8 Ways You Can Be More Effective With Your Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing can pay off for years to come.

Not only is it one of the best organic marketing tools you have at your disposal, but it’s also an invaluable way to generate evergreen assets. 

From boosting awareness to building trust to converting prospects, content marketing is a powerful business strategy no brand can afford to ignore.

If you’re ready to improve your content marketing plan this year, but you’re not sure where to start, read on for eight of our top tips!

1. Figure Out Your Content Marketing Goals 

What do you hope to achieve with your content? Are you looking to build your domain and industry authority? Do you want to build a robust knowledge base and help center on your site?

Whatever the case may be, get laser-clear on your content marketing goals and what “success” means to you. 

For instance, let’s say you’ve designed some of the top real estate websites for agents in The Pacific Northwest, but you’d like to scale to even greater heights. In this case, you’d need to solidify what new markets you’d like to target and how content marketing can help you enter them.

2. Content Audit Your Current Assets 

Google trusts websites that go above and beyond to make sure all assets are up to date and still relevant. 

That’s why it’s essential to take inventory of the current assets you have and note where there could be opportunities to improve them. Be sure to double check that all facts, figures, dates, links, and messaging are correct and aligned with your goals.

Audit assets, such as your blog posts, guides, website content, and social media content. You’ll also need to review your gated assets to make sure they’re still relevant to your brand and audience. 

In case you’re not sure what a gated asset is, it’s simply a piece of content a user can only access after they’ve provided their contact details. Check out the following board minutes template download to demonstrate what we mean:

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3. Build Your Buyer Personas 

Who are you creating content for? What do they need? What do they struggle with? How can your brand and content help them solve their top pain paints?

If you haven’t already, take some time to build out your buyer personas. 

For instance, if you run an online store that specializes in selling tailored pants for men, then one of your buyer personas could include a person that identifies as a male looking for a custom fitted suit for an upcoming wedding. 

Another buyer persona could be a person that enjoys wearing men’s clothing who’s looking for a go-to brand they can rely on to build out their suit collection. 

Going into detail can help you better tailor your content to your target audience’s preferences. 

4. Create a Content Calendar 

Keep all of your content planning organized in one place with a content calendar. 

Depending on how robust your content scaling plans are, you could use a simple spreadsheet, project management software, or a calendar tool. 

If you’re only creating a few assets per week, a spreadsheet tool like Google Sheets will work just fine. If you have a mid-range workload, a calendar tool should have you covered. But, if you run an agency or have in-depth content marketing plans, then go with a project management software option, like Asana, monday.com, or Trello.  

5. Note the Different Types of Content You’ll Produce

Do you want to create blog content pillars that focus on all things related to starting a business? 

Do you want to create funny memes that shine the spotlight on your payroll software in a fun, lighthearted way?

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Whatever the case may be, grab a Google Doc or notepad, and jot down the different types of content you’ll be producing, where you’ll feature them, and how they can help you reach your content marketing goals.

Here are some other content types you might consider producing:

• How-to articles
• Listicles 
• Newsletters
• Social media Reels, Stories, Carousels, and static images 
• Video content 
• Digital courses
• Webinars
• Ebooks
• Whitepapers
• Case studies

6. Define Your Brand Voice, Style, and Tone 

How do you want your brand voice, style, and tone to come across when someone consumes your content?

For instance, if you own an HR SaaS company, like Bambee, you might choose a brand voice that’s authoritative, informative, and pointed toward large enterprises in need of proper HR software. 

Or, if you own a text-to-speech solution, you might choose a tone that’s passionate about the future, educational, and targets content creators. 

To remain consistent, we highly recommend creating a style guide that details your brand voice, style, and tone. 

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Here’s what we recommend including in your style guide:

• A short company intro
• Your target audience 
• How you plan on formatting your content 
• Your image policy 
• Your linking policy 
• Your policy on what constitutes a quality source
• Tone adjectives, i.e., playful, sarcastic, casual 
• Top articles and assets to reference for style/tone 
• Tone do’s and don’ts
• Quick style notes to always keep in mind, i.e., specific terms to avoid
• Your list of content creation, editing, and marketing tools 
• A list of quick tools you use to create shareable content, i.e., infographic templates 

7. Create a Social Media Plan that Supports Your Overall Marketing Goals 

And don’t forget to strategize a social media plan that supports your overall marketing goals. 

For instance, let’s say you’re a career coach that targets new graduates, but you’re looking to serve another market, to: Mid-size firms in need of a career path planning consultant. 

In this case, your social media plan should include a strategy that can help you attract this new audience sector. That might mean creating new socials that only cater to this audience, or that could mean using different platforms for each audience.

8. Use the Right Tools to Create Shareable Content

If you’re serious about content marketing, you need to be producing high-quality, shareable content. But creating great content isn’t always easy, and it’s not just about writing great copy. 

You need to use the right tools to help you create content that’s visually appealing, easy to share, and optimized for search engines.

Here are some of the tools you can use to create shareable content:

• Canva: Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design tool that can help you create stunning visuals for your content. You can use Canva to create graphics for social media, infographics, posters, and much more.
• Grammarly: Grammarly is a writing assistant that can help you eliminate grammar and spelling errors from your content. It can also suggest better word choices and help you improve the overall readability of your content.
• Scoop.it: Scoop.it is a content curation tool that can help you discover, curate, and share relevant content with your audience. You can use it to find articles, videos, and other types of content related to your industry or niche, and then share them on your social media channels or website.
• Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO is a plugin for WordPress that can help you optimize your content for search engines. It provides suggestions for improving your content’s readability and SEO, including keyword usage, meta descriptions, and more.
• CoSchedule Headline Analyzer: CoSchedule Headline Analyzer is a tool that can help you create better headlines for your content. It analyzes your headlines and provides a score based on factors like word choice, length, and sentiment.
• Freepik: Freepik is a platform that offers a vast collection of free vectors, icons, illustrations, and photos that you can use to create stunning visuals for your content marketing. You can use it to find images for your blog posts, social media graphics, and other marketing materials.

Key Takeaways 

Content marketing is a powerful business strategy no brand can afford to ignore. 

If you’re ready to call in your soulmate customers, build rapport with cold leads, and become an industry authority, you can’t underestimate the power of content marketing. 

Ready to revamp your content marketing strategy? We hope today’s guide has inspired you to take the first step. Be sure to bookmark this article for later so you can refer to it when needed.

That’s it for today.

To your success!