Content Strategy: Prior to Publishing

Dare we say that content is the soul of your marketing strategy? As a matter of fact, we DO dare say that, because it’s absolutely true!

The trick, of course, is to publish content the right way. If you go off half-cocked, you’ll never achieve your goals and your attempt at publishing well-written, informative content will be dead in the water. So, what’s a company to do? Simple… just pay attention to these six must-haves for publishing success:

Develop a Content Strategy

The devil is in the details, as they say. A strong content strategy isn’t just something that you stumble upon or blindly trip over. Rather, it is a rigorous exercise into detailed planning. You must know what your goals are before you get started because that’s how you’ll figure out the types of content you will need to create. Write them down, discuss them with your team, and plan out exactly how you will reach them.

Build a Functional Website

Long gone are the days when a company could get away with not having a website. Businesses that refuse to put themselves online are being left in the dust, so this is no longer something you can put off until tomorrow. And if you already have a website, but it hasn’t been updated in the past year or two (or more recently, depending on its content), it’s time that you either get it done or find someone to do it for you.

Put Your Content Creator on Speed Dial

There are two ways that you can go about this. First, you can enlist someone on your team to create all of your content. Second, you can hire a marketing company to do the work for you. Either way, you need to have this person or a member of the outside marketing team on speed dial so that you can get answers to your questions right away. And by speed dial, we really mean your email contact list or alternative way to get in contact with him or her.

Consider Hiring a Marketing Company

We have no doubt that you and your team are capable in every way that your industry needs you to be capable. When it comes to marketing, though, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. Just like you, they are experts in their respective field. They keep up with current marketing trends and are able to create content that takes advantage of those trends.

Create an SEO Plan

If you ever want your company or brand to appear on the first page of Google, you’re going to need a solid SEO strategy. What you want to do here is figure out which keywords you want to rank highly for – basically, ones that are related to your industry, business, and audience – and create content that centers around those keywords. A side effect of this is that you’ll end up creating better, more relevant content.

Strategize Distribution

Once you know the type of content you need to create and who will be creating it, it’s time to think about the distribution of that content. There are now a wide variety of ways that you can share what you create – blogs, social media, email newsletters, white papers, and more. While it’s important that you don’t spread yourself too thin, you definitely want to take advantage of several different outlets.

Developing a strong marketing strategy takes know-how, dedication, and perseverance – just to name a few. The folks at Madison Taylor Marketing have those in spades and so much more. When you’re ready to take your business to the next level by way of a high-quality, focused marketing strategy, give us a shout and we’ll take the reigns.