The value of your online presence has skyrocketed. Your website has to look fresh and needs to be updated frequently with great content.  Sounds simple enough, but that is far from the case. When redesigning your website you need to treat the process like you would with any business strategy, which means you need to plan and implement a content strategy. Without one your content and website will be confusing and misdirected.

Preparation

1. Content Marketing 101: Keyword Research Tactics

Keyword research is needed to identify the search terms you wish to rank well for.  The added benefit of conducting an elaborate keyword research campaign is that, other than creating new opportunities for converting leads, you are conducting actual market research into your target demographic. In the past market research had to be conducted through expensive and time-consuming activities such as focus groups and the issuing of questionnaires. Now all it takes is some tinkering with web analytic tools and you’re set.

Getting Started

2. Content Marketing 101: A Content Audit in 3 Easy Steps

A Content audit will allow you to evaluate your website for redesign or for search engine optimisation and serve as a reference for source content during the content development phase. Identifying exactly what content you have will aid you in determining your specific content needs and therefore allow you to set aside the necessary resources.

Content Analysis

3. Content Marketing 101: Content Analysis Part 1

Having completed your content audit you now know where your content is and how it is organised. The next step is to determine the value of your content.  Performing a content analysis will allow you to identify what content is still needed, should be changed, or needs to be discarded.  Now before you get started there are a couple of important questions that need to be answered:
• What are your businesses goals with the content?
• What do users want and need from your content?
• How will you measure the results?
• What does your budget allow?

4. Content Marketing 101: Content Analysis Part 2

When you’re planning your content strategy you need to first consider how your brand will impact your new web content. You want to get a clear idea of what you want your users to think and feel about you in order to plan accordingly. Here are the steps to follow:
• Find out what your audience thinks about your organisation and what they expect from you.
• If you would like the consumer’s perceptions to change, consider how to change them.
• Identify your organisation’s competitive advantages and positive unique qualities.
• Create a plan to improve the users’ perceptions by focusing on your key strengths.

5. Content Marketing 101: Content Analysis Part 3

The last part of content analysis is competitor analysis. It is important to note that many people will try to match competitor’s effort-for-effort in hopes of outdoing them. However, every company is unique with their goals and objectives, which mean careful consideration should be taken of your own objectives while analysing a competitor’s content. What works for me might not work for business x, yet works amazingly for business y.

Content Strategy

6. Content Marketing 101: Content Strategy Part 1

The content strategy is the foundation of the entire content process. The purpose of a content strategy is to create guidelines on how to create, publish and manage your content on the web. To understand the content strategy phase better try to answer the following questions:
• What kind of content do we need and why?
• What will the structure of the content be like?
• How will your content be found?
• How will we complete our content timeline?
• What do we do after the content has been published?
• What effects will the strategy have on your business?

7. Content marketing 101: Content Strategy Part 2

Now that you have worked out your content structure it is time to finalise your strategy and begin implementing it, but before that happens the following needs to be considered:
• Content Format
• Menu Labelling
• Linking Strategy
• Content Management System types
• Content Channels
• Content Launch
• Important Business Recommendations

Content Preparation and Publishing

8. Content Marketing 101: Creating a Killer Publishing Schedule

Kristina Halvorson describes the publishing schedule as how content is requested, sourced, created, reviewed, approved, and delivered. A well planned publishing schedule is essential in getting your content strategy off the ground. As well as ensuring your content is published consistently and maintained regularly to ensure your users receive only the most up-to-date and relevant content.

9. Content Marketing 101: Writing for the Web

The majority of online content that users interact with is text, which means the majority of content your users are exposed to is the written word. Writing for the web requires much consideration in terms of what image you want to create in the eye of the user, however the only way to achieve this type of uniformity is by integrating the entire process with your content strategy. 

Maintenance

10. Content Marketing 101: Content Maintenance Phase

Google favours fresh content, which means you need to ensure that your content is updated regularly. A maintenance plan is as important as a content strategy, without it, your website's content can be very easily forgotten once it's out there. The maintenance plan should outline how your team will keep the content accurate at all times and how to make sure your company's branding and messaging stay on track. It details who's responsible for the content, when updates need to take place and the guidelines to follow when making the changes.

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital agency | www.soundidea.co.za |info@soundidea.co.za

Julian Karstel is a Digital Marketing Consultant for Sound Idea Digital | @JulianKarstel| Julian@soundidea.co.za