Are you looking for a way to make your brand stick out from the crowd? Do you want to make sure your marketing efforts don’t go to waste? If so, then you need to learn all that you can about creating a successful social media content strategy.
Doing so can help you in a variety of ways. It can turn leads into prospects, help you witness higher conversion rates, and it’s great for helping customers build loyalty with your brand.
See below for an in-depth guide on how to create a killer content strategy that will have many people flocking to your website.
1. Create Buyer Personas
Before you create content, you have to know who you’re creating the content for. If you don’t understand the people that would buy your products/services, then you risk creating content that falls short.
By defining your target market, you’ll be able to give them content they find valuable. If they find the content to be insightful, they’ll purchase your products to get the help they need.
One of the best ways you can do this is by solving their biggest pain points. After you know who you’re reaching for, you can assess the most common issues they have and provide helpful answers that appeal to the masses.
But how can you figure out who your target market is? Start on a micro-level by creating buyer personas. These are imaginary avatars that you and your team create. The more personas you create, the more defined your target market becomes.
For example, let’s say that you’re a marketing agency. As such, one of your buyer personas might be Tom, a 35 to the 50-year-old man who just started his first HVAC company and lacks business experience.Â
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, you created Ashley, a 20 to a 45-year-old freelance writer who needs marketing advice to push her services online. Both Tom and Ashley need your services, but there will be different methods of reaching them.
2. Set Marketing Goals
No great project is successful without firmly-stated goals. How can you know if you’ve accomplished a major feat without stating the goals you had in the first place?Â
But contrary to popular belief, most people set goals the wrong way. By determining the right goals to pursue, you can ensure your company’s success.
We recommend using SMART goals, a technique designed to construct any worthwhile goal. the “SMART” stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based.
First, you specify the type of goals you wish to achieve. Do you want to hit a certain amount in sales? Do you want to get a specific number of followers online?Â
Then, you measure out those goals in increments. These will allow you to measure your goals and make sure you’re on the right track. For example, if your goal is to get 10,000 Instagram followers by year’s end, then you could measure it by having 2,500 followers by March, 5,000 followers by July, etc.
Sidenote: for those of you looking for more Instagram followers, visit this link for information on how to get free likes to push your content.
3. Set Your Social Media Up for Success
Social media can be overwhelming for new brands. Should you really start an account on all the major platforms? How do you keep up with all of them? How can you generate momentum with millions of other brands out there?
Use the small pool approach. It isn’t your brand vs the world; it’s just your brand vs the small industry your company is in. That makes it far less intimidating, doesn’t it?
Start by researching the competition. What accounts do they use? Which ones are the most active on? Which accounts are seeing the most followers, likes, etc.? This can help you determine which platforms you should use (EX: Instagram, Facebook, etc.).
You should also take this chance to assess your current content. How can you generate more interaction? Where can you input more video content?Â
4. Make a Content Calendar
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a successful social media content strategy and a bad one? How do some accounts manage to get thousands of followers?
The answer? Consistency. Rome wasn’t built in a day; if you want to get a bigger following, then you have to produce consistent, high-quality content that your target market will find valuable.
One of the most helpful ways to do this is by using a content calendar. Make sure you have multiple posts each week, daily stories, and are covering topics your followers will find helpful.
5. Balance Your Social Media Content
The last thing you want to do is sell your brand too hard online. If all you ever post are things about your products, services, and brand, then followers will quickly lose interest.
Instead, find a healthy ratio between informing and promoting. We recommend the 80/20 rule, which means you’d post things to inform and educate your followers 80-percent of the time, then promote sales and your brand the other 20-percent.
This will naturally give your brand a “selfless” appearance. People will see that you’re more interested in helping people than stuffing money into your own pockets.
Create a Strong Social Media Content Strategy Today
Now that you have seen an in-depth guide that can help you create a killer social media content strategy, be sure to use this information to your advantage.
Take the time to browse our website for more articles on social media metrics, as well as many other helpful topics you’ll find to be interesting.