Planning Effective Marketing Content

Ever wondered how to move up?

As a business owner, you’re always thinking of the next thing; the next deadline, next meeting, and the next way to advance your business.

Marketing is a great way to push your business forward, but with the situation ever changing, its easy to get lost and wonder where to start. Over the coming blogs, we’ll be telling you how to create marketing content that gets attention and engages your ideal prospects. This week we're starting with planning.

 The perfect starting point is planning relevant, organic content. This creates visibility and a connection to your target audience. It allows them to locate you when searching for what they need. Remember, search engines, as well as people, look for natural, organic content more than ever.

• Target audience: The next step is identifying your target audience. Basically, ask yourself 'Who do I want to reach out to? Who are my potential customers?' The target audience can be identified through various means including demographics, psychographic segmentation and market research. Be as exact as possible in identifying them and consider how you can target that specific group  most effectively. 
  
  For instance, a teacher training organisation we wrote for was seeing some great numbers, but also a lot of dropouts. It became obvious their output was attracting a lot of wannabe teachers of all types, while their ideal customers would have the strength and staying power to see the tough course through. As a result, we helped them to represent teaching as a tough but rewarding job, rather than a flowery, easy one full of smiling children and thankful parents.

• Message: In content creation, the message is king. Crafting what you want to say can either draw or deter your audience from your brand. While crafting a message, be aware that it must communicate your unique selling proposition (USP), or at least something unique to make your prospects take notice of you over your competitors.Keep your message short, sweet and memorable, and focus on the reader's needs before your business's offerings.

"Content is king" - Bill Gates, 1996

• Medium: The medium is your delivery vehicle. Where do you want your content to be seen? Today, it’s important to bear your media vehicle in mind, so it can go hand in hand with your audience and message. There are more different media and platforms available than ever, and different media have different languages, strengths and weaknesses; content on TikTok is different from content on LinkedIn, and very different from a blog or marketing email.

• Budget: Set aside a reasonable budget to work with, either in terms of money or time; good content doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg but you shouldn't be a cheapskate with it either. Those who pay peanuts really do get monkeys, and a job done quickly is a job half done. Budgeting also helps to determine which media you can use.

• Production: Now that goals, audience, messages, mediums and budget have been discussed, production can begin! Look out for our guide to what to consider during that exciting process in an upcoming blog.