As per 2020 research, only 29% of B2C and 26% of B2B marketers believe that they are successful at content Marketing.

However, the success rate is relatively low because today every small and big business is engaged in content marketing. It is fair enough to say that every entrepreneur, whether new or experienced, is there on Social Media channels to promote their products and services. But as mentioned above, not all business owners are successful in the world of content marketing.

The main reason behind getting stuck in mediocrity is the lack of understanding of the concept.  

Using social media platforms is easy until you have to scroll, or post content for self. But when it comes to doing business, it involves a lot of other things too like attracting customers, bringing in leads, engaging customers, running ads, increasing ROI, and the list is endless. All of these activities are carried out by creating content. And after generating content, the next step is to market that content on the right platforms.  

The process of placing the content on different Social Media Channels is called content marketing. Each step in digital marketing has its own detailing. Missing out any step can affect results. Whether it is creating content, generating leads, or earning ROI, every process needs strategy and planning. Without a well-defined strategy, one can neither overcome challenges nor optimize the process and both are important for the success of content marketing.  

In this blog, I will take you through the stages of content marketing. Learning about the stages is critical to implementing content marketing. Before diving right into the answer, let me first explain to you through an example.  

Let us say you have posted the content on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and others. Your content is right and exactly what your audience demands but you are unable to generate leads, attract more customers and earn ROI.  

Where are you doing wrong? The content is right, the audience is coming but not converting. It means the content marketing strategy is not correct. Good and well-planned content marketing is needed for overall success. 

Now let us see the stages involved in content marketing. 

The process involves five steps, research, planning, creating content, scheduling, publishing, analysis and revision of strategy. Let’s understand all these points in detail. 

Research and Planning 

This is the first stage and like all other processes, it also starts with research and planning. In this stage, you are required to conduct in-depth research. This may take time because you do not just have to simply scroll, but understand every competitor, social media channel, its working, its algorithms, and other technicalities. Once you learn about such details, you will easily be able to plan your content marketing strategy. Your research will also involve the following processes like: 

• Understanding the type of content, you will create 
• For whom will you create a content  

• Channels you will use to publish and market the content  
• How frequently will you publish 

During the planning and research process, you must have clear answers to all these queries. Once you are able to define your path, adhering to it will not be a big challenge. 

So, make sure the research is conducted well and everything is planned in advance. Planning things in advance does not mean everything will go exactly as planned. Unexpected things may even happen but if things are planned, adjusting those will not be an issue. So, planning helps in creating a fine balance.  

Create Content  

Once you complete your research, the next step will be to create content based on what you have found what might work for your brand. Creating content is another process that also involves several steps and stages. In case of content marketing, you have to create content based on several factors like the type of social media channel you have chosen, type of content (videos, images, graphics, etc.) Every social media channel differs from each other in terms of audience, content need, demographic of the audience. Keeping all these factors in mind, you should generate the content. Also, while creating content, you must keep SEO in mind. It involves the right usage of primary, secondary keywords. Adding relevant keywords will help in improving the Google ranking as well as bring your brand to the notice.  

Content Scheduling and Publishing 

Now you have generated the content for various social media platforms. The next step will be to schedule the content. You can do it through a content scheduling calendar. Scheduling the content is important because social media works differently. Going by its algorithm, you should neither post a lot of content in a day nor should you post one type of content.  

‘Variety is The Spice of Life and Of Social Media’ 

Using relevant hashtags and posting variety is the key because you cannot feed your audience the same type of content daily. They look for variety and something new. After you have scheduled the content. The next step is to publish it. If you have your content calendar ready, publishing will not be difficult anymore. 

The calendar will organize and provide you with a clear direction. You can also use automatic scheduling and publishing tools to optimize the process. 

Publishing the content is still not the last stage. You just cannot publish the content and expect people to find it and engage in it. To attract customers towards your content, you would need content promotion. Marketing or promoting each content type is also another concept. 

Test, Analyze, and Revise   

Everything that you do in digital marketing can be tested. Testing is important too because it tells you whether your strategy is worth using or not. If you will generate results or not. So, conducting a test gives you an idea of which content will do good for your business. Conduct A/B test and analyze the results.  

The content marketing process will stay incomplete until you analyze your performance, identify areas for improvement, and revise the strategy. By doing all these three things, you keep improving with every step and your content marketing process also gets efficient. 

Conclusion 

What is your content without marketing? What is your content planning without promoting? The answer is a waste of time and effort. If you create content, use it, publish it, market it. But even before that consider following the above-discussed steps. Creating content and going through the entire process of content marketing is not a thing of one day or two. It requires time and patience.  

I would be lying if I said your content will create magic every time you post on social media. No, it will not because it is not you who decides the success of your content marketing, but your audience does. Still, there is nothing to worry about because before clicking the publish button, you get a chance to test its success through A/B test. Else, you can always avail the services of the best content marketing company, the Big Unit in Australia. 

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