You might be writing daily blogs to support your brand, but do you possess an authentic blog content strategy? Blogs are one of the best ways for marketers to promote their brand and provide important information to users. As a blogger, you must be familiar that running a blog is so much more than merely writing posts. It also encompasses mail Marketing, social media, product development, creation, sales, and so much more. Today’s digital marketing era commands top-notch blogs to boost SEO and garner high ROI.

Every business needs a dedicated blog content strategy to render success to your blogging venture. A thought-out blogging plan sets the foundation of lifelong customer loyalty while accelerating your digital marketing efforts. Thus, devise a solid blog content strategy to attract site traffic and outshine your competitors. This article will enlighten you on how every blogger can form their blog content plan and achieve success in online marketing.

Here are nine steps on how to create a perfect blog content strategy:

Brainstorm Ideas with your Team

Brainstorming ideas with your teammates is a great option if you want to craft new blogging topics. You can leverage a brain template for a presentation and showcase collective ideas. Choose ideal keywords and research your competition online to get a steady flow of ideas for your blog content releases. Stick to creating original and groundbreaking content catering to your target audience.

It can be said that creative ideas do not always pop-out of thin air! It is the brainstorming that makes you discover what your audience expects, turns your creative gears on, and churn out ideas that you might not otherwise think of! You may also consider using content aggregators like Feedly or switch to social media for a good brainstorming session and generate ideas that hold the potential to disrupt the digital landscape.

Define Your Goals and Set Clear Objectives

Pin down some objectives and stay clear about the goals that you want to achieve with your blog. Your next step consists of checking those stated goals against your overall content strategy. Your blogging content may have the following aims:

• Improve your brand’s SEO ranking on search engines
• Attract old customers back for more business deals
• Boost inbound traffic and polish brand recognition
• Generate fresh leads for sales
• Building brand awareness
• Generate organic traffic

For example, if your brand prioritizes thought-leadership then you must create original content with data-driven articles. Ensure to form and practice SMART goals. They should be specific, measurable with KPIs, attainable, realistic, and time-specific. 

Identify Your Target Audience

You have decided to create blogging content, but how well do you know your audience? Creating an audience persona for your potential clients allows you to gather data about their needs and reach them. Here are a few things to keep in mind while identifying your prospective audience:

• Establish a reader persona: Know your potential audience’s psychographic, demographic, and behavioral profiles to publish appropriate blog content.
• Audience Platform: Find out the favorite places of your audience where they like to read your blogs. Conduct a thorough survey whether they prefer Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or LinkedIn.
• Kow Journey of Blog Reader: Readers always search for answers. So, when the correct title appears on the SERPs, they will visit your blog page. Visit social media sites and forums to gather the kind of questions the audience in your niche is asking.

Stick To a Content Calendar

When it comes to staying on track with the content publication, a calendar plays an imperative role. Creating and following a content calendar religiously will help you publish top-notch content without delays. You can set-up a manual calendar or may sign-up for advanced content calendars with social sharing and email marketing features. The content calendar provides a bird's eye view into your content strategy and bundles the whole editorial process.

The content calendar is excellent for brainstorming, planning out your posts and, tailoring the same for each platform. For instance, what's meant for LinkedIn might not suit the audience on Facebook. Schedule two pieces together to go out at different times, different social platforms, with a single click. Marketers may experience over a 60% boost in their marketing efforts once they start leveraging content calendars.

Search for Keywords (KWs)

Conducting keyword research is requisite for every blog content creation strategy. Critical thinking plays a huge role while choosing the right KWs. It allows you to focus on specific search terms that help your content get noticed by your potential audience. You can utilize Google Keyword Planner as it also runs with Google Analytics. Here is everything you need to know about KWs:

• Commercial KWs- encourages visitors to purchase products and services from your blog site who search for them.
• Informative KWs- Such KWs encourage readers to engage, visit, and share your content.
• Short Tail vs. Long Tail KWs- The former comprises just one or two words like ‘home’ or ‘business intelligence’. The latter contains more words like ‘homes near my area’. You must always look for a combination of both considering the search volume and SEO rankings.

Set Budgets

Keep the Return on Investment (ROI) in mind while setting budgets for your blogs. Ensure to ask these questions- What is it costing you to produce your blog content? How long will it take to get a return on the cost for traffic, leads, email sign-ups, or conversions? Are you looking to establish your brand as a thought-leader in a particular industry?

Kickstart your 2021 content marketing strategy and form a budget worksheet to track and allocate your total budget including, all the aspects. One should always remember that investing in quality content is a win-win for your business. It is the content that is the backbone of your content marketing endeavors.

Hire Content Creators or Be One

Every organization requires best-in-class bloggers to curate content and write splendid articles. Many brands juggle with the question of using in-house or outsourcing content creation. Do you possess an internal marketing department having the bandwidth and skills for the project? Do you own the budget or hire freelance or full-time writers?

Where B2B companies disburse 29% of the marketing budget for content writing, B2C companies outlay about 26%. You can either hire a team of writers to assist with the blogging or start writing it yourself. In the game of content, quality & quantity both matter. You must publish at least 3-4 times a week, and pieces must be SEO friendly and engaging enough to generate leads.

Blog Launch to Get the Word Out

Your blog necessitates an official launch like any other product. Refer to your buyer persona and make a list of all the channels they choose to get their information. Pick well-known platforms with diverse customer numbers to build your brand awareness. Pair your blog with paid advertisements if your aim includes increasing inorganic search. Take a look at these points to popularize your blog:

• Social Media
• Reach Micro-Influencers
• Repurpose Blog Content
• E-Mails
• Post Blog related answers on Quora
• Community Spread

Measure with Metrics

It is essential to measure the blog metrics in your blogging journey to determine whether you are moving in the right direction. A blog post must serve as a call to action (CTA) to gain customer information and increase touchpoints. Below are some blog metrics to keep in mind:

• Pages per visit
• New session
• Comments
• Channels
• Shares and likes on Social Media
• Lead Generations and Conversions
• Sales Metrics
• Back-Link velocity

Wrapping It Up

You can come up with a blog content strategy having immense potential but still fail! At all times, you must listen to your customers. Data analysis on the deployed strategy is the key to success. Keep monitoring content Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and fine-tuning the strategies for churning out the best results. Big publishing brands today are leveraging Big Data to amplify their content and reach!

The best marketing teams realize the significance of forming an effective content strategy to publish successful blogs. It may seem tempting to broadcast blog posts as soon as they come to mind. But creating a documented blog content strategy will save your time and energy. Follow the above-mentioned tips to build a scalable content strategy and encompass the potential to achieve striking results.