The banning of Chinese app TikTok in India left a huge void in the digital advertising space for both brands and influencers. The micro-video sharing platform had 178 million monthly active users in India with an average time of 36 minutes per day spent on the app.
When asked if they want to make a full-time career out in influencer marketing, 68.8% of influencers surveyed responded with a yes.
Influencer.in’s top-up survey done post the ban of TikTok reveals that more and more content creators are now working to create or ramp up their presence on Instagram. Tiktokers were asked which platform they will move to in absence of TikTok. Influencer marketing statistics show that 55% of respondents will now be active on Instagram followed by 20% on YouTube.
“But this shift will increase the cost of building brands on social media as well as make creating content expensive,” points out Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat. He explains the cost of doing influencercampaigns on Instagram is higher than TikTok so brands will have to shell out more to promote their content. Also, content on Instagram pays more attention to the quality of audio and lights whereas TikTok was more about capturing the moment live.
Homegrown apps like Roposo and Trell have also joined the race and are offering content creators free organic reach and the promise of promotion of their content. These platforms claim to have grown manifolds in the last few months. Roposo claims to have grown in India from 4 million before the TikTok ban to 64 million users now. Trell too claims to have crossed 45-million downloads with 22 million monthly active users and six million daily active users. From these upcoming platforms, 18% influencers who did the social media influencer marketing survey said they have created a profile on Roposo, followed by 5% on Sharechat.
Picsart, Canva, Inshot, Filmora, Lightroom, Snapspeed are some of the most preferred tools used by influencers to create content
From new ad formats to Instagram Shop upgrades, and user-experience tweaks Keep up with the latest Instagram updates and more.
Stay ahead of Instagram trends and give your marketing that extra edge. Here are the new Instagram updates for April 2021.
April 2021 Instagram updates
These are the top Instagram updates marketers should know about this month.
Instagram introduces Remix Reels inspired by TikTok Duets
At the beginning of April, Instagram added a “remix” option to Reels that allows creators to react to an existing public Reel. Similar features — Duets and Stitch — have been popular on TikTok for some time, inspiring Snapchat to test a remix option as well.
#Snapchat is working on the possibility of remixing friends' Stories 👀
Remix is enabled by default on Reels published from public accounts, but users have access to a disable option. When someone remixes a Reel, the original creator receives a notification.
Story drafts may soon come to Instagram
You asked and we're delivering… story drafts coming soon 📣
In late March, Instagram’s top boss Adam Mosseri and the app’s official comms Twitter account teased the release of a story drafts feature. “You asked and we’re delivering… story drafts coming soon,” said Mosseri.
Most content, including Instagram Guides, can be saved o as a draft in the creation stage, except for Reels and Stories. According to screenshots leaked by mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi, before exiting story creation mode, people will be given the option to save an in-progress Story to a drafts folder. Right now, users can “save” Stories by downloading them.
A save option could make it easier for people to add posts or pictures to Stories as backgrounds, which is currently something creators use hacks to do.
Instagram Lite now available on Android in more than 170 countries
As of March, a lite version of the Instagram app is now available for Android users in more than 170 countries, including the United States.
Designed to use minimal data and perform in areas with limited connectivity, the lite app does not include AR filters, Instagram shopping, ads, or the option to create Reels. It does still allow people to view Reels, which remain popular among lite users in India, where TikTok is banned.
IGTV ads land in Australia and UK
Instagram began testing IGTV ads last year in the United States and will now expand tests to select creators in Australia and the United Kingdom.
These mobile-first, 15-second video ads use a revenue share model much like on YouTube, with 55% of earnings given to creators. Instagram expects the format to be made available to more creators in new regions over the coming year.
The social media influencer marketing survey found that most of the digital creators hail from top metro cities – the largest percentage coming from Delhi and Mumbai, with 24.9% and 21.2% respectively, while Bangalore and Kolkata contribute to 7.9% and 6.3% respectively. These influencer marketing statistics reflect a huge potential in these cities for brands who are looking to leverage influencer marketing.
In terms of age, the social media influencer marketing report uncovered that most respondents fall in the 18-30 age bracket, with 50% of respondents being between 18-24 years old. It would be safe to say then that the youth of today is not just influencing but inspiring and even changing minds.
