Creating a Content Marketing Plan That Works

CREATING A
CONTENT MARKETING
PLAN THAT WORKS

CONTENT
WHAT A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN LOOKS LIKE��3
WORKING WITH AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR��7
DEVELOPING YOUR OWN VOICE AND STYLE��11
GETTING BEYOND THE BASIC BLOG POST�� 14
OPTIMIZING YOUR CONTENT FOR CONVERSIONS��18
CONTENT MARKETING SUCCESS DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT��22

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WWW.WEBFULLCIRCLE.COM CREATING A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN THAT WORKS
Stop us if this sounds familiar: you get excited
about search engine optimization, lead
generation, and branding opportunities online.
That leads to a decision to prioritize content
creation as part of your Internet marketing
strategy. Your team generates 4 or 5 blog posts
or videos, and then you suddenly find that
pressing deadlines, client requests, and other
day-to-day obligations get in the way. Before
long, your campaign is stuck in neutral.
That’s a common scenario we hear from
new clients who are frustrated from a lack of
progress with their content marketing. Another
similar challenge arises when a business owner
or manager feels as if they’ve been writing (or
buying) content regularly for weeks or months
but don’t seem to be getting any results. They
throw new pieces and ideas online, but it
doesn’t lead to any improvement in sales or
search positioning.

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There are a lot of reasons businesses struggle
to both generate content, and create a bottom
line impact with it. A big part of the issue,
though, can usually be traced back to the fact
that they don’t have a coherent strategy in the
first place. They are generating content – or at
least thinking about it – but aren’t quite sure
how the different pieces they produce could,
or should fit together.
We want to help you avoid those kinds of
mistakes. Content marketing is extraordinarily
valuable, but only if you know how to create a
system that attracts visits from search engines
and social media platforms. Additionally, those
visits have to turn into conversions before they
have value.
With that in mind, let’s look at what you have to
know to create a content marketing plan that
works for your company…

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To a lot of marketers, a “content marketing
plan” essentially equates to a promise that
the owner of the business will sit down to
blog for half an hour every weekend. That’s
certainly better than nothing, but it’s not
the kind of strategy you need to help your
business thrive.
Even if your company is comprised of a single
person, you need an actual plan to help
you create and disseminate your marketing
messages. Certainly, a production goal (so
many blog posts and videos per month, etc.)
is going to be part of that. But there are other
elements to consider, too.
For one thing, time and consistency are
important factors. You can certainly choose
to create content in batches, or to hire a
creative professional or team to generate
WHAT A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN
LOOKS LIKE

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content for you in bursts. However, for the
maximum marketing effect, you’ll want to
space the release of each new piece of
content out over time. In fact, it’s a good
idea to follow a calendar that keeps you on
track. That’s something we’ll get to in just a
moment.
Before you worry about when your content
will be produced and released, it’s important
to have a sense of what you want to
accomplish. Who should read or see the
content? What kinds of impressions do you
want them to have about your company?
Which actions are you hoping they will take
as a result?
To answer that, you have to have an
understanding of your target market, your
personality as a marketer, and your unique

5
selling propositions. Moreover, you need to
be able to identify the places and platforms
that will let you reach the buyers you are
looking for most efficiently. Do they look for
products and services like yours on Google,
or spend their time on Facebook? Are they
likely to read your emails, or are you better
off posting material to your blog?
There probably isn’t an “either-or” answer
to these questions. Most likely, your plan
will have to include a variety of buyers and
influencers, as well as several different
marketing channels where you can post your
content. Still, it’s important to consider these
issues from the start. Otherwise, you could
find yourself playing the Internet marketing
version of whack-a-mole, trying to generate
some momentum with your content in one
place only to find your customers are flocking
to another.

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A content marketing plan isn’t a to do list,
or the notion of things you are hoping will
happen. To be functional, it has to have a
goal, schedule, and focus. That should lead
to a list of executable items, but those only
come after you’ve established what your
content is supposed to do for your business,
not to mention the people who will see it.

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Once you know what you’re trying to accomplish
with your content marketing, it’s time to put all the
pieces together in a way that keeps you focused
moving forward. The easiest way to do that is by
using a simple editorial calendar that is reviewed
and updated on a regular basis.
If you aren’t familiar with the way an editorial
calendar works, just look at your TV listings.
Scroll forward through the hours and dates on
your remote, and you’ll see that most popular
programs have been assigned a date and time
weeks or months in advance. If you were to go
farther behind the scenes, you would notice
the way writers and producers map out entire
seasons of your favorite shows before they start
filmingasingleepisode.That’sbecausetheywant
to know where they’ll start, how things will finish,
and which spaces they can sell to advertisers.
WORKING WITH AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR

