Five Ways to Jumpstart Your Content Marketing Strategy

TL;DR

How do you jumpstart a content marketing strategy?

Core Definition: Jumpstarting a content marketing strategy is the process of taking immediate, foundational actions to either create a new plan from scratch or revitalize an existing one that is underperforming. It involves establishing core components like an editorial calendar, setting clear goals, and aligning efforts across teams to quickly build momentum and drive profitable customer action.

If you're struggling to recall your content marketing strategy or have been tasked with creating one from scratch, it's time to take action. A well-defined plan is crucial for attracting and retaining your target audience. This guide outlines the essential first steps to get your strategy off the ground and driving results.

Establish an editorial calendar to organize content production, align your team, and ensure consistent publishing schedules.
Define clear, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals to guide your strategy and measure success effectively.
Align marketing and sales team goals to ensure lead quality and create a cohesive customer journey from initial contact to conversion.
Develop a social media strategy that involves active listening and interaction to engage your audience where they are most active.
Regularly audit and prune low-performing or irrelevant content to improve user experience and boost your overall SEO ranking.

You have a content marketing strategy, don't you? If you can't remember, or if you're pretty sure but can't remember the login for your company's Facebook account to check, it's time to get to work.

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And if you're in a situation where you've just been asked to create a content marketing plan, this article is for you, too. Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

We will look at five things you can do, starting today, to jumpstart your content marketing strategy:

1) Editorial calendar: what is it, and why do you need one?

An editorial calendar is the dashboard for your content marketing strategy. This is where you and your team (even if the team is you for now) go to see what's on deck, who's doing what, and when it will be published.

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Having all of this information in one place is key for several reasons:

It removes the stress of trying to keep multiple parties on the same page. Your graphic designer can see what they have coming due, your editor can find out who's producing what content so they can reach out directly, and your manager can keep an eye on the whole gang to ensure things keep moving forward.

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Having a solid schedule that everyone involved knows is how you guarantee your content is going up regularly. This is the best way to ensure your audience sees it since they become accustomed to your schedule and tune in to see new content. If you don't deliver on time, even once, you risk losing them.

2) Set your goals early, and make them SMART

This is true no matter what stage you're at, whether reassessing the direction of your existing content marketing strategies or creating a new one from scratch. Lay out your content marketing goals, lay them out early in the process, and make sure they're SMART goals.

Maybe you've been going for a while now, but your campaign's direction feels off. Maybe you're just not seeing the conversions you envisioned and want to know why. Or maybe you're seeing your trajectory veering off course from the mission you set out six months ago and need to get back on track. Did you outline your goals on day one? No? Do it now.

The SMART goal framework is a method used to ensure your goals align with your mission and provide a quick way to check in with existing goals to make sure you can meet them. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

Specific - this is your who, what, when, where, and why for the goal. Define the goal with names, numbers, dates, and times.
Measurable - what metrics will you use to judge this goal's effectiveness? How will you know when you hit them?
Attainable - Are you being realistic? Can this goal be met in the timeframe defined above? You might want to rethink things if you aim to grow your customer base by 10x in six months.

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Relevant - Are these goals appropriate for your content team to be working on? Does the goal align with your campaign objectives? The mission statement of the company?
Time-bound - Does the goal have a start date and an end date? If not, set these parameters now, or you risk your team getting distracted and your content calendar schedule not being adhered to.

3) Align your marketing goals with those of your sales team

Both teams are working toward the same ultimate goals, right? Customer development and retention should be top of mind for both teams, so ensuring the goals you laid out above align with the goals your sales team is working toward is the best way to ensure you aren't working at cross-ends.

The challenge arises when marketing says, "We're bringing in so many leads, sales can't keep up." Then sales fire back with, "Your leads aren't high enough quality to be worth our time." Marketing's goal is to ensure sales provide consistent information throughout the customer journey, and sales need to know that marketing is remembering to treat the customer like a person, not a statistic or demographic.

To truly engage your customers on their level, you must work with sales to align your broader goals.

4) Use social media, correctly

There are currently north of 2 BILLION social media users in the world, chances are your audience is part of that crowd. If your social media voice doesn't match your content voice, you're missing a potentially HUGE market segment. A quick realignment can work wonders for your overall reach, engagement, and conversion from these channels.

There are two keys to a working social media strategy:

Listen. Intently. Start by monitoring your audience, your followers, and your feed. Listen and take notes on things like when your audience is active on the channel, what they're sharing, and whom they're sharing it with. You may find that LinkedIn lights up during lunch break on the US east coast, while your Twitter followers are mostly in continental Europe and are most active during the evening commute. This information is crucial to setting your editorial calendar and scheduling your posts on these platforms.

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Be interactive. Social media outlets are built around interactions between individuals and accounts. Use this engagement opportunity, reply to comments, share content from your followers, and retweet that meme (the appropriate ones, at least). This puts a human face on your corporate image and puts your employer brand on prominent display.

5) Prune irrelevant or low-performing content

This will seem backward to some, and that's OK. It does seem antithetical to content creation to turn around and hack it. There are two primary reasons you'll want to get past that feeling and make the cuts.

First, as you evaluate your campaigns, audit your content, and compare metrics month over month, you'll find content that just isn't performing. If your average post is converting at a rate of 5%, and you find an article sitting at 1%, take a closer look at it. If you can tweak the CTA or make other quick changes that bring its numbers into line, do that. If not, consider cutting it to focus your visitors' eyeballs on the pieces bringing in the customers.

Second, SEO comes into play here. With recent algorithm changes, Google has started tracking underperforming content and counting it against the domain it's on. That means your rankings can be hurt if you have irrelevant content. The only way to get this content out of your ranks is to remove it and focus on quality over quantity.

Jumpstarting your content marketing will get you and your campaigns on the right track. You'll see results in your metrics, site visits, and conversions!

Content Marketing Strategy FAQ

What is content marketing?

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Content marketing is a strategic method for creating and distributing valuable and consistent content. Evidence shows this approach attracts and retains a specific audience, reasoning that this consistency builds trust and ultimately drives profitable customer action.

Why are SMART goals crucial for a content marketing strategy?

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Yes, SMART goals provide clear direction and measurability for your strategy. This framework (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) ensures your objectives align with your company's mission and are realistically achievable within a set timeframe.

What is the role of an editorial calendar in content marketing?

An editorial calendar acts as a dashboard for your content plan, organizing what gets published, when, and by whom. Evidence shows this tool ensures content consistency, which is key for retaining your audience as they learn to expect new content on a regular schedule.

How does aligning with sales benefit a content marketing strategy?

Yes, aligning with sales ensures a consistent customer journey and higher quality leads. Evidence shows this collaboration prevents disconnects, reasoning that a unified approach where marketing and sales share goals serves the customer more effectively and efficiently.

How can social media enhance my content marketing efforts?

Yes, social media can massively expand your reach when used correctly. Evidence suggests listening to your audience to find peak activity times and being interactive builds a human connection, reasoning that this engagement boosts your brand and drives conversions.

Should I remove low-performing content from my website?

Yes, you should prune low-performing content to improve user focus and SEO. Evidence from Google's algorithm shows that underperforming pages can negatively impact your domain's rankings, reasoning that focusing on quality over quantity is now essential for visibility.

Written By Jesse

Jesse hails from Seattle, WA. When he's not creating great content or staring at his laptop screen waiting for inspiration, he's probably walking in the trees somewhere in the foothills of the nearby Cascade Mountains.