We also see a healthy distribution in gender with almost 50% of the influencers who took the survey being females.
Almost 60% of the influencers in our country who have taken the survey get a chance to work with less than 3 brands in a month. This shows that most of them are still in the initial stage of their influencer journey.
The influencer market is currently dominated by lifestyle and fashion influencers, followed by beauty and fitness influencers. Categories like cooking, mental health, and gaming have also seen significant growth in the influencer market during the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown.
However, the lockdown has also caused a few challenges to influencers. The study says that there has been a decline in influencer marketing during COVID-19 as the number of collaborations has reduced in the last few months, especially for travel and fashion influencers. Delayed payments and undervaluation of work continue to be a pressing concern during this period.
The social media influencer marketing study further reports that consumer goods brands leverage influencer marketing the most extensively, with the category contributing to a whopping 70% of all industry categories.
In terms of sectors, e-commerce dominates with 50%, followed by mobile apps with around 42% and retail at about 38%. Healthcare, edu-tech, BFSI, and B2B companies follow closely as well.
Typically, Instagram Stories that appear at the start of your feed are from accounts that you engage with the most, whether that’s through likes, comments, story views, reactions, or DMs.
The Instagram Stories algorithm also puts a lot of focus on timeliness, as it wants to make sure it’s always showing you the latest stories from your favorite accounts.
If you regularly engage with an account, their new stories will be bumped to the front of your feed every time they post — even if you’ve watched all their stories from the previous day.
So with this in mind, it’s a good idea to consistently post to Instagram Stories.
By posting to Instagram Stories more often, you have a better chance of reaching viewers as they browse their daily stories — and the more views you gain, the better your ranking will be.
Fortunately, regularly posting to stories just got a whole lot easier.
How the Instagram Algorithm Works on the Explore Page
Overall, the Explore page and the feed algorithm are quite similar — they both deliver content that Instagram thinks you’ll be most interested in, based on your prior interactions.
However, your Instagram feed will be made up of content from accounts you already follow, whereas the Explore feed will consist almost entirely of content from new accounts.
The Explore page is constantly evolving, with new topic categories and advanced search functionalities being introduced all the time.
For example, you can now search by keywords,as well as hashtags, to discover feeds of relevant content:
This suggests that the Explore page algorithm takes into account way more than just the tags on your posts, such as the actual visual content and words in your caption.
Fortunately, getting your posts onto the Instagram Explore page isn’t as hard as you might think.
The Explore page algorithm is essentially trying to serve people the best, relevant content. So by continually sharing great content with strong captions and niche hashtags, you’re already contributing towards your Explore page ranking.
For hashtag search results, Instagram prioritizes top performing posts:
These posts are curated by the algorithm based on an individual’s historical interactions.
On the “Recent” tab, hashtag search results are the same for every user — it’s a chronological list of posts that contain your searched hashtag.
TIP: If you’re a brand looking to get on the Instagram Explore page, it’s more important than ever to focus on your niche topics and use hashtags to help categorize your posts.
The algorithm prioritises content from the accounts you interact with the most, as well as the type of posts you typically engage with For IGTV videos and Instagram Reels.
Instagram serves suggested IGTV videos and Reels in relevant Explore pages, beyond the home feed, including the new Reels tab.
Based on a machine learning model, this is based on what Instagram thinks you will like.
Give your IGTV videos and Reels the best chance of being seen by new (and existing) audiences –
For IGTV videos, you can share a 1-minute preview to your Instagram feed, increasing initial exposure and providing a positive signal to the algorithm.
For Reels, always share them to your main Instagram feed, and include several hashtags to boost their discoverability.
Whatever tactic you choose to focus on to improve your algorithm ranking in 2021, the most important thing is to keep engaging with your audience at the heart of your strategy.
Building a genuine relationship with your followers is the most powerful way to “hack” the algorithm and, most importantly, it will work wonders for your brand too.
Let’s take a look at some ideas to help you build a solid Facebook strategy to make the most of your Page.
1. Define your audience
To engage your audience effectively, you’ve got to understand who you’re talking to first. Get to know who your target audience is by asking yourself the following questions:
How old are your target followers?
Where do they live?
What kind of jobs do they have?
What are their challenges?
How and when do they use Facebook?
