This is a blog by Mark Verzijl, Consultant at Sciential.

I often recommend 5 simple steps for companies to set up their content marketing strategy.

1. 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.
Find out who is your ideal client, who makes decisions in these organizations, who influence decision-makers and what topics they are interested in. Knowing your audience enables you to add value to them. Added value is most likely the only reason for them to follow you, relevancy = king.

2. 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲
When you know your audience, first set up targets. This could be in terms of followers, views, website traffic or leads. Then set out a route to reach these targets. Define the topics that you want to incorporate, through which channels and at which moments. Then, create a funnel to get them there.

3. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫
Mapping out your posts is the first step in consistent posting. Just as discussed in the webinar, reserve time to produce content and schedule this with an automation tool. This is a one-time effort (or at least, one time per month or quarter) to put yourself in the driver’s seat. Spend the rest of your time on audience interaction

4. 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Depending on the size of your company, a dedicated person or team should be in the lead of content marketing. However, at the end of the day, it should be a team effort. Make sure that as many colleagues as possible engage with the content. After all, everyone has their own network which enables you to expand the reach of your content exponentially.

5. 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭
At the end of the day, this should be an ongoing process. Stay in touch with your audience, know what topics stem their interest and stay current. Again, content marketing only works when you add value to the professional lives of your audience and therefore, you really need to know what’s in their heads.