Content is king. You might hear that saying several times in the world of business. Content – in all its various forms is the definition of the word king “something preeminent in its class.” Why? That’s because instead of advertising, content is centred on the audience’s interests with quality content. A business owner knows that a business should always get creative with content marketing strategy because that’s where the breath of marketing lies in. Let’s say you are about to cook a meal for dinner. You are thinking about making a bucket of spicy chicken wings for four persons that include you, your spouse and your two children. You want the chicken wings spicy, but you are cooking for four people and not everyone likes spicy food. Therefore, in order for you to cook a meal that is delicious for the four of you, you have to adjust to the situation where you choose a flavour that can work in your favour as well as your family, so you’ve got your chicken wings flavoured in savoury but a little bit spicy without being too much. That analogy is the same as how content works. When you are creating a content plan, you are thinking about how things will be beneficial for both you and your customers. This is not just about you. This is about what’s best for you and your customers. However, how effective is your content marketing? How do you make it more effective? Keep reading to find out!

Always have a plan with a back-up

When it comes to content marketing strategy, having a plan is a must. With a correct plan, this can help you target the right audience and run a more consistent strategy. Write down these important steps:

• Conduct a research on competitors and related people
• Target the right audience
• Create your audience’s personas
• Build your ideas
• Test the plan
• Create a back-up plan
• Make a timeline
• Save the plan for later use

Back-up plan will be useful in case something goes wrong. Don’t be stuck with just one idea. If you or your employees have more than one idea, write them down and combine; or you can save them for later use. One thing for sure, if you come up with ideas; don’t ignore it, just immediately write it down or you will forget it later.

Set a timeline so you will know when and where to post

Content can be in a form of anything, but if you have a blog or official social media account; you have to set a timeline. Depending on the country you are residing in, there is a strategic time you will have to follow in order to post your content at the right time and at the right place. For example, in Indonesia, the right time to post content on social media is around 12 PM (lunch time) and 6 PM (after work time).

Quality over quantity

It may be good to have sufficient content and post them at the same time, especially when it comes to social media; posting up to five posts is ideal. However, it is not about quantity. Quality is the most important above all. You can have one type of content and be brilliant about it at the same time without going over with the quantity.

Focus on people, not search engines

Yes, I know, SEO is essential for business. However, content is also essential for SEO. People are too focused on search engines until they forget the real intention of content creation. Let’s think about it the other way. You should be focused on creating great content for your audience so that the content you make will be in your favour when it comes to SEO. Why? Simply put, if you make your audience happy; you make search engines happy too.

Content marketing strategy requires strong determination, creativity and consistency. You can’t create great content marketing plan if your creativity doesn’t have a touch of consistency. When you are creative and consistent at the same time, you will always focus on why content is made in the first place. When you think that way, your content marketing strategy will be more effective.