Of course, it’s also important to understand the general demographics of Facebook users. Then, once you’ve got a sense of who actually is using the platform and how that connects to your target customer, you can take a look at Facebook Audience Insights.
Facebook’s free, built-in Audience Insights tool will help you drill down into the nitty-gritty details about potential customers. You can use it to find information on things like:
Age
Gender
Education
Relationship status
Location
Language
Facebook usage
Past purchasing activity
After all, if you don’t have an idea of who you’re trying to reach, you’re unlikely to ever reach them.
2. Set goals
What does success look like for your brand? Sure, it can be tempting to look at Likes as the ultimate measure of achievement, but if they’re not part of a broader marketing plan, those likes aren’t much of anything. Sometimes they’re even called a vanity metric.
A strong goal that’s tied to your business objectives is essential for creating an effective Facebook marketing strategy. Every business will have different goals, but each should focus on actions that impact their bottom line.
This may include:
Generating leads
Increasing conversions on your website
Improving customer service
Once you’ve decided what you want to achieve, we recommend mapping out specific, measurable ways to get there. We recommend using a recognized goal-setting framework like SMART goals or the OKR goal framework. Check out our post on social media goal-setting for more details and some inspiring examples.
Every post, every comment, every ad you create on Facebook should ultimately be in service of your goals. To keep yourself on track, it’s a good idea to create a Facebook mission statement for your brand, as well as a Facebook style guide that can inform a consistent look, feel and voice for all of your content.
(Sorry to give you so much homework, but successful marketing takes a little sweat sometimes. Work it!)
3. Plan your content mix
You’ve got your target audience. You know your goals. Now it’s time to craft those posts.
Determining the right mix of content takes trial and error, but a good rule of thumb is to use the “80-20 Rule”: that means using 80% of your posts to inform, educate and entertain, and the other 20% to promote your brand.
That’s right: not every post should be about how great your company is. That gets old fast, like a friend’s new boyfriend talking about Bitcoin through your entire birthday dinner.
Instead, aim to provide value and build relationships with your followers. Give them content that they’ll enjoy regularly, and they’ll be more open-minded to hearing about your products and services when you do bring them up 20% of the time.
Another option to help guide your content mix is the social media rule of thirds. Under this school of thought, one-third of your content should share ideas and stories, one-third of your content should involve personal interactions with your followers and the rest of your content can promote your business.
Whatever specific numerical mix you wind up with, the goal is to balance promotional material with value.
Hot tip: Facebook punishes brands that push sales too hard. The algorithm is not a fan of self-promotion, as it turns out. The platform wants to prioritize meaningful, engaging content… not just coupons.
Once you’ve decided what to post, deciding when to post it is your next step.
You can glean some insight on engagement from Page Insights, but our research shows that the best time to post on Facebook is at 6:15 AM and 12:15 PM PST on weekdays.
Whatever your schedule, keep in mind that it’s important to post consistently.
Create a content calendar to help balance your mix of content types, and keep your frequency organized. This free content calendar template is one way to stay organized; the Hootsuite Planner is another great resource.
For more strategic planning ideas, check out our post on how to create a social media marketing plan.
4. Optimize your Page for engagement
Whatever your Facebook marketing goal may be, it’ll be tough to achieve it if no one knows your Facebook Page exists.
That’s why it’s important to a) get people to your Page in the first place and b) compel them to interact once they get there.
This video shares some great ways to fully optimize your Facebook Business Page for success:
Expert tip: give a little extra love to your Facebook Page cover image. This is the first thing people will see when they visit your Page, so it better look good!
One easy way to help people find your Facebook Business Page is through cross-promotion. Help people who are already interacting with you on other platforms find you on Facebook by linking to your Page in your email signature and newsletter, and incorporating Facebook Like and share buttons on your website or blog.
To get those views, Likes and Follows rolling in is a little less scientific: you’ve got to create highly shareable content. Posts that are valuable and entertaining will (hopefully!) inspire followers to share with their friends.
To build engagement, it’s important to remember that you get out of Facebook what you put into it. You need to be engaged, too, if you expect your followers to be.
Responsiveness is a highly valued attribute of brands, so get chatty. Reply to every message and comment, answer questions, and keep content up-to-date. (In fact, you should be scheduling a regular audit of your Facebook Page to check for and remove any outdated content. Your About section should always be accurate, up-to-date, and on-brand.)
