You may have started blogging for fun but soon, you’ll realize the amazing potential this activity has. A blog can be used in numerous ways.
You can blog to promote your writing and gain a massive audience for your texts.
You can blog to earn an income and eventually quit your job – there are many examples of people who have already accomplished the goal.
A blog can be your writing portfolio that you use to attract new clients.
Whatever the end outcome, you have to treat blogging seriously.
To make the most of the opportunity, you need to be strategic. Having a content calendar, knowing what you’re going to publish and why are some of the most important elements of this strategy.
Do you need a blog content strategy to be successful in the long run?
The short answer is yes.
A content marketing blog strategy will enable you to reach the right audience, build your online reputation, maximize traffic and eventually – generate sufficient online revenue.
Putting together a sound blog content strategy is dependent on several elements. A good understanding of your target audience is one of the keys.
What Is a Blog Content Strategy?
A content strategy is a plan that focuses on the conceptualization, creation, aggregation and delivery of the right content to your target audience of interest.
In other words, you’re not going to hit success just once and then fade from the night sky into blogging oblivion.
Long-term success is dependent on a few things.
You have to plan the nature of the content you’re going to create, the upload schedule and even the manner in which you’re going to popularize the blog posts after they go live.
All of this sounds great but how can a strategic approach to content creation help you improve the performance of your blog?
Statistics suggest that content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising.
Of all marketers, 55 percent confirm that blogging strategically is their number one priority in terms of online advertising.
A content strategy is about niche, properly created and frequently uploaded content.
Both the relevance and the frequency of updates is important in terms of making your online presence meaningful.
Companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month have 3.5 times more traffic than companies that publish up to four blog posts in the same period.
In other words, you have to focus on creating quality content and uploading it often enough to keep your audience engaged and to attract new visitors to your blog.
There’s no universal formula for the creation of the right content marketing strategy for a blog.
A few variables will have to be examined and these will form the basis for the strategic approach towards content creation.
Are you a newbie who isn’t exactly sure how to approach the issue?
The Elements of a Content Marketing Strategy
Before you start thinking about the best ways to monetize your blog, you’ll need to work hard on the creation of quality content for the right audience.
A content marketing blog strategy is based on various important considerations that we’re going to take a look at right now.
Define Your Goals
Strategies enable you to achieve a specific outcome.
To accomplish the goal, you need to have a good idea about what you’re trying to do with the blog and how a content strategy can be incorporated in the mix.
A blog content strategy can be used to grow traffic, promote products, get people signing up for exclusive content or increase the overall popularity of your brand.
Start by defining your goal and use actual dimensions to know what you’re trying to accomplish and after how much time.
Once you have a purpose for blogging, you can move on to examining the other elements of your content strategy.
Click here to learn more about defining blog goals and reaching them within a specified timeframe.
Audience Personas
Who’s the person you’re trying to reach?
Creating buyer personas is a useful exercise that will give you more clarity.
Knowing a bit more about the person who’s reading your blog will be determining for other aspects of your content strategy – the tone, the topic depth and even the frequency of updates.
Competitive Research
You now have some idea about the niche you’re going to enter and the person you’ll be addressing through content creation.
It’s now time to do a bit of competition research and to see what other niche participants are up to.
A good content marketing strategy for a blog focuses on unique strengths and presentations. To accomplish the goal, however, you need to have a pretty good understanding of what’s out there already.
You may also want to do a bit of research about the best bloggers out there.
What sets them apart from others, how do they monetize, how do they approach content creation and maintaining the quality of the platform?
Measurement and KPIs
Even if you think you have the best blog concept out there, you can’t really know until you track the right metrics.
A good blog content strategy focuses on the KPIs you’re going to keep track of.
These could include pageviews, the demographic profile of the audience, the website’s bounce rate, number of subscriptions, length of session, etc.
There are dozens of digital KPIs out there but you have to know which ones apply to you and which ones will give you the most information.
Content Distribution Channels
Think beyond content creation.
You’ll also have to focus on the channels you’re going to use to reach the right audience.
Putting emphasis on content SEO is obviously one of the most prominent ways to drive traffic to your blog posts.
Good distribution, however, could be dependent on numerous additional approaches.
Will you be doing social media marketing?
Will you be partnering up with other prominent websites in the niche to reach their audience and grow your reputation?
Do you plan to carry out pay per click (PPC) and display advertising campaigns? If so, when do you plan to launch and what’s your budget going to be?
As you can see, a content marketing strategy for a blog focuses on much more than the content itself.
You have a well-established procedure, from conceptualization to following up with the audience and tracking performance.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed already, you may want to download and print out a blog strategy template focused on content.
In the beginning, a content strategy template will give you something to build upon and to make sure you haven’t forgotten an important element.
Can You Make Money without a Blog Content Strategy?
Conceptualizing a strategy for content creation is additional hard work.
Do you really need to go through the process?
Can you make money with your blog without a content strategy?
Yes, some people have the instinct and they can be successful while coming up with content at the top of their head.
For most, however, an instant success isn’t going to be possible.
Content strategies ensure consistent delivery of content that you can share across your channels.
They help you reach the right targeted audience time and time again.
They also help you create the type of content the respective audience would want to see from you.
