According to Google Trends, interest in content marketing has been on the rise since January 2011.
But this should not surprise anyone. Content marketing is a proven method to grow your brand or business. It’s no wonder so many people are interested in learning this skill. But how many of us are building a content marketing strategy that truly moves the needle?
What’s surprising is that many content marketers don’t have a documented strategy.
Years ago, I had a boss that would always tell me…
“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
That ethos remains true when building a content marketing strategy as well. You want to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. This way, the time and energy you spend creating content will get you closer to a business objective.
Today, you are working towards being an established content marketer, we’ll help you get a plan in place.
But first we need to clear up a little confusion about content marketing strategy.

Sign Up for Your Free Assessment
Give us 30 minutes and we’ll transform how you sell online.
This offer is free for a limited time.
Content marketing strategy defined
Pay attention…
Some people like to make a distinction between the terms content strategy and content marketing strategy. The distinction, they suggest, is best explained with a Russian doll: a smaller strategy is inside a larger one.
In this case, a content marketing strategy is the smaller strategy inside the larger one, content strategy.
There is some truth to this.
Content strategy involves the planning, creation, governance, and maintenance of content, whereas content marketing strategy focuses on the narrow discipline of marketing content.
Fair enough, but I think this distinction is confusing and needless because we can also talk about content marketing strategy as the planning, creation, governance, and maintenance of content … and not lose any sleep.
I’d like to proceed with a clear definition of a content marketing strategy.
So, if strategy means “a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result,” the specific goal or result for content marketing would be “building an audience that builds a business.”
For our purposes, then, let’s define content marketing strategy like this:
A content marketing strategy is a plan for building an audience by publishing, maintaining, and spreading frequent and consistent content that educates, entertains, or inspires to turn strangers into fans and fans into customers.
This brings us to the next important question.
Do you need a content marketing strategy?
If you are a small business with a few employees or a one-man or one-woman shop, you may be thinking that your content marketing is so simple that you don’t need a plan.
Won’t a list of things that need to happen written on the back of an envelope get the job done?
Yes, that’s one way to begin, especially if you are typically a perfectionist and just need to start your content marketing rather than waiting until you have the perfect plan.
But at some point you will need to develop a more comprehensive plan — and then document it.
- Content marketers with a documented strategy feel more confident in their work.
- Content marketing challenges don’t seem as overwhelming when you have a strategy in place.
- A documented strategy makes it easier to get buy-in from stakeholders.
- It’s easier to chart your success when you have a documented strategy.
The jury is in, folks: We all need a documented content marketing strategy. And the cool thing is it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Crafting a simple content marketing strategy
Let’s be honest: Unless you are a content marketer for a big company, you don’t need much. Just a plan to help focus your time, money, and energy.
In fact, you can document your content marketing strategy in the time it takes you to answer the following 13 questions:
- Who are your users?
- Who are your competitors?
- What do you bring to the table?
- What do you hear?
- What content do you already have?
- What is the purpose of your content?
- How often should you publish content?
- How will you distribute your content?
- Who is in charge of your content?
- Who will produce your content?
- Who is going to maintain the content?
- Who is responsible for the results?
- What’s your destination (core strategy)?
Want to learn more about these questions and the process behind this simple content marketing strategy?
Then check out the following article: 13 Simple Questions to Help You Draft a Winning Content Strategy.
There is one thing to keep in mind, though. You will probably have to perform some serious research before you can answer those questions.
Your content marketing strategy begins with this person
The person I’m talking about is your customer.
Your customer is the focal point of your content marketing strategy. You need a substantial, deep, and comprehensive understanding of who she is.
When you do, the strategy will write itself. You won’t have to guess or wonder. But a weak, flimsy, or flat-out wrong understanding of who your customer is will sink your strategy every time.
Check out these five resources to help you understand who your customer is:
- Research checklist: Don’t Create Your Content Strategy Until You Research These 6 Things
- Empathy map: A Complete Guide to Crawling Inside Your Customer’s Head
- Worldview: Tap into This Psychological Driver to Create the Ultimate Message
- Customer experience map: How to Use Customer Experience Maps to Develop a Winning Content Marketing Strategy
- Personas: How Creating an Imaginary Friend Can Make You a Better Writer
Understanding your content
Once you thoroughly understand who your customer is, evaluate the content you already have.
This exercise will not only help you spot the gaps in your content that you need to fill, but it will also help you see that old content can become outdated and cost you top positions in search engines, cause user-experience failure, and more.
So, here are four resources to help you review your current content:
- A Brief Guide to Fixing Your Old, Neglected, and Broken Content
- How to Conduct a Content Audit for Quality and Audience Experience
- How to Plug the Holes in Your Content Funnel that Are Costing You Money
- The Single Best Way to Create Hit Content in Record Time
Measuring your content marketing efforts (conversion)
Ultimately, it comes down to this: how do you know if your content marketing strategy is working?
You’ll know if your content marketing strategy is working if you measure it.
