Content Marketing Plan: Top 3 Tips
Written by Alice Seba
Just starting or looking to rev up your content marketing plan? Try these 3 tips to get things really rolling.
1. Plan it. There are no right and wrong answers, but once you have your own content marketing plan (which can be modified anytime), make ongoing and detailed plans. Plan topics in advance, so it’s easy for you to quickly whip up your content or for your ghostwriter. Stay on top of it and hire help where you need it (to publish to your website, add to article directories, etc.).
2. Know your audience. Get to know the people who are interested in your content, so you know what they want to learn about, what concerns they have and how you can connect with them on a deeper level.
Here are some ideas for getting to know them:
a. Keyword Research: Using a tool like wordtracker.com gives you great insight into what people are looking for. But it’s only part of the puzzle. It tells you what people are searching for, but not necessarily WHO these people are. You want to do deeper investigation into your actual target market.
b. Comments and Correspondence: Pay attention to what your own readers tell you. Even if you don’t have a large audience, the feedback, information and commentary you receive now is very telling.
c. Link Tracking: Track links on your website and emails to see what people are clicking on and taking action on. Sometimes people tell you they want one thing, but they act on is completely different.
d. Ask for Submissions: Create a way for your readers and customers to submit questions to you and tell you what kind of content they’d like. Set up a form and let them know you’ll try to accommodate their needs. Look for trends and popular requests.
e. Message Boards: Now, I definitely don’t suggest you get immersed in a bunch of forums and spend hours their daily, but you can certainly keep your finger on the pulse of some of the more popular boards and what your target market is talking about. Just search on your favorite search engine for “XXXX message board” to find what you’re looking for.
f. Twitter, Facebook Groups: Again…let’s not get lost here. Keep your focus on your own market, your own virtual real estate and delivering the content they want. But keeping an eye on what your market says on Twitter, in Facebook Groups and other social networking sites will certainly give you insight into what you should be focusing on.
g. Their Blogs: Let’s face it, everyone’s got a blog these days and they’ve all got an opinion. Create a new category in your feed reader just to scan the headlines and read select posts of your target market.
h. Competitors: Watch what your competitors are talking about and how their audience responds. Again, a new category in your RSS reader will go a long way to help you quickly keep tabs on what’s happening.
3. Find your own unique voice. Sometimes this takes a while for people, but when you have it…you will get more faithful readers, subscribers and customers. Even if you use a ghostwriter or PLR content, you can inject yourself into the content you publish. Or if you publish content as a multi-person team, make each person is allowed to express themselves in a way that is most natural…but appealing at the same time.
A lot of people struggle with this and feel they can’t start writing or publishing until they find this. I.e. what makes them unique…why someone would read their content before someone else’s. But the best way to find your voice is to simply start writing. Try to write the way you speak – it’s a more natural way to connect. A lot of the writing we do in life, tends to be more formal, but for most online businesses – formal is not what’s needed when writing bold and action-inspiring content.
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Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
Omar Reyes says:
Some excellent points here Alice. That is what I personally like about PLR – it acts a content base for your site, blog etc.
You just take the idea, do a quick keyword research, a brief research to find some additional points to add, a quick rewrite and there you go.
Now the only challenge I see is aligning your PLR content with what your audience is looking for.
Omar
Alice Seba says:
Yes, that’s true and that’s why sometimes PLR isn’t enough. We offer the topics for a wide range of members…so we can’t tap into precisely what everyone needs all of the time.
Do you publish any of your own original content too? It doesn’t even have to be long and involved content. Just quick answers to some of the questions they have, etc.
Omar Reyes says:
I make any PLR content I use “personal” by adding content from my own thoughts, observations etc. I also occasionally add my own content, but even then, it is pretty much what inspires me at the moment.
I am really not good at figuring what my readers want. This is a challenge I am working on.
A Blueprint perhaps?
Alice Seba says:
The Idea Blueprint has some ideas on how to find out what your readers want (as does the post above). I’ll see if I can come up with even more!
Opener Blueprint is coming out shortly. Then we’ll set to work on the next.
Potential Content Marketing “Mistakes” – Here Are 3 to Avoid : Contentrix says:
[...] up on last week’s Top 3 Content Marketing Plan Tips, let’s consider the “mistakes” (well, nothing is really a mistake, but we can [...]