5. Consider using other Facebook tools
Once you’ve gotten comfortable with running a Facebook Business Page, there are plenty of additional ways that brands can find opportunities for engagement beyond posts and comments.
Facebook Business Manager
To take your Facebook Page to the next level, it’s helpful to set up Facebook Business Manager, too. Facebook calls it “a one-stop-shop to manage business tools, business assets and employee access to these assets.” How can you resist?!
In simpler terms, Business Manager is a tool that allows you to manage your organic and paid Facebook posts. It also allows you to work effectively with team members and outside contractors and agencies.
We’ll walk you step by step through the set-up process in our guide to using Facebook Business Manager.
Facebook Groups
Groups are another great “extra credit” tool you can use to drive engagement. In a way, Groups are like the online equivalent of your favorite coffee shop or community center. They are digital spaces for people to share information and ideas… and hopefully, a passion for your brand. With more than 1.4 billion people using Facebook Groups every month, it’s an audience too large to ignore.
You can also use Facebook Groups to showcase your expertise and provide added value to your fans, with bonus content or special deals that are just for “members.” This is a great way to build trust and ongoing loyalty.
We’ve got instructions for how to set up your own Facebook Group right here if you’re ready to add this tool to your Facebook Business Page toolkit.
But if people are passionate about your brand, you may not even need to create a special space for them to gather: sometimes fans will create their own Facebook Group with a focus on your brand. If you do discover such Groups out there in the world, it’s a good idea to join so you can keep an eye on the conversation, and make sure any misconceptions or negativity are nipped in the bud.
In general, though, fan-made Facebook Groups are an amazing sign that you’re doing something right. Lucky you!
Facebook chatbot (a.k.a. Facebook Messenger bot)
Facebook users exchange 20 billion messages with businesses every month. Twenty billion! If you’re not available for conversation with your customers through this platform, you may be missing out on an opportunity to connect.
It’s not just about simply having Facebook Messenger set up, however. It’s about being supremely responsive to customer messages. Facebook’s research shows users expect a business to respond almost immediately. One surveyed Facebook user said he would only wait 10 minutes for a response before moving on to another brand.
The solution to these expectations? Chatbots: automated response tools that are always on to help an interested customer, like this one from Booking.com.
6. Incorporate Facebook ads and the Facebook pixel
So you crafted the perfect post: the wording is just right, the imagery is outstanding and the question is super engaging. Here’s hoping your followers actually see it.
That’s right: not everything you post on your Facebook Page will reach your followers on their news feeds. You might be surprised by the percentage of followers your organic posts will likely reach:
For Pages with fewer than 10,000 followers: 8.18% organic reach
For Pages with more than 10,000 followers: 2.59% organic reach
For better or for worse, the Facebook algorithm prioritizes posts from users’ friends and family. This means that businesses and brands sometimes just can’t stand out from the crowd.
Sometimes, your great content just needs a little boost. Fortunately, you can extend your reach without breaking the bank using Facebook Ads.
Like traditional advertising, a Facebook ad is content you pay to share with a specific, targeted audience. The goal is to get your brand in front of the right eyeballs, whether your goal is to build brand awareness, engagement or traffic.
A Facebook pixel is a simple piece of code that you place on your website to:
track conversions from Facebook
remarket to people who have already visited your website
build targeted custom audiences for future ads
As soon as you place it on your website, the pixel will start collecting data. That way, whenever you are ready to advertise, you’ll have powerful information at your fingertips for retargeting campaigns.
How to measure the success of your strategy with Facebook analytics
Successful Facebook marketing requires maintenance: this is not a set-it-and-forget-it situation.
Tracking and measuring are essential, so you can understand what worked and what didn’t. That way, you can learn, and tweak, and try again so your strategy is constantly improving.
You can track audience engagement directly through Facebook Insights, which measures metrics such as…
likes
reach (how many people saw your posts)
engagement (how many people liked, clicked, shared, or commented on your content)
which of your posts result in people unliking your Page
Additionally, Facebook Insights will help you determine which types of posts work best for your Page, so you’ll know if your current content mix is working.
Outside of Facebook — actions like purchases or other website conversions — need to be tracked with external tools like Google Analytics, Hootsuite Impact, UTM parameters, and Hootsuite Insights.
