Like any project, taking the time to plan a content strategy for your blog will greatly improve your chances of being successful. Blogging without a plan usually results in a waste of time and money. To create a content strategy you need to find your target audience, learn how to connect with them, provide valuable content, and evaluate your performance. A Nashville digital marketing agency can help you do this. Here are four simple steps that the team at AtomicDesign has found to work!
1 Find your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your blog? Are you trying to attract industry leaders, potential clients, peers, etc.? Don’t dilute your focus by trying to be everything to everyone, select your target audience and stick to it.
2 Set the tone. When writing content it’s imperative to use a consistent voice and message. Every blog post you write and your responses to comments should always be talking to the user using the same tone. Conflicting messages will weaken your branding efforts.
3 Determine the information you will provide to visitors. In order to create valuable information that will reach your audience, you need to understand what they’re looking for. It’s crucial to write about topics they’re interested in and find valuable.
Decide if you are you going to give visitors tips, industry news, or answers to common questions about products or services you offer. We’ve found that a mix of tips, news, and company updates work the best for us, but every Nashville website is different. If you’re just starting your blog, it’s a good idea to post a variety of information to determine what works the best for your audience.
4 Measure your performance! Google Analytics is a great tool full of valuable data to help you determine if your blog and website are getting visitors. An increase in visitors, leads, subscribers, social shares and inbound links are all great metrics to determine your blog’s success. You need to measure performance regularly to identify weaknesses in the content and topics you are producing. Just because you think its great content doesn’t it’s resonating with your audience.
Creating a blog content strategy is only the first step. In order to be successful you’ll have to revaluate your content strategy a number of times. Once every quarter, you should review steps 3 and 4 to ensure you’re continually proving your audience with valuable content.
