Firm Up Your Content Marketing Plan For The Year

AdSpark Team - 7 years ago

Updated on October 23, 2017 11:00am

2018 is almost here and you want to hit the ground running with a great content marketing plan. You’ve pretty much heard or read from most marketing sources out there that content is king and that is first on the agenda. Your fingers hover over the keyboard raring to churn out the best content at the top of your head. That’s awesome, really, but let’s take a few minutes to breathe, think, and plan out a content calendar so we can come up with a cohesive and more purposive content. Shall we?

1. Not All Digital Assets Are the Same

The most common dilemma that content marketers bump into is knowing what content to put up where and when; given the many channels we have at our disposal. One easy way to sort this is to determine the roles and the best content format for each asset. We’ll just talk about the three most common assets in this article, so here goes:

Website

Role: This is your official online presence. Your website is the primary digital asset that provides comprehensive information on your products & services with lead generation as the main objective.

Content Format: You have a free hand on the content here. It can be a combination of text with images. The format has to be conducive to a seamless user experience and an overall cohesive look consistent with the brand.

Facebook

Role: This can be the social media hub for your brand’s content and to spur engagement. Posts should be engaging, timely, and informative.

Content Format: Use a combination of copy with links, photos, artworks (infographics, animated GIFs, memes), or video. The goal is to put out content that is relevant and interesting to your target audience.

Twitter

Role: Given the nature of Twitter, it can be your near-real time conversation hub. Posts are informative but incites questions and responses. Twitter is actually a great platform for customer interaction.

Content Format: Mostly text but can include images, short videos or links.

2. Know Your Content Type

Before you start working on that great piece you have in your head, it will help your content plan if you have an idea on the types of content we can craft and the purpose they serve.

Hero

This centers on the brand, its products, and services. The hero content highlights the positioning of the brand & aims to generate awareness. It’s meant to build credibility through insightful content and is written with a stronger call-to-action with the intent to close deals.

Examples: Articles on product launches, event activation, brand contests

Best Platform: Website, Facebook

Hub

This is content that builds greater connection, slightly more product-centric, and nurtures potential leads. It gives a fresh perspective on your target’s passion points melded with the your brand’s values and qualities.

Examples: Product testimonials, episodic content (web comics or video series)

Best Platform: Twitter, Facebook

Hygiene

This is an always-on pull content optimized to get users’ attention and interest. It is meant to be light, easy to digest, fun, entertaining, and shareable.

Examples: News, reviews, life hacks, seasonal posts, product and service questions etc.

Best Platform: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

3. Programming Schedule

Now that we know the roles of our digital assets and the types of content we can create, you can now create your content calendar. But it is important to note the frequency of the types of content we produce.

Hero

Seldom – Due to its hard sell nature, overdoing this can turn off your target audience.

Hub

Moderate – This fills in the gap between the hero content posts. And since it is crafted to be relevant according to the target market’s passion points, it helps build brand affinity without displeasing the intended audience.

Hygiene

Frequent – This comprises your day to day posts and can vary from holiday greetings, sharing interesting memes (but still relevant to the brand values) to customer correspondence.

To give you a better perspective, here is a sample content calendar schedule.