All that being said… don’t be overwhelmed! We’ve created a detailed guide that walks you through the process of tracking the return on investment of your Facebook marketing.
Tracking your progress isn’t just about counting your wins and celebrating successes. It’s about clocking what’s not working, too, so that you can make adjustments when necessary. Data will show you what you should keep doing, and which tactics you need to tweak. And through a continuous loop of goal-setting, measuring results and tweaking your strategy, you can improve your performance over time.
Whew!
We know, we know: there’s a lot to learn when it comes to Facebook marketing. But the good news is you can get started without investing a dime.
So get in there, get your hands dirty and learn as you go. More complex strategies and campaigns will be there whenever you’re ready to take things to the next level… and our dozens and dozens of resources and guides will be here waiting to help you, every step of the way.
It takes time, organization, and creativity to grow a successful content marketing strategy. From building the foundation of your content marketing plan to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your strategy for the new year won’t be a hassle if you follow the steps and explore the resources here.
1. Blog Posts
If you haven’t noticed yet, you’re currently reading a blog post. Blog posts live on a website or content portal and work best when they are published regularly in order to attract new visitors.
Blog Posts should provide a degree of value in terms of content for your audience, this is what makes them spend time on your blog, take notice of your brand and inclined toward sharing posts on social media and across other websites. We recommend that blog posts be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, but you can experiment to see if your audience prefers longer or shorter reads.
2. Videos
Videos are an extremely engaging content medium, they are highly shareable across social media platforms and websites alike. While it is true that Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity they are 40X morelikely to get shared on social media than other types of content.
It is a medium worth experimenting with. Our Research has found that video is the most preferred form of content. Video also captures people’s attention more than any other
3. Podcasts
A podcast will help audiences find your brand if they don’t have time or interest in reading content every day. The number of podcast listeners is growing — India has emerged as the third-largest podcast listening market in the world after China and the US, with 57.6 million monthly listeners.
If you have interesting people to interview or conversations to host, consider podcasting as another content format to experiment with.
4. Ebooks
Ebooks act as downloadable lead-generation tools for your potential customers once they are done submitting a lead form with their contact information. Ebooks will typically be longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which normally work well to attract visitors to a website.
You can also use ebooks to achieve different objectives depending on your team’s goals. After reading a blog post (such as this one), visitors might want more information. This is where calls-to-action (CTAs) come into play, directing people to a landing page where they can submit their contact information and download an ebook to learn more valuable information for their business.
In turn, the business producing the ebook has a new lead for the sales team to contact.
5. Case Studies
Case studies are an opportunity for you to tell a story of customers who have succeeded in solving a problem by working with you. A case study is one of your most versatile type of content marketing because it can take multiple different forms — some of which are already on this list. Case studies can take the form of a blog post, ebook, podcast, infographics or even a video.
A case study’s primary objective is to show people who are considering your offerings, that there is proof in the pudding. Before you choose a customer for a case study, you need to determine which format you want intend to produce this testimonial in and most importantly the area of your business to which you’re trying to drive value.
6. Templates
Templates are very handy content formats to try, they generate leads for you by being of tremendous importance to your audience.
When you provide your audience with templates you not only help them save them time and help them succeed but also demonstrate why you are the expert at what you do, they’re more likely to keep engaging with your content in and will take notice of your brand the future.
7. Infographics
Infographics organize and help your audiences visualize data in a more compelling way than text alone.
Infographics are great content formats to use if you’re trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
8. Tools & Applications
You could develop free tools and applications that provide an aspect of your offering or offer information that can be of tremendous value to your audience in return for potential audiences contact information, not only will your audiences spend more time engaging with you but also convert into sure shot leads for your business.
9. Social Media
Once you’ve been regularly publishing content on your own site for a while, it might be time to start thinking about distributing your content on other sites.
This could mean repurposing content into new formats and publishing them on your blog, creating original content specifically for external sites or publishing website content on various social networks.
Posting on social media, however, is pivotal to amplifying your brand’s reach and delivering your content to your customers where you know they spend their time. Social networks on which businesses often post include:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Snapchat
YouTube
When launching a business account on any of the social networks above, it’s important to post the type of content your followers expect to see. On Instagram, for example, users want photos, videos, and graphics that reflect current events, show off user-generated content, or even go behind the scenes of your organization.
