5 Steps to Creating Your Integrated Content Strategy

(without killing yourself…or anyone else)

5 Steps to Creating Your Integrated Content Strategy

The Steps:

1. Determine Goals & Resources2. Get to Know Your Audience3. Find Your Stories4. Audit yourself… and others5. Create your calendar

Who Cares?

SEARCH

SHARING

LIFE CYCLE

BRAND

*powered by content

Step 1: Goals & Resources

Content Marketing Goals

1. Brand awareness

2. Lead nurturing

3. Sales nurturing

4. Customer service

5. Customer retention

6. Visibility

What are your resources for content?

• How much time can you allocate?

• Do you have writers on staff?

• Motion artists? Designers?

• How will this work within the organization?

• Who is responsible for this?

Step 2: Get to Know Your Audience

Step 2: Go Mining

Analyze Analytics

Mine Social Conversatio

ns

Meet Your Neighbors

Survey Your Existing

Audience

Identify Key Customers

For content success, your audience must give a damn.

Analyze Analytics

Referrers• Traffic patterns• Time on site• Conversion rate

Engagement• Most visited pages• Time with content• Pages per visit

Social Shares• Shares• Links• Dates published

Mine Social Conversations

Stalking sounds so harsh…

Mine Social Conversations

Social Monitoring Tools

• Buzzsumo• Google Alerts• Social Mention• Advanced Twitter Search• Topsy

What are you looking for:

• Where are people talking about your industry?

• What do they bring up?• What’s trending

• Who are the trusted voices?• What gets shared (topics,

type)?• Where are the communities?

Mine Social Conversations

What are they asking? Where are the hot buttons?

Start creating buckets for content theming.

Social Conversations

What is being shared?

Social Conversations

What gets shared

Mine Social Conversations

Who is talking about it?

What is their authority?

Meet Your Neighbors

Seek out competitors

Who is talking about them?

Who are they talking to?

What do they already own?

Where have they failed?

Where is the opportunity?

Meet Your Neighbors

Don’t forget Google

Survey Your Existing Audience

• How did you discover your need for this product?

• What research did you do?• How quick did you go from need to purchase?• What was that process like?• What questions did you have post-purchase?• How did you attempt to answer them?

Do something crazy…. TALK to real people

Snuggle up!

Step 3: Find your stories

Restless Baby Boomers:

Thrifty, family-oriented, and wary of new things. Still have children in the

home.Respond to the cost-

saving value of a cruise.

Consummate Shoppers

Well-traveledLike pampering and fine dining The ship is as important to them as the destination

Ship BuffsMost cruise-savvy of alLike longer cruisesVery flexible in their cruise choices.

Persona Worksheet

Map Your Buying Cycle

AWARENESS I have a problem.

RESEARCH What do you offer?

COMPARISON How are you different?

PURCHASE I choose you.

Create Your Stories

Understanding your customer is only half the battle.

Clearly identify and communicate your story.

Create Your Stories

Pain Point

Your Story

Message

Identify:

• Core Values• Your USP• Company Mission• Brand Promise• Key Messages, and how

you live them.

Step 4: Audit yourself… and others

Content Audit: Your Site

Take Inventory:• What do you have

• grab titles, des. & URLs, H1s• What type of content is it?• Dates published• Tone• Buying stage

Measure:• Comments• Likes• +1s• Shares• Links

Evaluate:• Has it been working?• Has it helped you achieve goals?• Score it

Start small

Or go BIG!

Content Audit: Your Site

Take Inventory:• What do you have

• grab titles, des. & URLs

• What type of content is it?• Dates published• Tone• Buying stage

Measure:• Comments• Likes• +1s• Shares• Links

Evaluate:• Has it been working?• Has it helped you achieve

goals?• Score it

Start small

Or go BIG!

REPEAT FOR COMPETITORS

Goal of your Content Audit

Audit Takeaways

Get baseline metrics Where are you starting, where should

you aim? Find topic buckets

What are your essential topics? What do customers care about? What topics will pull you closer to them? Where are you heavy/light?

Identify content types Determine what’s most important Find lessons and takeaways

Step 5: Create Your Calendar

SEO

Social

PR

Dev

PPC

ContentClient

Start Mapping

Build Campaigns, Not Content!Start foundation for marketing plan

• What channels will be used?• How will the teams offer support to one

another?• How are we tracking this?• What personae are we going after? When and

how?• How will we reuse?

Plan for Reuse

Create a common calendar

• Accountability dates• Detailed titles and

descriptions• Content bucket• Buying stage/persona• Social platform updates• Business/company dates• Specific tasks

When should you start ?

Takeaways

Takeaways:

1. Define goals & resources2. Get to know your audience3. Create your stories4. Audit yourself…and others5. Create your map6. Implement & Be awesome

Thank you!

lisa@overit.com@lisabarone