1. Develop a content strategy
The foundation of your content performance, your guiding philosophy for the next six months or a year should be your content marketing strategy. Regardless of whether you are writing it on your own, or if you have someone else doing it for you, you will be using it to define the path your blog is to take, or at least that you would wish it would take. Make it the map that will put you back on the right track should you go astray.
Why it is important: A good strategy is important because it determines the exact target audience and the type of content we are using to communicate to it. Besides, it gives you an overview and an analysis of the competition, a strategy to achieve your goals, and examples of topics and visuals. We believe it should be written in such a way that it can be administered by anyone (for example the in-house team) in a clear and precise manner.
2. Write a calendar of topics
A precise calendar of topics, posts and duties will make writing the blog much easier. The best strategy is to do the calendar a month in advance. It should at least tell you the deadline for a topic, its author, when it is due to be posted, and which designer is working on the visuals; but other notes on the topic helpful to the author are always welcome. We usually use Trello for a calendar of topics, and we very much look forward to its improved system of reminders.
Why it is important: The calendar helps you plan the frequency of posts and enables everyone involved in the production to have the most updated information about the state of things “in the field”. Besides, using tools such as Trello will make it easier to hand out assignments to the members of your team and follow the deadlines and posts yourself as an editor.
3. Create a plan of distribution
Before starting a blog make sure you have researched properly how you plan to distribute the content. You definitely have to plan the option of offering an email subscription because it is one of the best ways to distribute contents, whether it is a notification about a blog post or a newsletter. Share contents on social networks but also try out some of the distribution services like Outbrain or Zemanta. We have used both and we don’t want to go into a detailed review of them (yet), but we definitely recommend you try them out. Also, don’t forget the social share icons! Make others share your blog posts on social networks. Definitely ensure a budget for the distribution.
Why it is important: It doesn’t take much to figure it out – without a good plan of distribution you will not reach the target audience.
4. Prepare a call to action
One of the often overlooked and yet crucial elements of a blog post is the call to action. That is the element that will invite the user to contact you, subscribe to a newsletter, download or do whatever it is that you want them to do. Do not stop at one call to action, make ten of them! And test, test, test! Make Google Analytics tell you which ones have the most clicks, that is which ones get the best reactions, and then stick to them until Google Analytics tells you otherwise.
Why it is important: Because a call to action is often the connection between the content and the product. Cleverly developed content and a well designed call to action will get you to the door of your potential users.
