers. You build profiles for each by documenting their demographics, business positions, buyer influence, objectives and goals. Other details to include are their behaviours, preferences, challenges and concerns. We like to include a photo too, so we have a face to represent each buyer persona.
The process of documenting these buyer personas will help you to create content that resonates with them - addressing their specific needs, concerns and goals - at all stages of the buying cycle.
You are probably already sitting on a whole whack of content that can be used to attract, convert, close and delight clients. Conducting a formal content audit will help you identify how well you are covering your target topics, the content mix available and reveal gaps in content that will drive your content creation in the short-, medium- and long-term.
Conducting a content audit is really quite simple:
Customers need different content for the various stages of the buying cycle. Its your job to ensure you have the right content for each stage.
For most companies, the buying cycle - and appropriate content pieces - will look something like this:
Map your content to the buying cycle so you're addressing your prospects' needs throughout the purchase process.
If this isn't something you have done before, dont worry, its not all that difficult - it just takes a little time and spreadsheet magic!
Create an editorial calendar by using a spreadsheet that:
Now that the groundwork is done and you know what material you need to create, for whom and when it's time to actually go ahead and do it!
In order to have a continuous finger on the pulse of your industry, we recommend subscribing to industry specific blogs, follow influencers on social media and set up Google Alerts for your target keywords so that information is delivered straight to your inbox. You'll find plenty of opportunities to answer questions and put your own spin on a popular topic.
A secret weapon of most great content marketers is a stash of ready-to-go content for if/when writer's block happens (and yes - it will happen). Essentially you want to have a content library of completed stories that you can use at a moments notice or bits and bobs that you can pull together with ease.
Feel there are any points I missed? Or any questions on any of the steps? Leave your comments below or tweet us at @struto_central.