Five steps for developing a comprehensive SEO Content Marketing Strategy

One of the most cost-effective and efficient ways of establishing brand awareness is attracting and nurturing leads. You should also build trust with your target audience and acquire new customers. When planned and executed strategically, the content marketing strategy can boost the web traffic to the business website it could, increase your social following to a great extent, and it can also establish yourself as an established industry leader.

An effective content marketing plan is extremely strategic in production and delivery. Your content will lose all its meaning without a well-developed plan for execution.

Mentioned below are the five steps for developing a comprehensive SEO content marketing strategy-

1. Set your goals strategically

You should map out an overview of your strategy to know what content pieces work best for your brand. You should also establish the ROI targets and outline a clear direction for the growth of your business. Given below are some goals that will help you get started-

• Increase website traffic

One can increase website traffic by creating unique content that cuts through the noise. The content should be such that it stands out. Most people use Google to find specific, thorough, and accurate answers to their questions, and the content should provide you with the solutions. 

• Attract new prospects

It is essential to keep attracting new prospects to expand your horizons. You can also write guest posts as it is an effective way to generate backlinks and boost traffic. It also increases the SERP rankings to a great extent.

• Converts lead to customers

To build a base, you should start prospecting every lead. You should start converting leads to customers.

2. Understand your audience

After you are done setting your goals, you should identify and understand your audience. It is crucial as the purchase decision depends on whether they find the content valuable. The content marketers should also keep in mind their target audience for creating content that sells and appeals to the customers. If the content is such that it resonates well with the customers, they will buy your product or purchase your service.

You should also collect demographic data by creating the right content that reaches your customers. Web analytics and social media are the two most reliable sources of audience data. These two sources provide the customer insights such as education, income and interests. 

Following are some ways to understand your audience-

• If you want to know your audience on a deeper level, you should review any current data about the group they have already collected, and it also includes the relevant analyses your company has conducted. You should also consider the audience-related information you are missing, and what you need to obtain.
• You should research your audience and not neglect what is currently working for your audience in terms of the products and services. This valuable information needs to be documented and tells your audiences about your service and products. As your business grows, you should refer to the testimonials when making any important decisions about your business.
• You can also create buyer personas. With them, you will be able to understand the needs and wants of your audience. These buyer personas will guide you and allow you to market to your specific audience very effectively. You can also understand a wide array of reasons why your audience members need your product.

3. Streamline the content process

Content production is done when you are completely done with the first two processes. If you want to produce fast and efficient content, you should streamline it. 

Mentioned below are a few ways to streamline your content-

• Customize your template

You should familiarize yourself with the template tabs and add custom tabs that are unique to your company. You should consider how you and your team members might add tabs or filters to make the navigation way simpler.

• Stay consistent will the small details.

You should consistently add dates, content and relevant links to make it easy to navigate and organize content as you start building your template. 

Many people make use of On-page SEO services, which are the services that optimize your website to improve its visibility in the search results. 93% of the online experiences begin with a search engine, and it also results in a much higher rate of SEO leads.

• Update it regularly

If you want your insights to be fresh and timely, it is essential to stay consistent and update the content regularly. 

• Set guidelines for multiple users

It is essential to set guidelines for the content marketing team. You should decide who will manage the Q&A process and who will supplement answers with industry research. It is also very important to determine who is going to take the lead in creating content with the insights. 

• Add content wherever possible

You should add notes and the follow-up questions that are being asked by the customers. It is also important to consider the opinion of the customers that engage with your website.

• Crowdsource knowledge across your team

You should encourage your staff to answer questions about their roles and experiences. It is very important to decide on your staff consideration. Their inputs matter the most.

4. Distribute content effectively

SEO content optimization and marketing is not only about developing high-quality content for your target audience. It also deals with the entire process of promoting and distributing your content through the different spectrum of channels. Your content should be distributed properly for reaching the widest audience possible. You should also keep an eye out on the ROI targets such as driving traffic to your website, gaining authority and attracting new prospects and customers. Below are the two common ways to distribute content-

• Building an email list

One should have a mailing list as reaching out to people via email is more effective for acquiring a wider base audience.

Following are some of the ways to do that-

-Include CTA buttons on every landing page that is present on the site.

-Add pop-up images on all the landing pages.

-Add email captures at the end of the blog posts.

-Re-engage your inactive subscribers.

Once you are done creating your email list, you can also process the content distribution part. You have the option of creating a paid subscription model for the premium content and sending weekly newsletters and exclusive content. One can also offer discount coupons to the customers. These are the things that will help you engage and connect with potential customers. The conversion rates are also likely to improve as this has a greater outreach.

• Social media

This is another powerful platform for distributing content. Many people all around the globe use social networking sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You should try to establish your presence on most of these channels for attracting a greater pool of customers. 

5. Optimize your content for SEO

Search engine optimization and content marketing are the two things that go hand in hand together. These two dynamics are different in content, however, they are a very essential combination for content marketing for generating good results. Content marketing focuses a lot on creating and distributing content for a target audience and SEO is the one that makes your content visible in search engines. Following are the two main benefits of optimizing your content for SEO-

• It will also help your site rank higher on Google

Quality content engages your target audience. If a greater number of readers pick up your content and share it with their network, it creates a greater engagement ratio and gives more traffic to your site. With more and more engagement and clicks on the content, the search engines recognize your site as relevant and valuable to users. Google thinks that online users are searching and liking your content. Thus, Google also rewards your page with a very high position in SERP.

You will start attracting more targeted traffic which will increase your customer base after building a very strong web presence with a higher site ranking. Thus, the brand can establish a strong brand presence online.

• SEO-optimized content like landing pages can prompt higher conversions

If you want to decrease the loading speed of a page, you should provide a pleasant user experience for your audience.

When your webpage loads fast, everything is easy to navigate and the site visitors may stay for a long while and continue browsing.

 Wrapping up 

Your content marketing approach won’t start working right away. The centre of your marketing initiatives should still be your content marketing strategy, though. It’s essential for developing your brand identity and gaining the trust of your intended market.

If you’re developing a content marketing strategy for the first time or have been using the same technique for some time, it’s crucial to regularly update it so that it remains relevant, creative, and interesting for your target audience.