This is why question 13 on the content marketing strategy worksheet (What’s your core strategy?) is so important.
That core strategy should:
- Give you room to stretch, fail, get back up, and grow
- Allow you to adjust as your environment changes around you, without having to make a drastic change
- Align with your values, so you’ll be able to sustain it and endure challenges over time
But how do you measure that? If you are like me and the words “analytics” and “measuring” make you uncomfortable, check out Mike King’s article:
That should keep you busy for a while.
Want us to develop your content marketing strategy?
If you’re looking for content marketing and SEO services, check out Copyblogger’s content marketing agency Digital Commerce Partners.
We specialize in creating content marketing strategies that deliver targeted organic traffic for growing digital businesses. Our content marketing services may be perfect for your business.
Reader Comments (23)
I am going to take some content marketing strategy tips from your post. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome.
When I first started blogging I would just write aimlessly and got burned out – no visitors, no return, turned into no motivation!
I sorted it out now got all my content planned for at least 1 month in advance and it all follows a sequence, everything is working as it should,
Thanks for the share…
Joe
You bet, Joe. Good to hear from you. And keep us posted on your progress.
That’s a awesome content marketing checklist ideas. I would depend on some ones checklist for content marketing and this 13 questions helps us to create custom content marketing strategy for different sites. Good one
Cheers
Mohan raj
This was really helpful. I’m definitely an advocate of writing stuff down. This strategy will work nicely to expound on my current writing habits.
This article gave me an idea: Content marketing strategy needs to be the next Copyblogger Content Challenge!
Excellent article, Demian! Instant follow in Twitter, too! You’re one of the most helpful and informative writers on the Rainmaker Digital Team and on the greater Internet that I have ever read and learned from!
Thanks, JD, for the kind words, and yes, that sounds like a good idea for the next CB content challenge. Not sure what the others have up their sleeve … we’ll have to wait and see. But I’m sure they will like this idea, too.
Thanks Demian.
This article is extremely useful. Content is truly a barrier to inbound marketing for many businesses. I notice that many who produce content also do so in isolation without taking into account the needs to their clients. It’s extremely important to define the buyer persona to the letter and I like the way you the word “she” is brilliant!
I find that many also make the mistake of thinking that they need to have and queue their content well in advance. This is not the case as sometimes, you will need to evaluate the performance of previous content before your produce the other.
Content creation is a gradual work in progress.
All excellent points you are making, Fran. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Hi Demian
If this is how content marketing staretgy is made then now worry I did’t evne know that I m making staretgy for my business like i always note down who is my compititors and what they are doing to get users and all that .Thanks you remineded me that I’m using it 🙂
You are welcome.
great post with lots of helpful links to follow. I’m trying to develop my strategy but as you mention, first it’s about growing trust, having repeat readers and providing useful and entertaining content again and again. Thanks for this?
Would you suggest I developing a longterm strategy for a beginner blogger, like me?
If you mean by “long term” three months, then yeah. A year long plan at the most. Definitely go for it. Any thing beyond that, as anyone will tell you, will change so drastically you’ll have to throw your plan out. 😀
When I was teaching Public Relations courses at our local universities, I introduced students to the use of Managing By Objectives and how to integrate that approach into the development of a written PR strategy. Briefly, it begins with stating the Goal — a measurable goal — with a deadline — and beginning with the infinitive “To..” Then, you ask yourself “How” … how will that be accomplished. The first responses are broad. Each time a “How” question is answered, you become more specific. The first “hows” are the Objectives. Under the Objectives are the tactics. When properly done, you can read the strategy backward by asking the question “Why?” ……….. and if all falls into place correctly, you’ll get an A!
Metrics should be use in every statement.
The benefit of this approach is it provides a structure in which to create a strategy. Having that structure means your thinking suddenly has a path to travel that is mapped out in front of you. Creating the strategy is done faster and with less stress. Try it! You may like it.
I even use this process to write speeches on the fly. Makes me fast!
Love the approach, Sunni.
Hi Demian,
You’ve given us a lot to chew on here. I’ve applied a few of these exercises and found them beneficial, particularly answering those 13 questions and fleshing out customer personas.
There are some other ideas here to consider.
Appreciate you putting this together, kind sir.
Have a fantastic week,
Matthew
Thanks chief!
Hey Demian,
Thanks for this really useful article. I will surely be creating my own strategy now.
Lots to read here.
Best
Derek Anthony
You bet, Anthony.
Hi Demian, great post. I really appreciate the way you structured the post – simple, easy to understand, and a delight to read. The 13 questions are a qreat way to start building a strategy from. Apart from measuring the results, I find it very important to really take time to analyze the data and optimize content accordingly. I only started getting good results when I put more emphasis on analyzing the results. Thanks for the helpful post, shared it with colleagues.
Anna, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the post. I will be making use of the ideas here. I espishally liked the 13 questions listed, and will be making use of them.
This article's comments are closed.