A Simple Guide To Content Marketing Plan

Whether you're a beginner in content marketing or a seasoned marketer, it never a bad idea to review your content strategy for the web - to make sure it's still effective.

After all, competition is growing steadily.

The first step is to have a manageable content plan for social media in place.

In this post, we'll touch base with:

• Why your business needs a content marketing plan?
• The steps I took to develop a content marketing strategy for a client

But first what is a content marketing plan?

A content marketing plan refers to the management of digital assets that you develop to support your online marketing and advertising strategy profitably.

Now when you are forming a content marketing plan, there are some basic things to consider:

• Who's the target audience for my content?
• How my content is going to solve a problem I know the audience has?
• What makes my content unique?
• Which type of content will comprehend my digital marketing goal optimally?
• What are the channels for sharing content I have to reach out to my target audience?
• How I can follow my well-researched content marketing plan seamlessly?

So, why do businesses need to have a content marketing plan?

Content marketing helps businesses run cost-effective campaigns for generating traffic and leads from the web - which is basically generating ROI.

An effective content marketing plan will allow you to leverage other search engine marketing tactics for generating more revenue, such as paid advertising.

On top of that, your content will not only help attract targeted traffic and generate leads - it will also help educate your target prospects and propel brand awareness.

Now, let's see how to create a content marketing plan.

• Define your content marketing goal
• Conduct research on your target audience
• Run an audit on your old content - identify the gaps
• Set up a content management system
• Brainstorm new content ideas for your next project
• Determine which types of content you want to create for which web platform
• Start production and manage your content database

There are a variety of options out there for content you can create. Also, a lot of free and paid online tools are available to draw ideas from. Similarly, there are many popular social media platforms that you can focus on to share your content optimally.

Your content marketing plan should go beyond creating and posting - it should also cover analyzing the outcome and organizing your content assets for future use.

For that, you should have a content calendar to stay on the right track for publishing content consistently and reuse content smartly.

Most marketers, as a part of their job, collaborating with many, such as designers, copywriters, webmasters, etc. to manage their content marketing efforts according to the set plan, but you don't have to limit yourself to these only. It could be worth reviewing content time-to-time on your competitors’ blogs or analyzing their official social media accounts to take out the positives. Keep an eye on the latest trends and/or upcoming yet predictable changes in your industry when you're developing your own content marketing strategy.

I know there is a lot to do, but the success of any digital marketing campaign lies within the information shared above. It takes time, an organized approach, and creativity to craft a successful content marketing plan. From building the foundation of your content marketing strategy to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your content calendar to support everything won't be a hassle if you follow the steps and explore the resources here.

For additional guidance, dial +91 9748776969 or write to partha.sdtt@gmail.com to create a formidable content marketing strategy for your business quickly. Else, just comment on this post, will get in touch with you.

Happy marketing!

3 OLD Ways To Manage NEW Ideas Easily

Hi!

If you are a digital marketer like me, then new ideas flash into your mind regularly.

Many times, there is no pattern to it. The ideas suddenly appear while I am chatting with my family members and friends over the phone or face-to-face, walking alone from returning to my office, and even in dreams while sleeping.

Though this steady flow of ideas good, I have indeed noted a point. I often fail to recall them.

Yes. Many of the ideas are lost down memory lane due to my forgetfulness nature. Consequently, I am allowing opportunities to slip through my hands without even a try. It has happened to me, and I am sure it is happening with some of you too.

I am not advocating for trying out every idea that is coming to your mind but if you find a way to prevent ideas from being lost at least, then that would be great - do not you think.

And there are ways actually!

I have applied the below three methods and experienced a significant turnaround in my personal as well as professional life. Mind you, there are several other methods of seizing ideas before they disappeared.

Let us look now at the ways I am following to minimize the loss of ideas.

#1 The oldest yet simplest way - keep a pen and paper near you

Whenever something constructive comes to my mind, I keep recorded in my diary. Be it at home, or be it in my workplace, I am carrying the diary with me to take quick notes for future reference.

The funny thing is I often receive crazy ideas before I go to bed every night. Though they are abstract ideas from my subconscious mind, whenever they come, I do not want to lose them. Therefore, the moment they appear, I just take note as I used to keep my diary and pencil/pen beside my bed.

However, sometimes reviewing the notes later gives me rather a pain, as they are so hazy. Thus, my advice to you all digital marketers, ready to jot your ideas down immediately on a paper is important but take notes in as a meaningful way as possible.

Also, please do not forget to visit and revisit your notes, or else the whole idea behind taking notes will become meaningless.

For the extremist, you can carry your diary even in toilets as that is another remote place to think quietly and confront your ideas.

Personally, I find carrying a pen and paper on my trips very useful to continue with ideas. It is probably the best way to found an endless amount of ideas.

Live example: Most (if not all) of us are following several blogs and news sites to stay up-to-date. We are literally flooded with information covered by marketers around the world about the latest developments happening in our digital industry. Not every time everything cannot read instantly or memorize accurately for the future. So I usually either bookmark it or take notes in my diary for reviewing later.

#2 Use your Smartphone as a digital notepad

A notebook and pen are not always seemly to carry everywhere, but if you have a Smartphone (who do not have in today’s world connected someway with digital marketing), then you will need not to.

There are many apps available online for free, allow me to quickly write down my thoughts, even if I do not have the internet.

For many especially tech-savvy people, this is the convenient way to detention of raw ideas before they are gone probably forever.

On top of this, I am used to synchronizing my online and offline notes and store everything in the cloud, a central repository of my ideas - accessible anytime anywhere. This also minimizes the risk of data loss, clutter, and repetition of work.

So if I lost my diary or damaged my phone, no more worries now!

Live example: I have an idea board on Google Drive so to access my notes anytime from anywhere.

#3 Organize your mindset and trying to free yourself from unnecessary worries

This is true that the majority of my ideas rarely come on their own.

In most cases, I form quite a lot of related ideas too. And when this occurs, I often influenced by:

• Ease of execution
• How important I see them
• Their visible value to achieve my goal

The problem I faced with this approach is that it slows down my ability to work on my ideas. This ultimately led me to abandon some of my ideas.

If you are inconsistent during sorting out your thoughts, you may fail too to achieve your dreams. So proper planning is essential.

For the same reason, the most crucial thing is to visualize your ideas quickly and as far as you can. If you practice this, you will have ample time later to ready yourself in advance.

Francis of Assisi once said: "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

So shape your future by shaping and prioritizing your ideas today.

The flow of ideas means we are thinking. We are alive. We are trying. And that is a good sign. All we need to do is let the flow coming in, take the best out of it, and work hard on them.

I would love to hear any ideas you have for improving other digital marketer’s life. Be it professional or personal - please share your thoughts in the comments.

Cheers!