It doesn’t really matter if you’re trying to establish the market position of your brand or reach a new online segment.
A blog content strategy gives you easy to follow guidelines.
Once you’re done putting together the strategy, you can move on to creating and distributing your content.
Brainstorming for topics, knowing which tone to use and how to do digital advertising will take a lot more time than creating the actual content itself.
In addition, you probably don’t want to be a one-hit-wonder.
To accomplish the goal and be successful in the long-run, you have to do your homework.
The content marketing strategy is the roadmap to sustainable development.
Once you execute and you start tracking the right KPIs, you’ll understand the fact that blog content strategy creation pays off.
Your audience will grow consistently, you’ll maintain a high engagement level and you’ll simply be left with the selection of the right blog monetization method.
Affiliate marketing is a great choice and there are numerous programs for bloggers.
A Step by Step Guide to Blog Content Strategy Creation
You’re now familiar with the blog content strategy creation elements and the comprehensive nature of this plan.
The next essential will be to take you through the numerous steps of strategy creation and fine-tuning.
Even if you’re launching a blog for the first time and you lack marketing experience, you can still define the theme, the types of content you’ll focus on, the ways to reach the right audience and grow the traffic of your blog.
Let’s examine the journey you have to embark in order to put together a sound and easy to execute content marketing strategy for a blog.
Step 1: Assess Your Current Position
To make money with your blog, you have to know where you’re standing right now and how far you can take the blog.
Do you already have some content out there?
Is this content helping you meet your popularity and monetization goals?
If no, you’ll have to reconsider your blogging approach.
Even if you have a large audience but these people aren’t engaging, you’re not doing a good job.
Chances are that fine-tuning your content creation and distribution efforts will eventually help you reach the right crowd that will enhance your monetization efforts.
Keep in mind that your blog doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
You should assess your current position in the context of the niche and the performance of others.
Great content on its own isn’t sufficient if somebody else out there is already doing it better and attracting a larger audience than the one you could envision for your blog in the near future.
Step 2: Put Emphasis on the Elements That Make You Unique
Do you know what your biggest monetization asset is?
Hint: it’s not your knowledge or your writing experience.
Some of the most successful blogging experiments out there have been launched by amateurs.
Your uniqueness is the one thing you can monetize and the one thing your blog content strategy should be putting emphasis on.
Are your tone and your perspective unique?
Can you present challenging topics in a humorous, lighthearted way that most people will understand?
Are you a skilled multimedia creator who provides supportive graphics and videos with every single blog post?
Answer the question to discover your biggest strength.
Once you know your strength, exploit the heck out of it in your content marketing strategy for blogging.
You can find uniqueness in your content formats, in the real-life examples you provide, your connections and interviews with experts, your series tackling topics few other are capable of addressing.
There isn’t a universal strength.
Just because others in the niche aren’t doing a particular thing does not mean you should shy away from it.
After all, you have the KPIs you’re going to track and measure to determine whether you’re on the right path.
Your skills and passions matter – they will help you determine the most original aspect of blog creation.
Step 3: Brainstorm Content Ideas
Now we’re getting to the actual process of content creation.
Taking in consideration everything you’ve examined and analyzed so far, you will need to draft a list of topics for the creation of successful blog posts.
For a start, you should be a bit more practical than creative.
Do some keyword research to identify what people are attempting to find within the respective field.
Next, see what others have already written in connection to the respective keyword or topic.
If you could come up with something slightly different or better, chances are that your blog content will perform really well in terms of traffic attraction and audience retention.
You can also rely on tools like Feedly, an RSS feed overview that will give you a great idea about the latest and the trending topics in the area.
Finally, don’t forget to count on your audience’s feedback.
Pay attention to your blog post comments and to the posts in your social media accounts.
The people who read your blog could provide great ideas for follow-up topics or more interesting examination of themes you’ve already covered.
Step 4: Diversify Your Efforts
Blog content strategy creation doesn’t have to focus solely on blog posts.
Switching things up is essential to appeal to a wider range of audiences.
In addition, you can use different content types to accomplish different monetization goals.
A good content creation strategy may focus on blog posts, videos, whitepapers, ebooks, infographics, slideshows, case studies, podcasts and exclusive social media content.
While blog posts are the heart and soul of your monetization strategy, an ebook may be a wonderful tool for boosting audience loyalty and utilizing an alternative marketing channel.
Videos and podcasts will provide additional ways to earn revenue, especially if the respective topic allows for the creation of such media in an engaging way.
The list of content formats is endless and it can go well beyond the obvious.
You can also rely on quizzes, user-generated content, interviews, listicles, email series and pinboards to accomplish the different goals you’ve already pinpointed.
Final Verdict: Content Marketing Strategy Creation Pays Off
Content strategy creation is an inspiring process that can shed a lot of light on your strengths, the feasibility of your goals and the amount of time required to get there.
We recommend going through the strategic planning process, even if you feel like an amateur at first.
View the task as a brainstorming and research session.
It will help you identify your strengths and how these compare to the work of others.
Once you determine your strategic advantages, you can begin making full use of those for online income generation.
Do you have a blog content strategy and what is it based on?
How do you measure the performance of your content?
We’d love to learn more about your experience in the comments below.
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