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You may not have advertisers to please
and ratings to worry about, but you should
know which pieces of content you will be
producing in the future, along with when and
where they’ll be distributed. The biggest
benefit to this kind of approach – whether
your calendar is cv built on a spreadsheet,
a word processing document, or scheduling
app – is that it keeps you focused and
motivated. You never have to wonder what
you should be working on next, because the
answers are right in front of you.
Aside from preventing writers block, using
an editorial calendar also allows you to
coordinate and consolidate your message.
It keeps you from posting one thing on
your blog and then going in a whole new
direction through your social feeds or email
newsletter. In other words, it lets you make
BLOGGINGBLOGGING

9
a bigger impression on buyers, and come
off as more polished, because each of your
posts, images, and videos reinforces the
others.
Scheduling your content also allows you to
look ahead so you can tie your marketing
into external events that can be anticipated.
For instance, you might not know what the
next breaking news item in your industry will
be, but you can anticipate major holidays,
conferences, and product release dates.
Why not build your content along the same
themes your customers are already talking
about and looking up online?
Don’t think that an editorial calendar is just
about timing and topics, though. There is
also the issue of responsibility. If you have
several different individuals creating content

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for your marketing plan, or working with
an outside vendor to generate things like
pictures, post, and videos, then you can
keep everyone on the same page with a
list of topics and deadlines. That can go a
long way towards improving your workflow,
increasing cooperation, and making sure
every piece of content produced finds its
way to the right destination.
We began this report by advising you to
turn your content marketing wishes into
a concrete plan of action. Setting a firm
editorial calendar into place makes that job
a lot easier and ensures you don’t go too far
off track with your messaging.

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To a lot of business owners, content is
content. They see is something has to be put
on a website, blog, or social feet, but as long
as the ideas are coherent and the keywords
are in the right places, they tend not to worry
too much about the rest.
That’s a shortsighted point of view. For one
thing, Google’s algorithms are getting better
at measuring engagement, authenticity, and
authority. Having strong content matters if
you want to attract visitors to your website.
The bigger issue, however, is that content
needs to be compelling and persuasive
if you want to make an impression on live
humans. They don’t want bland, generic,
keyword-stuffed articles. They want a unique
point of view that addresses their issues and
concerns.
DEVELOPING YOUR OWN VOICE AND STYLE

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For that reason, every marketer should be
aiming to develop a voice and style that is all
their own. In the same way that two singers
might approach the same song in entirely
different ways, two marketers can address
a popular topic in a way that reflects each
one’s distinctive audience, strengths, and
knowledge base.
Usually, a prolific content marketer will
develop their own style over time. The more
they practice, the easier it is to figure out
what feels natural. However, there are a few
things you can do to move the process along
and stand out in a very crowded Internet.
The first is to consider what the marketing
personality of your organization should be
like in the first place. Do you want to be
serious and solemn, or lighthearted and
witty? Would you prefer that people see you
and your business as the premier source of
information in the industry, or as a group that
delivers fun facts in an entertaining fashion?
Another good idea is to find one or two
individuals who can serve as the public
face of your business. This is usually the
owner, but it could also be a spokesperson
or family member. When customers see the
same person in numerous videos, photos,
and biographies, it becomes easier for them
to associate that face with the business as
a whole. They feel like they are “getting to
know” the individual, and that carries over to
the company.
In order to ensure consistency in your
communications, you could also create a
stylesheet that indicates what colors you’re

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going to use in your messaging, which types
of grammar preferences and abbreviations
you’ll stick to, and even which words or
terms should be prioritized. These types of
documents can help with building a brand,
and make it easier for you to create pieces
of content that seem like they go together.
The goal of content marketing isn’t just to
have people view your ideas and marketing
pieces. Instead, it’s to carve out a niche in
buyers minds and show them what makes
you different from your competitors. By
expressing yourself with a unique voice
and point of view, you make it easier for
customers to know you, like you, and pick
out your content again and again.

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Most content marketers use a blog as the
focal point of their distribution efforts. That
makes perfect sense, given that every new
post counts as a fresh page in Google’s
eyes, and someone who clicks through to
your website to read one article is likely to
stay and peruse others.
But, as you consider filling your blog with
informative 500 word items, consider a
couple of things: first, your blog isn’t just
about text and keywords; and second, there
are still other places you should share and
promote your ideas.
Obviously, written content is likely to be
the focus of your blog. That’s the easiest
and cheapest type of content to produce, it
stands out clearly to Google and the other
search engines, and is convenient for your
readers. However, your posts don’t just
GETTING BEYOND THE BASIC BLOG POST
BLOG

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need to consist of paragraphs and search-
friendly text.
Although the titles of your blog posts are
going to be the first thing readers notice, the
images you attach to them convey meaning
and emotion almost instantly. It’s amazing
to see how two different posts can perform
when one has a stunning visual next to it
and the other doesn’t. If you want to attract
attention and create interest, pay as much
attention to the pictures you put on your
blog as you do the text.
You should also think through the details as
you craft the body of your posts themselves.
Few people enjoy reading long, unbroken
blocks of words. You can transmit key points,
and make your content see more interesting,
by including subheadings, bullet points,
and numbered lists. These help the reader

