Do You Have A Content Marketing Strategy?

Have you outlined a strategy for content marketing yet, or are you just shooting from the hip, hoping that if you put enough material online you'll reach prospective clients?

Here are some suggestions to consider for creating content marketing strategy. Try to answer all of the questions below for yourself, and if you're not able to, do a Google search to find more answers - tons of information on content marketing is available online.

1. Who is your audience? Define your audience by demographics, home buying/selling experience, budgets, investment goals, and other factors. You want to address the specific needs within your audience with personalized, relevant information and topics.
2. How would you like your audience to see you? Be very specific about your expertise for your priority audience. Communicate how and what makes you different from your competitors. Communicate how and what makes you better than your competitors.
   What specific topics do you think would be most valuable to cover in your content plan?
3. Make a list of all the topics that pop into your mind before editing them. Brainstorm topics with your colleagues without editing any of them. Sort all of the topics into key categories such as market information, comparable sales, home price appreciation, must-have smart tech resources, remodeling trends, etc. Once you have topics categorized, sort them into a week-to-week or month-to-month schedule.
4. What formats would be most utilized and effective for your specific audience. Blogs? Videos? Emails? Podcasts? Select no more than two formats and do those two well. Once you’re pleased with your “product”, repurpose the content for other formats.
   Which social media channels would be most utilized and effective for your specific audience(s)? Again, choose no more than two as to not be overwhelmed by frequency and consistency of postings.
5. Who is responsible for creating, editing & publishing your content? Only you? Do you have an assistant? Make sure that whoever is doing what knows that he/she is responsible for doing it on a regularly scheduled, consistent basis.
6. How will you monitor the engagement of your content marketing and measure its impact? Which metrics will you use? What applications can deliver the data and analysis you need?

Also, as I've written before, remember to recycle your content - the same material that you create for videos can often be re-used for blogs, pins on Pinterest, etc. Also, don't forget to post your blogs & videos on relevant social channels, which gives them a wider audience.