Your 2018 Content Strategy Planning Guide

In 2014, content marketing generated more than 144 billion dollars in revenue, with projections at over 300 billion in 2019. With built-in ad blockers and the tendency of readers to ignore ads all together, both in search and on individual pages, it’s no surprise that content marketing is so popular.

But it’s easy to become disillusioned.  Creating content that gets attention is more difficult than it seems,  and companies often find the process takes more knowledge and resources  than planned.

That’s why we’ve put together this handy guide to  help you get the most out of your 2018 content strategy. Check out the  following tips.

1. Write It Down

The biggest problem with  content marketing is that most marketers report they don’t have a  written plan. And since only 28 percent of marketers are confident in  their plan, the lack of a written strategy likely plays a big part. So  before you start, break out your laptop or pen and paper and write down  your plan. Flexibility is always encouraged, but having a general  framework makes it easy to judge your strategy’s effectiveness.

2. Create Goals and Align Content to Those Goals

While  each piece will have its own goals, create a few key goals for your  entire strategy. Once you’ve decided on those goals, list several types  of content and which ones will achieve what goals. Use the buyer’s  journey to decide what content to use when.

Content that gets  customers to sign up for a free trial will be much different than those  that shed light on a particular problem. It may be helpful to draw out  the path a customer takes to buying and mark where the goals fit. Then  you can break it down further by adding the type of content for each  goal.

3. Use Data to Identify Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Current Content

Since  every product or service is different, what resonates with prospects  will differ as well. Use your own data to determine your biggest  successes and flops. Build on your current strengths, but remember that  content marketing is always changing, so you can’t always rely on your  past hits to create new ones.

As technology evolves and costs come  down, more companies are looking to create more interactive and visual  content. YouTube is the second largest search engine, capturing the  attention of users on mobile devices.

Repurpose text-only blog  posts to include infographics, video, and more visual content. Since  most of your traffic comes from a handful of posts, focus on keeping the  most popular ones updated.

3. Create Big Rock Content

With all of the noise on the internet, creating one or more pieces of “big rock”—or hero content—allows you to anchor your entire strategy around them.

Longer  content gives a deep dive on a specific subject, showcasing your  company’s thought leadership. We’re not talking about 12-page ebooks.  Many big rocks are boulders by other standards; with page counts  numbering in the hundreds. They take a substantial amount of time and  energy to create.

LinkedIn is very vocal about their own success using big rocks, and write extensively about the benefits. (They’ve even published a piece of big rock content about big rock content.)

The  great thing about big rocks is you can use “turkey slices”—smaller  pieces of content extracted from the big rock—to create several shorter  pieces. This creates a demand to know more, leading to downloads of the  big rock, which require an email address to access.

4. Schedule an Entire Year’s Worth of Content

Once  you’ve written out your goals and evaluated what works and what didn’t,  it’s time to create a master calendar. Use a spreadsheet to create a  master list of content for the year. Making themes for specific days of  the week or months makes it easy to quickly fill in the blanks.

It’s  okay if you have holes in your schedule. Flexibility is key to making  it all work. Things can change quickly, so review the calendar on a  regular basis. Audit your content to make sure it’s working, and if it’s  not, revisit the calendar and make changes as appropriate.

It’s Time to Get Started

With  January quickly approaching, now’s the time to get started on your 2018  content strategy.  Armed with what’s working and where things are going  in the industry will pay handsomely, not only in your company’s bottom  line, but in your satisfaction with a job well done.