5 Most Important Stages in the Content Marketing Process

 5 Most Important Stages in the Content Marketing Process

Marketers have been trying to master the art of content marketing for many years now. However, in the current unpredictable and volatile landscape of any industry, marketers are finding it hard to formulate a content marketing strategy that simply works. 

Internal communication issues, the dearth of subject matter experts, and many other problems deter marketers from amplifying their content marketing efforts. 

According to a survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, these are the top three challenges faced by B2B organisations. 

44% of survey respondents implore creating content that appeals to various levels of their target audience as the biggest challenge. 42% mention that the unavailability of subject matter experts to create content is the second plaguing issue.  38% say that internal communication amongst teams is the issue they face.

To remedy these issues, marketers must press the reset button and approach the world of content marketing with a fresh perspective. 

These are the five most important yet fundamental stages of the content marketing process:

1. Planning & Research

As the proverb goes, “a good plan is half work done.” Planning is the first crucial step, as this is where you ideate, research, and measure your content marketing program from start to finish. 

A thorough planning & research phase includes the various types of content to create, for which demographic, and the publication channel you’ll be targeting. This step also includes planning how frequently you publish, content forms, titles, dates, and everything that leads to the next step. 

Plot your entire plan on a content calendar and get ready to create. 

2. Creation

Executing the plan you have put forth starts from step two. The creation step can be a breeze based on how detailed your planning is and how robust your research is. 

A general rule for thumb during the creation step is keyword research. Keyword research can sometimes dictate if your content marketing strategy becomes a success, so it pays to invest time.

Identifying topics, using technology, and utilising resources like subject matter experts is a clever way to create. You may also utilise customers and employ freelancers in the creating process. 

3. Publishing

The next step in the process is publishing the created content based on the calendar created in the first step. 

In this step, bifurcating your content into various assets becomes critical. These assets can be generally bifurcated into blog posts, articles, videos, newsletters, social media content, and others. 

Furthermore, start engaging your audience by publishing and promoting your various content assets until you achieve the desired reach. 

4. Distribution

A completely different exercise from publishing, distribution is where you apply your SEO, paid search, word of mouth, social sharing, and other skills & tools. 

Using the appropriate distribution method for every asset in your possession, you may achieve concise results that may be otherwise lost in the process. 

Creating a Standard Content Distribution playbook can come in handy every time you conceive a new content marketing strategy. 

5. Analysis

The analysis step is when you can sit back, quantify your content marketing strategy, and constantly identify improvement areas. 

Don’t be hesitant to pull your asset, improve your current strategy, or revise the whole exercise as the achievable result may be greater than the present one. 

Feel free to use tools like HubSpot, Google Analytics, Buffer, and others in this process.

Final Thoughts:

As of June 2022, the world forecasts a recession. However, this may be an opportunity for marketers to test new waters like assets, technologies, methods, etc. Deploying a successful content marketing strategy in any market condition is a skill only time can teach, and marketers must be brave to take this leap.