On Facebook, your options for what to post open up a bit: Not only can you share your blog posts and website content, but you can also post native Facebook videos, product promotions, and original memes that resonate with your customers. You can also interact with other businesses that have a similar audience as your own.
While the goal on social media sites like Instagram or Snapchat is to connect more intimately with your audience, your goal on platforms like Facebook and Twitter is to expand that audience, drive traffic toward your website, and start conversations in your industry. Do some basic market research to discover which platforms your buyers are on, and mold your content to their expectations.
The best thing you can do is drive as many interactions (likes, comments, DMs, saves, and shares) as possible if you want to improve your ranking with the Instagram algorithm.
You will soon find that your content is being surfaced to new audiences by simply building momentum with your existing community.
Here are 7 ways to improve your algorithmic ranking and reach new audiences:
#1: Embrace Instagram’s Latest Features
Embrace Instagram’s latest features if you are looking for a fast-track way to gain favour with the Instagram algorithm.
Instagram will always give their latest features (such as Instagram Reels) a helping hand to help drive adoption, so it’s always a good idea to be in sync with the latest trends and take advantage of this extra boost.
Poll and emoji slider stickers are a quick and easy engagement win, and can work for almost any business or brand.
Question stickers may not be as quick to take part in, but they can be just as good at driving genuine engagement with your audience, which is highly valuable for the Instagram algorithm.
#3: Drive Conversations with Engaging Captions and Comments
It’s truly a great idea to encourage as many as possible engagements with your posts. Instagram has confirmed comments are super important when it comes to feed ranking, and one of the better ways to do this is, is by writing good captions that drive engagement.
Something as simple as asking your followers to share their thoughts or feelings, double-tap if they agree, or tag a friend in the comments.
your Instagram caption can go a long way when it comes to driving more interactions.
#4: Optimize Your Hashtag Strategy
on Instagram reaching more people, means more “views” for the Instagram algorithm to take into account. Adding hashtags to your posts is one of the most effective ways to do this.
A good hashtag strategy is of the essence to reach more people , especially the ones most likely to engage with your content and are relevant for your business.
Hashtag Suggestions works by automatically finding relevant hashtags for your posts based on other hashtags you use, this is a good way to discover new hashtags for your brand.
#5: Cross-Promote Your Instagram Content
Cross-promoting your Instagram content is a great place to start If you’re looking for a quick and easy engagement win to help boost your algorithm ranking.
By simply as sharing an enticing preview of an IGTV video to your feed, or even adding a feed post to stories with a “Tap Here” GIF, you can strategically drive different audiences to your most recent content thanks to different publishing options like feed, stories, IGTV and Reels.
#6: Keep On Top of Your DMs
Direct Messages (DMs) are a strong engagement indicator for the Instagram algorithm Much like comments and likes.
The Instagram algorithm is doing its best to serve you content it thinks you want to see, the accounts you DM most often are bumped to the front of your Instagram Stories feed.
Regularly invite your audience to DM you with their questions or feedback — or by simply encourage “quick emoji reactions.”
#7: Use Instagram Analytics to See What’s Working
One of the most reliable ways to take on the Instagram algorithm is to track and monitor how your content is performing on Instagram.
Save out on time and effort in the long run, having a better understanding of what’s working (and what isn’t) certainly helps you come up with an Instagram marketing plan that actually works for you in the long run
Truly understanding how your content performs – by tracking key metrics over time – is vital to knowing what helps improve your ranking, this means a lot more than just finding out which photo, video, or stories performed best.
The most important thing is to keep engaging with your audience at the heart of your strategy. Whatever tactic you choose to focus on to improve your algorithm ranking in 2021,Building a genuine relationship with your followers is the most powerful way to “hack” the algorithm and, most importantly, it will work wonders for your brand too.
Why do Marketers Need to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing helps you prepare and plan for robust, scalable and cost-effective sources of website traffic, engagements and new leads which ultimately translate into revenue for your business.
In short, If you have the resources to simply create even one single blog post that gets a steady amount of organic traffic, something like a free tool or an embedded link to an e-book will gradually generate leads and continue yielding results even long after you have Published.
