First, Be More Strategic
1. Be goal-oriented and intentional with your content.
Define all of your goals. Your content should drive multiple objectives, and while one of the most important ones is to sell more of your products, sales, and product-related content is not enough. In fact, only posting solely product content can be a real turn-off for many.
For example, our purpose here at Tumplate is to help you to get better content marketing results. We also share content that does not directly sell our product, but it helps you in your job.
2. Create a content marketing framework.
Create a framework for how you can build your content marketing matrix, and especially think about your main content themes (also called content pillars) and main content styles. These all drive your marketing goals and are not just nice to have things you could be posting.
Many go directly into very operative tactical ways of planning content, but before that, build a framework that leans on the actual needs and objectives you have.
Instead of starting by planning that “on Mondays, we publish helpful tips on Instagram”, ask the reason behind that content.
For example:
- Why create “helpful tips”?
- What objectives do they drive?
- How is this driving our objectives?
- Who are we writing them for?
- Why Instagram?
- Why Mondays?
Don’t trust that you “just know it works”.
3. Define platforms and marketing channels.
In addition, you can think of the third dimension of your content marketing matrix, the platforms where you are publishing content.
Sometimes companies have multiple different teams working on different marketing channels. Make sure that you have a good overall strategy that every team is following. Your content does not have to be exactly the same on each channel, but they do have to seamlessly fit together and make sense as a whole.
Deliver To Your Customers
4. Know your customers.
Think of your content strategy as a flight destination map, where all flights eventually return to the home airport.
Your job is to create awareness of your destination, instructions on how to book the flight, and what people can expect once they arrive at your destination. And while the audience, your ideal customers, might have many things in common, ultimately you will have multiple touch points, and multiple requirements your customers need in order to “book the flight”.
Knowing who your customers are, and what they need is one of the most important things in order to create your content marketing strategy.
What are their needs and interests? What kind of information are they looking for? Once you have a good understanding of your target audience, coming up with ideas will be much easier.
5. Ask your audience directly what they want to hear from you.
The best way to deliver great content is to give exactly what your customers want.
Create surveys, ask “this or that” questions, do polls, and conduct interviews. You get the picture.
6. Use tracking tools and look at your analytics.
People say one thing, but statistics will give you the whole picture. Use data to analyze what is actually working, and what is not. Do a deeper analysis of the data.
Even if something didn’t get as many likes or comments doesn’t always mean that it’s not worthy content to publish. Longer format expert content might be exactly what makes your customers buy and trust you, but the funny behind-the-scenes videos on social media might still get ten times more visibility. The content that “isn’t performing” might actually be one of the most important pieces in your content mix.
Always Be Searching
7. Stay on top of the trends.
One of the challenges of content managers is that they have be able to stick to their original content plan and long-term goals, and also be on top of the trends.
Please do not let trend-chasing keep you from the strategic work.
In fact, the better strategy and confidence you have in your strategy, the easier it will be to do ad hoc content, jump on new trends, and test new ideas.
Does it fit in your big picture? Go for the trendy idea.
Does it not fit in your strategy and overall goals? Don’t waste time, just because it’s trendy.
8. Set up research systems.
Staying on top of trends, competitors, customers, and the market situation requires constant research. Keeping one finger on the pulse of the markets helps you to get content ideas that are timely and have a better chance of converting.
There are tons of great online resources that can help you to stay on top of your industry news, and come up with ideas for your content.
Try using Google Alerts to get notified whenever new content is published on relevant topics. You can also set up RSS feeds for specific websites or blogs that always have fresh, relevant content. Follow social media managers and content experts that share best practices on TikTok, and LinkedIn, or subscribe to their newsletters.
You can also use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. This tool allows you to see how often certain keywords are being searched for on the internet. Use this information to base your content around topics that people are already interested in.
And of course, social media is the best way to see what your customers and competitors are up to. One of the best ways is to follow specific hashtags.
9. Check out your competitors.
Take a look at what kind of content your competitors are creating.
You can try to come up with ideas that are similar but different enough to set your content apart. Or you can make sure that your content is completely different from theirs and that you really stand out.
10. Brainstorm ideas with someone.
Sometimes it helps to brainstorm ideas with someone else, and different teams in your organization will have a different view of what kind of content they think would work the best.
11. Answer frequently asked questions.
The best is if the questions are from your customers, but you can also use sites like Quora or Yahoo! Answers to see what kind of questions people in your industry are asking.
Be Organized, Even On-the-Go
12. Get organized.
Set up a system for how you collect content ideas.
On mobile:
- Take screenshots
- Use Notes to write down ideas
- Save on social media channels or send to yourself
- Record audio memos to yourself when you are on the go, and inspiration strikes.
13. Have a master spreadsheet list of content ideas.
Set up a Google Sheet, Airtable, or some other spreadsheet for the ideas.
Instead of just having a doc with a list, set up a spreadsheet so you can add additional information about the ideas.
For example:
- Which content theme/pillar the idea belongs to
- What objective it drives
- Which channel the idea should be posted
- Who could create the content
14. Save good content you find for later reference.
When you see inspiring content, you can use Pinterest or Flipboard to collect them fast.
Create a Pinterest or Flipboard board for each topic, and save blog posts and articles fast.
You got this
15. Try mind mapping.
You already have a lot of ideas, but perhaps you just need to make sure that they all create a cohesive message as a whole.
Sticking to your content themes is one way to remember it, and mind mapping can be a great way to visually organize your thoughts and come up with new ideas. Get started by creating a central topic, then branching out from there with subtopics and ideas.
You can use pen and paper or digital tools like Miro.
16. Check your notes.
Most likely you are already doing many of these things listed in this post.
But perhaps you just needed a reminder: you have great ideas, just remember to write them down and then check your notes later on!
Organizing your thoughts, and using the correct tools that help you to organize and create your content ideas, assets, and the content itself will make all the difference.
How can you publish all of those marketing ideas with Tumplate?
Social media managers can easily create high-quality digital content fast for multiple different channels.
You never have to start designing, only to focus on the message you want to say, Tumplate takes care that your design and brand always looks good.
Scaling your social media content production gets so much easier with Tumplate.
Questions about Tumplate answered here.
Get a free trial and give Tumplate content editor a try!
