How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Plan with Clara Mathews @ClarabelaMedia #vcbuzz

Content marketing can get very overwhelming:

There are lots of diverse tasks involved, and it is hard to get lost and confused.

Planning is key to content marketing success.

It is the only way to keep things aligned and effective.

Here’s how to create an effective content marketing plan:

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About Clara Mathews @ClarabelaMedi

Clara Mathews @ClarabelaMedi is a freelance copywriter, ghostwriter and professional blogger who helps businesses build their online presence with content marketing and social media.

Clara has been a contributor to online publications such as Rocks Digital, the State of Search and the Dallas – Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association.

Check out Clara’s copywriting services here.

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a digital marketer? Please share your career story!

I started with copywriting. When I was a Concierge for a commercial real estate company, I wrote most of the tenant communications, including a 4-page newsletter. I also decided to start a movie blog for fun.

A colleague who had seen my blog asked if she could pay me to write blog posts for her concierge business. Later, the Concierge assoc. I belonged to hired me to write for their website.

This was becoming a nice side hustle, but I had no idea this was a way to earn a living. Once I found some local networking groups for WordPress, content marketing I knew that this was the right path for me.

Q2 Where to start? How to start planning your content marketing efforts and what should be done first?

Know your audience! You need to have a detailed customer persona (buyer persona) based on your business needs.

Who is your ideal customer?
What they love and hate?
Their income?
Married or single?
Do they have children?

A2 Finding out who your audience is and what they want are certainly two key things. #VCBuzz
— Shawn Hessinger (@Shawn_Hessinger) April 27, 2021

There are a several ways to do it. The simplest is to do a customer poll or survey to find out who they are and what they want.

Not having a clear focus on your buyer persona. Making the marketing about you instead of your audience.

A2: If you don't have an in-depth, robust understanding of your target audiences, you should 100% start there. Any content strategy that is company-centric vs. user-obsessed is likely to fail. #vcbuzz
— Sam (@DigitalSamIAm) April 27, 2021

Copyblogger is a good resource on how to create customer personas.

A2. Your content marketing efforts should be audience-centered, so know your target audience.
And, of course, you should know who you are and what you want to communicate to this audience.
They're both equally important; you need min 2 parties for effective communication.#vcbuzz
— Teodora Ema Pirciu (@emapirciu) April 27, 2021

Maybe some #SEO experts can chime in here. I really feel that you need your keyword research done before any content is produced to ensure that your site can rank for the most important phrases. Content priority needs to include which keyword phrase to use for key pages. #vcbuzz https://t.co/bu4SS2IUmL
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) April 27, 2021

This is a great point. Why do all the work and then have people miss it because of a keyword? #vcbuzz
— Dana Lemaster Author (@LemasterAuthor) April 27, 2021

Yes & a lot of keyword research can take place by looking at similar sites on the same topic & saving what those sites use to discuss the same goods & services that you likely will. Also, interview Salespeople & customer service people for questions & problems your audience has.
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) April 27, 2021

Q3 What should content marketing planning involve?

An editorial content calendar is a must. You can’t keep all of that information in your head. You need a strategy or a plan. Not just a topic, but an objective, purpose or a goal. Are you trying to Build brand awareness? Promote a product? Generate leads?

Next, map out ways to achieve your goals. What type of content will you use in your marketing strategy. Blog posts, video, podcasts, white papers or other. Which is social media platform is best? Are your customers on Clubhouse, Tiktok or Linkedin?

Once you have your buyer personas, marketing goals, and strategy, it will be easier to find content ideas, categories and hashtags.

A3. It should involve finding ALL the questions your target audience has.

The People Also Ask boxes on the SERPs are a great place to find ?'s.

For ex., I extracted a list of 40,894 unique questions for the SEO industry from the PAA boxes. #vcbuzz https://t.co/CwNjjKAspn
— Boyd Norwood – nozzle.io (@boydnorwood) April 27, 2021

Interesting. So at what point in your #contentmarketing process do you work on keyword phrase research? #vcbuzz https://t.co/PPjgY2LSYB
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) April 27, 2021

I consider that part of the writing process. Once you have a content idea, then you start the keyword research.

Q4 Which mistakes should we avoid when planning our content marketing strategy?

Not having a plan or strategy that related to your goals. And you are not tracking the results, analytics of your marketing efforts. What’s working/not working?

Also, not using the art of storytelling in your content. Having an irregular publishing schedule (this something I still struggle with).

A4 Too many brands produce content just because they've heard they need to or because competitors do. There's no strategy or goals… #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) April 27, 2021

Even when yo are just starting, you need to know WHY #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) April 27, 2021

A4 Focusing on quantity vs quality. It's a fine balance – you want to post frequently, but not at the expense of turning out dribble #vcbuzz
— Brian Kato (@katobkato) April 27, 2021

A4. When planning your content marketing strategy, don't overthink or overdo.

Focus on what your potential clients need, and give them that. You want to make it easy for them to consume your content. #vcbuzz
— Teodora Ema Pirciu (@emapirciu) April 27, 2021

Q5 What are your favorite digital marketing and planning tools?

One my favorites for creating editorial content calendars is @Trello It works well for teams too.

My must have content writing tools are @Grammarly and @HemingwayApp. For social media: @buffer and @coschedule are excellent – depending on your needs.

The @CreatersPlanner is a great paper planner for planning social media and marketing calendar. Sounds complicated, but it works for me.

A5: #vcbuzz @HubSpot – email marekting + CRM @buffer @hootsuite – social media scheduling @TheAnimaker @canva @crelloapp – video & design @googleanalytics @hotjar -website tracking @Moz @semrush – SEO
— Asangi (@asangi_j) April 27, 2021

Love @canva for creating social media graphics and blog headers.

I use @fraseHQ religiously for content briefs. Recently, I've been playing with ConversionAI + Surfer SEO…which seems to be an awesome pair. #vcbuzz
— Brian Kato (@katobkato) April 27, 2021