Once you have a reliable source of traffic and leads from such content, your confidence of having developed it in the first place, will allow you the flexibility to experiment with other marketing tactics to generate revenue, like co-created content, sponsored stories, social media advertising, and distributed content. Your content will not only help educate your target prospects and generate awareness for your brand it will also help attract leads that have a higher propensity to convert into sales.
7 highly important steps that Marketers should make a note of, to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
1. Define your goal.
What’s your purpose of developing a content marketing plan? Exactly Why do you want to produce content, what will it mean for your business and how will it help increase your revenues ? Clearly defining your ambitions even before you begin planning will ensure that you’ll have an easier time determining what’s best for your strategy.
2. Take cognisance of you Consumer Dynamic.
To develop a plan that ultimately works, you will first need understand who your content’s target audience is most likely to be — also known as your buyer persona.
For those who are starting out or are new to marketing this step is extremely critical. Knowing your target audience, allows you to focus on producing more relevant and valuable content that your audience will want to read and engage with.
If you’ve been in the game for a while and you feel that your target may have changed. Ask yourself these questions before you begin, Do you want to target a new group of people or expand your current target market? Do you want to keep the same target audience?
Re-assessing your audience parameters by conducting market research every year is crucial to growing your audience.
3. Do a content audit.
It is easy to start out with simple blog posts, but before you can get down to creating other forms of content and investing time, effort and monies it would be good to consider exactly which formats of content that you will most likely focus on.
e.g. If you run a blog and have been posting stuff consistently for a year now, creating an e-book or a video that summarises key messages from all your blog posts into one ultimate guide or video would be one way to offer information in a different format.
Experienced marketers should make it a point to review content marketing efforts and the results from it in the last year by doing a content audit. This will help them understand what can be done differently in the coming year and gives them a sense of what new goals they would want to achieve.
4. Pick a content management system.
Invest in a system that helps you create, manage, and track your content, otherwise known as a content management system (CMS). A few important components of content management include content creation, content curation, content publication, and content analytics.
5. Brainstorm content ideas.
Now, it’s time to start coming up with ideas for your next content project.
Here are some tools to get the wheels turning:
Google Trends
Google Ads Keyword tool
HubSpot’s Website Grader
Feedspot / Feeder.co
BuzzSumo
Blog Post Headline Analyzer
TubeBuddy
Canva
6. Identify the types of content you want to create.
There are a many options out there for content formats you can create. Blogs, Infographics, Videos, Case Studies & Infographics are few most widely consumed content formats.
Think of which type of content will deliver your message to your audiences most effectively and on which platform.
7. Publish and manage your content.
Your content marketing plan should go beyond the types of content you’ll create be sure to also cover how you will eventually organize and schedule your content. With the help of an editorial calendar, you’ll be on the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content library on your website. Then, create a social media content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on other sites.
Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen — they’re just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn’t ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate spikes of traffic.
Most people count on incorporating popular holidays such as New Year’s and Diwali in their marketing efforts, but you don’t have to limit yourself to these important marketing dates.
If there are events that might appeal to your audience, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media around this period as well.
Content Strategy Examples
To understand what a content strategy is, it’s probably helpful if we explore some examples of real-life content strategies based off a few various business goals.
To start, let’s explore an example of a content strategy used for SEO purposes (with the ultimate goal of attracting new prospects to a website).
Evernote’s blog offers a wealth of knowledge around the topic of productivity. The blog post, How To Stay Disciplined When Times Are Tough, made me laugh out loud — and then incentivized me to grab a pen and write down some of the tips I liked best.
But why is a company that sells a note-taking app writing about discipline?
Because it’s how we found their website, when we searched “How to stay disciplined” on Google.
Evernote is a good example of a content strategy used to attract new leads. People interested in reading content related to productivity are likely the same people interested in downloading Evernote’s note-taking product (because what’s better than a to-do list for helping you stay on-task?).
On the contrary, if Evernote’s marketing team simply created content for the sake of increasing traffic — like publishing “Our 10 Favorite Beyonce Songs” — it wouldn’t be considered a content strategy at all; it would just be content.
A strategy needs to align content with business goals — in Evernote’s case, the strategy aligns content (blog posts on productivity) with the business goal of attracting leads (people interested in note-taking) to their site.
