Are you ready to take your art business to the next level? We are ending 2016 and getting ready to bring in a New Year filled with hope and dreams. Are you ready for 2017? Do you have a content marketing strategy in place for the new year? In this article, discover some content marketing strategy basics that will help you to develop a productive plan.
Before we get started, I want to go over with you what the difference between content marketing and content strategy.
There is a difference between content marketing and content strategy. Robert Rose cleared this up in an article on Content Marketing Institute.
“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
“Content strategy, on the other hand, delves deeper into (in Kristina Halvorson’s words) the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.”
Content Marketing Strategy Basics Artists Must Know
6 Content Marketing Basics
- Document Your Goals
- Mission Statement
- Document
- Primary Content
- Distribute Content
- Assess
Document Your Goals
Before you can start to decide on what type of content you will be producing, you will want to document your goals.
- What would you like to achieve with your content marketing?
- Would you like to build brand awareness?
- Are you looking for more engagement on your social media posts?
- Are you trying to build your email list?
- Are you trying to increase your sales?
Every goal will have a different strategy you will need to put into place.
By having your goals documented you will be able to stay focused on your plan and assess if your efforts are productive. You can’t win if you do not have goals.
Read more about goals, Art Business Goals How to Succeed
Mission Statement
Your next step will be to write your mission statement. What is the mission for your content marketing strategy?
Your mission should answer:
- Who will your content help
- What information you will provide
Mission statements provide a clear direction for your decision making. You will stay focused on the content you are delivering to your audience. It is easy for people to get derailed and go off in a different direction. Your mission statement will help you to stay on track.
Read more on how to write a mission statement, How to Write an Artist Mission Statement
Document
It is important for you to document your strategy. By having your plan document, you will be more focused, productive and efficient.
You will be able to assess the outcome of your efforts instead of wasting your time doing things that do not produce results.
At the beginning of each week write a to-do list for the week. Your list should not contain more than a few key points to focus on. If you try to accomplish too much you will become overwhelmed and accomplish nothing.
At the end of the week review the outcome and write a new to-do list for the next week.
Your to-do list will help you to get more done in less time. There will be no more wasted time wondering what you should be doing next. The list will also help you from procrastinating. We all have jobs that we would rather not do but are critical for the growth of our business. You will be more likely to accomplish those tasks if you have them written down.
For more information on how procrastination will kill your dreams read, Power of Procrastination – Killing Your Dreams
Primary Content
Many people get excited and just start producing content with no idea what their primary content should be. Doing it this way creates confusion for your readers.
Start by defining your niche.
Once you have your specific niche visit Google Trends to find out what content people are searching for that relates to your niche. Instead of wasting time writing articles that people are not searching for, spend some time researching and write valuable content they want.
Don’t make the same mistake most bloggers make. Write for the reader not for you.
Distribute Content
Once you know what content you will be producing, you will want to decide how will you distribute your content.
- Blog
- Video
- Images
- Social media
- eBook
- Newsletters
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Infographics
- Guest posting
Assess
Once you have implemented your strategy, you will need to evaluate what content is working and what is not working. A good tool to gather this information is Google Analytics.
For more information on how to use Google Analytics read Google Analytics 101.
Conclusion:
Now that you know what the content marketing strategy basics are it is time to act and start building your art business.
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