How do you develop an effective content marketing strategy?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management, and work-life balance strategies.   

This question came from a small business owner.

How do you develop an effective content marketing strategy? What are your rules?

While there are no defined “rules” for building a content marketing strategy, it’s important to include these key components:

  • Market Research and Analysis
  • Valuable and Effective Content
  • Develop Your Brand’s Voice
  • Stay Consistent
  • Analyze Your Results

Market Research and Analysis

Every piece of content your brand develops should be created with someone in mind. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase with a brand they can identify with, and that begins and ends with that brand showing an understanding of their audience.  Market research and analysis, allows you to better understand your target client or consumer.

Understanding your audience includes very basic factors such as their age, gender, education level, and even income.  It includes their interests, hobbies, lifestyle and dreams.  For example:

  • What does your audience want?
  • What problems are they facing?
  • How can your product or service solve those problems?
  • What steps do they normally follow before making a decision (the buyer’s journey)?

Also – content marketing isn’t limited to digital marketing.  Make sure your content strategy to includes print, TV, and radio for the most effective strategy.

Don’t just assume. Research your current audience and see who’s already engaged with your brand. You can even set up simple online surveys to send to your current audience, and build audience profiles based on the results. Your audience won’t fit a single category, but research can help you develop a primary “buyer persona” and the “buyer’s journey” that fits the profiles of much of your audience, as well as several secondary personas.

Valuable and Effective Content

Now that you understand your main audience, place yourself in their shoes. You need to ask yourself, what sort of content will they respond to? What are they looking for? Is that demographic more likely to read online articles or blogs?  Or do they prefer videos or printed materials in magazines? 

If your audience is more likely to read a blog post, would you waste time creating a video? If they like more tangible content like books or magazines, will they be surfing the web for their information?  If they want how-to guides, will they spend hours looking at case studies that only tell them ‘why’? Probably not.

Identifying the most effective content starts with identifying, researching and listening to your audience.  Doing your market research up-front will reduce the inevitable trial and error as you experiment with different types of content to see what works for you and your content strategy.

Another reason to develop an understanding of your audience is to determine where they’re looking for content. Are they searching YouTube for the latest videos on your niche or do they spend most of their free time browsing Instagram?

Some ways to distribute your content are:

  • Blog posts and articles
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • Ebooks and whitepapers
  • Email newsletters
  • Social media posts
  • Podcasts
  • E-courses and webinars
  • TV infomercials
  • Radio ads

Aim for providing valuable content with the focus on getting the audience to DO SOMETHING.  This means to include a “Call To Action” by your audience.  This can be as simple as asking them for their contact information for a download, or to give you a call for additional information.  The goal is to request some type of contact information for the exchange of your valuable intellectual property.

Develop Your Brand’s Voice

The most successful brands develop a “personality” that its audience can recognize and identify with. This is often overlooked in content strategy, but it’s also one of the most important aspects of a brand.

As with every stage of your content marketing strategy, start with your buyer personas. What sort of personality will they most identify with? Is that voice friendly, formal, or silly? What sort of language and terms will they understand? What do they not want to hear about?

Remember to stay consistent with your voice.  People do business with people they know, like and trust.  Developing a consistent Brand Voice, goes along way in building that trust.

Stay Consistent

The key to knowing whether your content strategy is effective is to stay consistent. If you make one post per month on Facebook, it shouldn’t be surprising that your Facebook page isn’t growing very quickly. Develop a content schedule and stick to it. 

If you need help setting up your content schedule, feel free to setup a one-on-one consultation.

Analyze Your Results

Whether it’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly, never leave your content without tracking the results. This can include monitoring view and click rates, reading customer comments and responses, or even tracking ecommerce stats in relation to your content releases. Data tracking will allow you to analyze the results of your content marketing efforts and learn what’s effective and what isn’t.


If you need some help with any of these steps, please setup a one-on-one consult session.

To participate in a confidential One-on-One Laser Coaching Session with Coach Laura, just click the link below, pick the session time that works for you, and sign up. Each session will include 20 minutes of Laser Coaching with time afterward for a few questions. Take advantage of this opportunity to experience coaching. Sign up now and come ready to chat. One-on-One Laser Coaching Signup