Before diving into content marketing, it’s important to have a strategy that outlines what you want from content marketing, and how you are going to achieve it. This deck by Marcus Taylor looks at 26 tips for defining your content marketing strategy. For more information visit http://www.ventureharbour.com

1. Content Marketing Strategy:
26 Tips For Defining Your Content Strategy

2. Content Marketing Strategy
Before diving into content marketing, it’s important to have
a strategy that outlines what you want from content
marketing, and how you are going to achieve it.
There are no inherently right or wrong ways to create a
content marketing strategy, so I’ve provided various ideas
and examples to help you consider what may be best for
your content strategy.

3. #1 use a large range of tactics
Credit: MarketingProfs / CMI

4. #2 Aim very high with your goals
In Good to Great, Jim Collins
suggests “It’s just as easy
being great as it is being
good. It just takes more
discipline”.
I believe this applies to
content marketing. Create the
best content in your industry.
Don’t settle for good.

5. #3 scaling your content marketing
If you want to scale your content marketing, consider user-generated content.

6. #4 persist for at least one year
It’s hard to get content marketing right
the first time round. Stick with your
content marketing strategy for at least
a year.
Measure what’s important to you so
you can iterate effectively and learn
what is and isn’t working.

7. #5 when everyone zigs, zag.
If everyone in your industry is
creating one type of content
(e.g. blog posts, videos,
podcasts), do something
different.
When everyone zigs, zag.

8. #6 OPA – Other People’s Audiences
Leverage the reach and
influence of major publishers in
your niche by offering to write
guest articles for them or
hosting your content on their
site.

9. #7 focus on the longtail
If increasing search traffic is an aspect of your content
strategy, be sure to create long-form content targeting
the long tail.
Credit: Kiwanja.com

10. #8 plan ahead, but also be spontaneous

11. #9 create a content calendar
Content calendars are a useful
planning tool to ensure that
you’re creating a high enough
frequency of content, and aren’t
missing opportunities such
creating topical content on
public holidays & major events.

12. #10 write long-form content
All things being equal, content that is at least 2,000 words long is more
likely to rank for competitive terms (and lots of long-tail variations) than
shorter content. This is not always the case, but very often.

13. #11 focus on what works in your niche
Infographics and case studies are typically the most shareable form of
content. In the music industry, we analysed the number of shares & links for
over 15,000 pieces of content and found that, on average, infographics
generated 198% more shares than blog posts.

14. #12 manage & plan your content
strategy in trello

15. #13 create a strategic plan document
This exercise is incredibly
valuable when outlining your
content marketing strategy.
I recommend using the
template provided by
Quicksprout as a starting
point.

16. #14 recycle your existing content
With so many different mediums of
content, recycling content is a huge
opportunity. Turn your long-form blog
posts into eBooks.
Record screencasts of your
presentations and upload them as
videos to YouTube.
Turn blog posts into presentations.

17. #15 consider other territories
Make your content relevant in different countries. Don’t just
translate your content, localise it in different territories.

18. #16 curating vs. creating
We received over 800 social shares on this post, which is just a
curated post of 30 inspirational quotes in the music industry. You don’t
always need to invest in producing new content, when you can curate
existing great content.

19. #17 evergreen vs. Topical
Pick whether you want an
evergreen strategy or topical
content strategy. Both work, but
evergreen content marketing
lends itself to compounding
results over time. If you go down
the topical content route, you
have to commit to it.

20. #18 create content at each stage of
your buying cycle
It’s important that your brand appears
at all stages of the customer buying
cycle to ensure that you’re most likely
to be the option they choose.
Consider what balance of content you
need at different stages e.g. two thirds
of our content should have a primary
aim of being discovered in the search
phase.

21. #19 build content partnerships
Team up with the best people in
your industry to add credibility.
We recently released a
whitepaper with Midem, who
are a respected brand in the
music business. Having them
as a partner added a lot of clout
when pitching the whitepaper to
the press.

22. #20 ego-baiting influencers
Say nice things about the people
you want to influence, and make
them look good in comparison to
their competitors.
I’ve used this to get Bloomingdales,
EMI, Guy Kawasaki, and various
other social heavyweights to share
my content.

23. #21 share timeless content repeatedly
If you’re building an evergreen
content strategy, then you can
promote your content for a
much longer duration as it never
becomes irrelevant.

24. #22 make people angry
For content to be highly
shareable it must provoke a
strong emotional reaction.
Anger is one of the strongest
emotions that can be provoked.
Creating content that angers
your audience (without the
anger being directed at your
brand) is a very powerful
strategy.

25. #23 create A referenceable resource
Consider what content you may
be able to create that will be
highly referenceable in your
industry.
The Moz Algorithm Change
History tools is a great example
of this in the SEO industry.

26. #24 mark public holidays & national
events on your content calendar
Public holidays & events, such as
Halloween, April Fools Day, Christmas
and Easter are great opportunities to
launch relevant themed content.
However, be sure to mark these events
long in advance to give you enough
time to prepare your themed campaign.

27. #25 take advantage of news jacking
When news breaks, journalists are
often in need of expert opinions and
quotes to feature in their write-ups.
Be the first to respond and offer
opinions. Also use tools like
HARO.com to help journalists
looking for quotes.

28. #26 Take risks, protect the downside
Brainstorm everything you can think
of that could possibly go wrong and
then mitigate against it as best as
you can.
“It is only by being bold that you get
anywhere. If you are a risk-taker,
then the art is to protect the
downside.” – Richard Branson

29. Need Help With Your Content
Marketing Strategy?
www.ventureharbour.com!
contact@ventureharbour.com
01273 648909

30. Thank you!