Boost your business with content marketing

A good content marketing plan will:

  • attract new customers
  • encourage your existing customers to buy more
  • make sure your content is consistent and regular
  • provide you with backup content

Use our free content plan template below to start mapping your online content.

Before you create your content plan

Define your goals

A content marketing plan works best if it clearly links back to the business goals you've defined for your website and other online channels. Your existing marketing plan is a great place to start, so use it to:

  • write down the messages you want to convey to your audience
  • build a strategy
  • develop a schedule and stick to it – be specific and realistic about your scheduling – avoid being aimless and scattered

Know your audience

Find out where your audience 'hangs out' online – are there industry forums, online communities or other websites that are doing really well in your space?

Reading forum posts, comments and social media chatter will also keep your finger on the pulse of what your audience wants to read about – and how they speak. It's important your content isn’t a one-way stream, so take the time to tune-in to what your customers and competitors are saying, and use that information to shape your messages.

Research your content – be discoverable

Search keywords, fresh content and trend awareness will help people discover your content. Use search engine optimisation (SEO) on your website and other online content so you're getting the best ranking that you can in search results – making it more likely that your content will be discovered and read. Discoverability should also be about promoting your content.

There are many free and low-cost tools that will schedule Tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn status updates to go out once you've completed a website update or blog post. Find other websites or people who would find your content useful and share it with them.

Create regular content

Tell a story and update regularly. You'll retain more loyal readers with consistent monthly articles than with daily posts for the first week followed by a few weeks of silence.

When you create your content marketing plan, create a realistic schedule that you can stick to.

Measure your results and stay on track

Tracking and analytics should be part of your plan, with results regularly gathered and reported on. These insights can help a business redirect its campaign when certain elements aren’t working, ensuring success and boosting return on investment (ROI).

Social media analytics are a great way to get information on campaigns specific to various social media sites.

  • Google Analytics is a free service that can provide insight on customers and audience search habits, both on PCs and mobile devices.
  • Platforms like Sprout Social and Hootsuite provide both social media publishing and management tools as well as social media analytics, with reports customised to your needs.
  • Google Garage offers free training to help you build your web presence, connect through email, get noticed with social media and more.