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to retain key thoughts, and make your content
seem more inviting.
As easy and helpful as it is to work with text,
keep in mind that you can comprise entire posts
of images and video. In fact, you may consider
taking some of your ideas that have been
popular in a written post format and translating
them into different mediums, like video clips and
infographics. That lets you get more mileage out
of your best concepts, reach a wider audience,
and engage potential buyers who might not have
noticed your content otherwise.
In the same way, remember that a lot of what you
consider to be blog content can also be shared,
promoted, or repackaged in social media. While
it’s important to have content on your website
for search engine optimization purposes, it’s
often easier to bring in viewers from platforms
they already know and use every day. So, while

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you might have a written article on your own
blog, you could post a shortened, image-
based version to Facebook, and then use
the resulting script to make a short video that
is distributed via YouTube. Taking that kind of
approach increases viewership across the
board and helps you leave a bigger footprint
online.
Finding the specific answers that work for
your business might require you to tweak
theseapproaches.And,bystudyingyourweb
analytics you’ll discover what your customers
do and don’t respond to. What matters most,
though, is that you take a bigger picture of
content marketing that isn’t just constrained
to a few paragraphs that go on to your blog.
The worldwide web is huge, and you need
to be using every type of media – in several
different platforms – if you want to reach as
many buyers as possible.

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For all the advice we give about creating
interesting and insightful content, it’s
important to remember that we aren’t
trying to turn you into a novelist or a media
personality. Or to put it another way, the point
of creating content is to help your business
grow. Otherwise, why would you bother
at all?
It used to be that you could post a lot of
material online, get visitors from Google,
and watch your sales increase. Now, though,
the web is so crowded and competitive that
even people who are good prospects for
your products or services are likely to read
what you have to say and then take their
attention elsewhere if you don’t give them
a good reason to hang around. That’s why
your content has to be optimized specifically
for conversions.
OPTIMIZING YOUR CONTENT FOR CONVERSIONS

19
Generating conversions from your content
is a two-step process. The first is making
sure as many people as possible can find
and view your ideas. Naturally, that includes
all the great advice about search engine
optimization we like to give out in our blogs
and reports. You want someone who turns
to Google to come across your thoughts as
frequently as possible.
You shouldn’t settle for simply search
optimizing your content, though. In 2017,
there are a lot of different ways you can
promote your ideas to a larger audience.
For instance, you can put links to your
blog posts in your social feeds. Or, you can
promote one social media item from another
(tweeting about your latest YouTube video,
for example). You can even use advertising
options like Facebook’s “boost” feature to
reachabiggerandtightly-targetedaudience.

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Likewise, you can draw in more readers and
viewers by cross-promoting your content through
internal links, email newsletters, and even PPC
ads. All of this ensures the effort you put into
developing unique content style will pay off
broader exposure.
When you’re satisfied your content is reaching
the right audience, you can make it pay off by
including a focused call to action at the end of
every piece. Don’t hope someone who sees
your post or video will take the next step – invite
them specifically to move forward and sign up for
your newsletter, follow you online, or download
a report you put together. Give them a specific
benefit so they have a reason to stay in touch.
Ultimately, content marketing is still marketing. If
you aren’t promoting the pieces you put online,
then they aren’t going to be seen and won’t have
a noticeable effect on your company. Likewise,

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if it isn’t clear what someone who likes your
content should do to learn more, you’ll
constantly lose prospects who might have
turned into buyers if they had remained in
your sales funnel.
Given the time, money, and effort it takes to
buildandexecuteastrongcontentmarketing
plan, it makes sense to give yourself every
possible chance to generate conversions.
Are you doing enough to see bottom-line
results?

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CONTENT MARKETING SUCCESS
DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT
In this brief guide, we have walked you
through the steps needed to create a
comprehensive content marketing strategy
and bring it to life. It’s not uncommon for
new clients to tell us they’ve thought about
different elements of their campaigns in the
past, but hadn’t ever put the pieces together
to achieve the right results.
If you’ve dabbled in content marketing, or
even if you’ve put it off because it seemed
overwhelming, this is your chance to turn
the page and start carving out your identity
on the web. By following the tips and advice
we’ve provided here, you can figure out what
you’re trying to accomplish, set an editorial
calendar, reach buyers through a variety of
platforms, and even generate inbound leads
or sales.

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Of course, each of these steps gets a lot
easier when you have the right creative
team working on your side. Reach out to the
creative minds at Web Full Circle today to
schedule a free consultation see how we
can help you get started!
$

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980.216.8847

Creating a Content Marketing Plan That Works

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