SEO content marketing in Orange County has proven to play a fantastic role in the success of online businesses. For example, content marketing generates three times more leads than traditional marketing, reducing costs by 62%.

But there is one significant question: How can you launch a content marketing campaign for your business in 2020, with the competition being fiercer than ever?

Frankly, the first task you need to do is create a content marketing plan. With a good marketing plan in place, you can take the first step towards achieving content marketing success this year.

Manage content marketing checklists

A checklist can help you understand what needs to be done in the plan and how to create an SEO content marketing plan in Orange County.

Access and manage content marketing checklist

Studies say that marketers who actively plan a project or event are 356% more likely to succeed. So if you want to be one of the people who will produce excellent results with content marketing in 2020, start with a documented plan.

In this blog post, I will share seven steps to create an effective content marketing plan.

1. Conduct an audit 

To develop a content marketing plan for 2020, you need to conduct a review to determine your current business performance and understand what works and what doesn’t. This knowledge will help you plan your content marketing strategy.

Some of the details to check when conducting an audit include:

  • Best performing content
  • Poor performance
  • Content release frequency
  • Ranking keywords

The better you understand your current performance and the reasons behind it (for better or worse), the more knowledge you will need to help you plan your future content marketing.

2. Set content marketing goals

If there is no goal, then content marketing won’t achieve the maximum effect, and, likely, it will not get ROI (return on investment). Without a purpose, your marketing campaign loses focus, and it is difficult to determine its success or failure.

Most of the times, businesses use content marketing for:

  • Brand awareness
  • Potential customer acquisition
  • Lead nourishment
  • Customer acquisition
  • Sales

Whatever your goals are, you need to set them correctly. Using SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) methods will significantly help set practical goals.

3. Conduct an audience survey

Another critical aspect of developing a content marketing plan is knowing exactly to whom your content may concern.

Who do you want to pass content to? What type of content do they like the most? Do they expect formal or informal content styles? What kind of content should you create? Which channels should you use?

With extensive audience research, you can capture this and more.

4. Determine the type of content to be published

Initially, written content has always taken the lead. However, over the years, various content formats have also become more popular.

Visual content is especially relevant. Many clients nowadays prefer visual content over written content. For example, a statistic says that 54% of consumers want companies to provide video content.

In addition to written content, other formats include:

  • Information charts
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Internet conferences
  • Speeches

The type of content you should pursue depends heavily on your specific audience. Ideally, you should use several content formats that best engage your audience.

5. Create Content Calendar

While producing content to attract viewers, one of the main determinants of success is consistency. Content marketing takes time to reach results, and you need to provide a great content experience to grow continuously.

With the content calendar, you can schedule content publishing as often as you like.

Also, your calendar gives you a visual overview of your content marketing activities. Team members can then easily track the progress of the content, making the entire process more efficient for the whole of the team.

Some details in the content marketing calendar include:

  • Team members are responsible for content
  • Phases of the sales channel
  • Content format
  • Deadline for the first draft of the content
  • Release date
  • Promotional Channel

To create a content calendar, you can try creating your own Google Sheets or use a dedicated tool.

6. Develop a content promotion plan

Creating content is part of content marketing, another vital role in promoting your content.

The experts will tell you to spend the same amount of time during the creation and upgrade phases. 

Although you may have a plan to create content, you also need a plan to promote it. Of course, there are so many platforms that will improve your content, and you should choose the best platform to attract your audience.

For the promotion of your plan, you need to include the frequency of advertisements on each platform. It must be noted that each platform has the best practices in promoting its content.

7. Assess your content marketing success and ROI

To get any results from content marketing, you must perform an activity. After taking action, you also need to track the performance of your campaign.

You have to specify these metrics in your campaign plan because this way, you can start tracking results immediately after you start your campaign. This allows you to quickly see if something is abnormal and optimize your campaigns with the hope of improving performance and ultimately achieving your goals.

Creating an SEO content marketing plan in Orange County can significantly increase your chances of achieving your goals promptly.

You need to understand current performance, your audience, use content calendars, promote content, and track performance. With all these steps and a high-quality schedule in place, you can reach more potential customers and achieve content marketing in 2020.