Why you need a content marketing strategy
Content is king. We hear it all the time. The power of content marketing is undisputed in today’s market, and there are very few who’d argue there’s no need to make an effort in this area when it comes to promoting your Shopify brand or app. After all, content marketing creates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 64% less.
But when it comes to producing content, what exactly constitutes effort? If you want to reap the best and most brilliant benefits that content marketing has to offer, you must apply an overarching strategy to your content production. An ad hoc approach simply won’t deliver the results you’re dreaming of.
When there’s no research-backed reasoning behind your topics, content formats and publishing schedule, a vicious cycle emerges. You struggle for ideas, you publish what you can, you’re disappointed with its impact, your motivation dwindles and... you give up.
If this sounds familiar (you can seek a further diagnosis here) it’s time to get serious about developing a solid content marketing strategy for your Shopify business.
What does a content marketing strategy include?
A well-designed content marketing strategy applies methodical research to a practical, goal-centric framework. It asks you where you want to go, then looks closely at your customer base to help you carve out the path.
Below are the basic elements of a good content marketing strategy:
Customer Research
Your non-negotiable starter for ten. No matter how well you think you know your audience, please do not skip this stage. You can read more about why customer research is such an important element of your content marketing strategy here. Essentially, this is the bedrock on which your whole strategy rests. You’re looking to discover the needs, concerns, hopes, dreams and interests that reach far beyond your own product or service. This crucial information will inform the direction and focus of your whole strategy.
Competitor Research
What is it they say about keeping your friends close and your...? In the world of content marketing, it’s important to know what others within your niche are doing and to think about how you can do it better. This isn’t about imitation, but building up a clear picture of gaps in the market that you could focus on filling.
There’s also no harm in appraising the various formats that others might be producing if they’re popular with your audience! It pays to approach your content marketing strategy with a really open mind when it comes to formats (we’ll touch on this later in this article,). So when you’re auditing your competitors’ content, pay very close attention to how they’re playing the content game –– analyse the topics they cover, the formats they use, how they distribute and the reaction it gets from their audience. Look for the opportunity, what are they missing?
Content Ideation
Once you know who your audience is and the kind of information they’re looking to consume, it’s time to start mapping out your themes and topics. This stage will involve keyword research, thinking hard about the various stages of your audience’s buyer journey — from attracting their attention right through to getting them across the conversion line. This will help you appeal to the various different personas at every step of their customer journey. Get together with your team and do some brainstorming, then select the best topics and save the rest for further development at a later stage.
Format Finesse
Content comes in many forms! There’s an art to deciphering exactly what format types will please your dream customers or clients. From informative, actionable guides or ebooks to traffic-driving pillar posts — a good content marketing strategy will incorporate a perfect balance of different content formats for the best results. Refer back to your customer research and persona profiles: where does your audience consume their content and in which format? There’s no point in launching a TikTok account and producing content in video format if your audience prefers to read articles on LinkedIn!
They often say that the best diet is the one that you can stick to. Well, the same goes for your content marketing strategy. Evaluate your internal resources and bandwidth and be realistic about the type of content you can produce and at what frequency. It’s entirely possible to balance your team’s capacity against the ideal level of output needed to have an impact on your audience.
Editorial Calendar
Once you have your audience, topics and formats defined, it's time to bring everything together. The editorial calendar is your new content marketing BFF. It acts as a visual workflow, a place to organise your content, assign content production, establish deadlines and generally keep you on track and accountable.
This should be a living, breathing document that sets out all your publishing goals, motivating and aligning your team. It should not only layout planned topics and titles — but it should also acknowledge which personas are being targeted, and which stage of their journey the content addresses.
There are lots of different formats you can use and many free templates available online - choose the one that works best for you and your team.
Measuring Success
Of course, your content strategy, like most other things, is something that requires constant refinement over time. By measuring how impactful your content is, you can develop an understanding of what works, what doesn’t and identify new opportunities. We recommend regular reporting on KPIs such as page visits, engagement (such as time spent on your web page), social engagement and inbound links. Once you’ve accomplished putting plans and KPIs in place, it’s time to get started!
By now, we hope your eyes have been opened to the many moving parts that make up a great content marketing strategy. Completing the steps above, establishing a strategy and constantly measuring success is a powerful way to maintain momentum and ensure your content marketing strategy is effective. And the sense of burnout that we mentioned earlier? It’s banished by a clearly mapped-out editorial calendar.
👉🏽 Sold on the need for a real content marketing strategy?
We have built a program specifically to help you develop a solid strategy that will attract and retain Shopify merchants to your solution! For more details on the program lessons and 1-1 support, click here.