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How to Get Started With Content Marketing

How To Get Started With Content Marketing

Sometimes, the hardest part of any project is getting started. That’s definitely the case with content marketing. You might be well aware of the benefits of using content marketing to reach particular goals, but have no idea how to go about putting a strategy and plan together, and then into action. Getting started with content marketing isn’t as difficult as you might think.  In fact, you can get a campaign going in just six simple steps:

6 Steps To Get Started With Content Marketing

1. Take a look at what others are doing.

Step one when figuring out how to get started with content marketing might surprise you: It’s a good idea to take a look at what your competitors are doing in terms of content marketing.
Knowing what the competition is up to can help you figure out both what to do and what not to do. For example, you can look at a competitor’s social profiles to see which types of content they post and get the most engagement. You can also use a tool such as SimilarWeb to see how blog posts and other content your competitors create perform.
Once you’ve seen what your competitors are doing, it can be tempting to copy them. A word of advice: Don’t. There are two reasons for that. One, your brand might have different goals than your competitors, and copying their style and content might not help you achieve your goals.
Two, no one likes a copycat. You want to produce content that’s original and unique to your brand.

2. Identify your audience.

Once you’ve got an idea of the content marketing landscape, the next step is to draw up a portrait of your ideal audience. You need to know who you’re addressing, and what that audience wants. Having that information will, at the very least, help you figure out what type of content to create, where to post it, and how to promote it.

3. Come up with goals.

The third step to getting started with content marketing is to identify your goals. What do you want the content to do? Knowing who your audience is and what it wants will help you in some ways, as you’ll be able to shape your goals to match the needs of the audience.

4. Find your team.

You know your audience, and you have some goals — now you just need a team to help you execute your plan and get your content marketing off of the ground. Who your team is can vary based on your budget and overall content needs. When you’re just getting started, it might just be you, an editor, an SEO expert, and a handful of freelance content creators.

5. Create a calendar.

Now that you have a team, you need to come up with a plan for your content. Brainstorm ideas for topics and content types, based on your audience, what’s trending, and your goals. Then put those ideas down into a calendar or schedule.
Don’t underestimate the value of a calendar when you’re getting started with content marketing. Having an idea of how much you want to publish and when you want to publish it will help you stay on track, even when other things get in the way.

6. Create, publish, track, repeat.

The last step when getting started with content marketing is actually a multi-step process. You want to create the content, publish and promote it, track its results, and then repeat the process as needed.
More importantly, you’ll want to look at the results from your first few pieces of content and figure out what you need to change moving forward. Perhaps your audience isn’t into blog posts, but enjoys videos. Maybe people share the posts that have pictures more than those that don’t.
Although it’s easy to get started with content marketing, it does take some skill and effort to master it. Just remember that practice makes perfect, and that the sooner you get started with your content marketing, the sooner you’ll get it down to a science.

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