How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

Wednesday, December 21st 2022. | Sample Templates

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan – If you’re a marketer, you have one job: to create content that wins people’s hearts and minds, and turns them into lifelong followers of your brand. It’s not easy, especially when you need to create great content every time (and within budget), but it’s much easier when you have a plan that aligns you with your long-term goals. This is why good marketing starts with a good marketing plan. This is also why many marketers struggle.

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Content Marketing 2021 report, only 43% of marketers have digital content. This means that most marketers are working on a random strategy—or not. In any case, this lack of organization is reflected in the types of things that are not together, their ideas are not heard, and they struggle to find space. So why don’t most marketers see it? Because creating a content plan can be intimidating—and there are plenty of excuses to keep you from doing it.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

We have it. But, in the end, making a plan is one of – if not the – most important work you can do, no matter how big or small your brand is. And, hey, you don’t have to do it alone.

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We’ve helped brands of any size, in any industry, create the strategic content they need to connect with their audience and move people down the path to purchase. In this way, we have learned what makes a lesson bad, what makes it good, and what is better. And now, we are ready to pass that knowledge on to you.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

Here, you’ll find a step-by-step guide that contains our best tips, tricks, tools, and examples to create a solid guide that will set you up for success. If you’re doing this for the first time (or testing your current plan), we hope this guide will give you the confidence you need to get things on track. Ready? Lets go.

Of course, before creating a good user program, you need to know exactly what you are creating, why it is important, and how to approach it in the right way. So, let’s start with the essentials.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

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It is very simple. A marketing plan is a written plan that outlines your content marketing goals and helps you identify the stories and events that will help you achieve them.

That’s easy too. Without a strategic plan, you’re shooting in the dark, creating content that doesn’t work as it should, and working harder than you can with solid data. At the end of your campaign, quarter, and annual cycle, you can’t evaluate your success because you didn’t have a plan to begin with.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

Just because you have a guide on paper doesn’t mean it will help your brand. There are many marketers who have a strategic plan but struggle to a) execute it or b) see real results.

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Remember: The best plan is built for your brand, built to your strengths, and designed to help you tell the best story.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

We divide the strategic planning process into three main areas: Discovery, Planning, and Creation, with specific tasks assigned to each of them.

Running your strategy in this order allows you to create a comprehensive strategy, from your top goals down to your ultimate goal.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

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It takes time, focus and energy to keep a record of your plan, but don’t worry. Little effort and big payoff. Plus, we’ve seen brands do everything in the disaster plan in the book (and done a few of our own), so we know what works and what to avoid.

We’ve outlined here the basic steps any brand can follow to create a solid yet flexible business plan. This process will guide you through three different areas, including high-level ideas and evaluation actions/efforts for each. In the end, you should have a strong and practical plan that you can use.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

That said, we know that each species has unique needs, so you can adjust this system accordingly. Some of these sections may already be written, so it’s okay to update, but it’s important to follow the process in chronological order. This ensures that all aspects of your strategy are aligned and optimized to give you the best results.

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Before you get started, download our Strategy Planning tool, which includes the examples you’ll need to work through the process.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

Note: Make sure you have the right partners involved from the start—and get their approval for every step. Remember that there are many other people involved in the execution of your content plan, including your sales team, marketing specialists (Web & CRM), designers, copywriters, etc. for content planning, consider how your decisions will affect your team.

Before you start planning for the future, you need to hit the pause button, step back, and review what you’re doing now and why.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

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When a content plan doesn’t work, it usually doesn’t align with the company’s larger goals. So, the first step is to go back to basics: who you are, where you play, how you compete, and what you are trying to achieve. You may think you already know this information, but it’s worth revisiting with fresh eyes.

Remember: Understanding your competition is the most important thing to help you see things. When you can identify the messaging gaps in your business, then fill those gaps (or communicate better than your competition), you’ll create stronger connections with your target audience. (Learn how to complete a competitive analysis if you need to improve your competitive landscape.)

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

At this point, you’ll also need to review key elements of your brand plan, which include your:

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All three elements must appear in your content plan if you want to tell stories that relate to you. (If you haven’t recorded these elements, follow our Guide to Creating a Brand Guide.)

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

It is a good guide in terms of clarity, consistency, and purpose. This means that each part is designed for a specific reason and is bound for a specific purpose. The problem is that most teams care more about quantity than quality, focusing more on hitting their deadlines than making a real impact.

This tunnel vision leads to inconsistent, unbalanced, and ultimately ineffective content marketing. The first step to solving this is to thoroughly check your content with a proper test. By looking at the type of content you create, what messages you send or don’t use, what works and what doesn’t, it gives you the information you need to build a cohesive strategy and tell stories that connect with people. .

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

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To conduct a proper test, you will review a sample of what you (and your competitors) offer to the world. In general, the content falls into five main categories.

To complete this step, use the Content Audit Template and see our Guide to Conducting a Content Audit .

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

Your content marketing process can be complex, requiring a lot of tools and digital infrastructure. These tools can be very helpful, but they can also be reused. It’s important to test your existing technology stack before creating your new plan for a few reasons.

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Use the Tools and Tech Stack Template to list the technologies and tools you use to create, host, and distribute your content across channels. This includes things like your…

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

Now is the time for you to analyze your social media marketing and record how you are using each aspect. It will define the who, what, when, where, and how of your operation. This will ensure that you are prepared to implement a content plan and use your resources as efficiently as possible.

Not only will this work make your business more successful, but it will also make it easier to work with people outside of your organization, such as an advertising agency.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

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Goals: Define measurable goals to keep your team engaged. You have a complete plan of things to help you achieve your goals. Basically, you need to clearly define what those things are—and make sure everyone on your team understands what they are. This is very important; Every decision your team makes about content, from copy, design, to distribution, will be driven by these goals.

We often find that weak strategies can backfire on weak goals that are too vague or too broad. To be successful, you need clear goals that you can measure.

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

To work through this exercise, use our Goal Setting Template. This document will help you summarize your entire strategy so that everyone understands what you are trying to do. (You cannot move forward until these goals are identified and achieved.) It will also be your North Star, guiding your decisions and actions. Strengthen your team in any direction. For more information, see our guide to documenting your marketing goals.

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Your goals are the true foundation of your fulfillment

How To Create A Content Marketing Plan

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