What We'd Do With £2,000
Content Marketing is a minefield of options when it comes to the kind of content, the purpose for that content and how to go about actually producing it in a scalable, sustainable way.
Which is why when we saw Romana Hoekstra's post on Linkedin - which perfectly breaks down how to get started with Content Marketing in a very tactical way - we thought we'd take her hard work (giving full credit of course) and expand on it a little to provide a bit more context and to make it less B2B focused than the original.
So in short, here's what we (and Romana) would do to get started on content marketing if given £2000 per month (her version is in USD).
1. Tooling for Content Marketing: AI tools for content and others
It seems like there's a new AI-based tool launched every day that promises to make your marketing easier so it's head-spinning trying to keep up. Here are our (and Romana's) recommendations for the tools that you need to get going with content marketing:
- Canva [$15/mo]: Canva is a very easy to use platform for creating visually appealing graphics, presentations, social media posts, video and other promotional materials. With thousands of templates, you can create something pretty without much design experience.
- Beehiiv [$49/mo]: This newsletter platform facilitates seamless communication with your audience through email newsletters, allowing you to streamline the creation, management, and distribution of engaging newsletters.
- Descript [$15/mo]: Descript offers multimedia editing capabilities, letting you edit audio and video content by altering the transcript text, a crucial tool for podcasters and video content creators.
- Opus Clip [$19/mo]: A generative AI video tool, Opus Clip efficiently repurposes longer videos into short clips, making it an essential tool for adapting content across various social media platforms.
- ChatGPT-4 [$20/mo]: Utilize ChatGPT-4 for ideation, drafting, editing, and brainstorming, ensuring that your written content is both engaging and informative.
- Semrush Pro [$130/mo]: This comprehensive SEO toolset offers keyword research, site audits, competor analysis, and more, assisting in the planning and optimisation of content for search engines. You'll use this to identify the keywords that you want to priorise in your content.
- SEOWind Pro [$119/mo]: SEOWind Pro is a unique SEO Content Intelligence tool that supports the creation of SEO data-driven content briefs and AI-generated articles.
In short, you'll be able to plug in a keyword and SEOWind will then generate an outline for your article based on the competitor articles that are already ranking well for that keyword and common related keywords. It will generate titles, descriptions and primary keywords. You can then either pass this data as a brief to your content writer or click "generate article" to get an AI generated article.
- Surfer Essential [$89/mo]: An on-page SEO tool, Surfer Essential, offers audit recommendations for content and technical elements, ensuring that your content is optimized for better search engine rankings.
- Work with a freelance writer [£1200/mo]: Whether you're using a writer to generate content from scratch or do edit your AI articles, they'll bring a much needed human eye and creativity to your written content that you'll miss if you only rely on AI.
2. Strategy
- Create ONE core idea: Identify a central theme that resonates with your target audience and aligns with your business values and offerings.
- Build topic clusters around it: Develop subtopics around the central theme to explore various aspects and nuances, ensuring comprehensive coverage.
- Plan pillars, cluster pages, interlinking: Organise content with pillar pages linked to detailed cluster pages, providing a structured and seamless user experience while boosting SEO.
- Create content plans for all organic platforms: Develop tailored content strategies for each platform where your audience is active, considering the unique characteristics and user behaviour of each platform.
- Set up workflows, templates, and boards to kick off: Use project management tools like Beehiiv, Trello, or Asana to organize tasks, set deadlines, and establish clear workflows.
3. Video content
- Launch video series: Develop a series of informative and engaging videos addressing common customer queries, needs, or interests.
- Record with Riverside: Utilise Riverside for high-quality video recordings, ensuring professional output.
- Edit with Descript and Opus Clip: Refine and repurpose video content with Descript and Opus Clip, adapting to various formats and lengths for different platforms.
- Repurpose for socials: Adjust video content for optimal performance on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, IG Reels, and LinkedIn.
4. Written content
- Freelancer & SEOWind blogs: Collaborate to produce a variety of relevant and engaging blog posts, ensuring a mix of perspectives and expertise.
- Optimise with Surfer & Semrush: Refine and optimise content with Surfer Essential and Semrush Pro to enhance search engine visibility.
- Integrate multimedia content: Embed relevant video and graphic content to enrich the user experience and enhance engagement.
- Canva for blogs & socials: Use Canva to create visually appealing graphics accompanying blogs and social media posts, reinforcing brand identity.
- Post and remind: Schedule content publication and set reminders for periodic optimization based on performance data.
- Repurpose: Adapt and transform written content into various formats, extending reach and utilization across different channels.
5. Reporting & Optimisation
- Analyse content performance: Regularly assess engagement, conversion, and other relevant metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of each content piece and adjust strategies accordingly.
- Beehiiv newsletter: Leverage Beehiiv to curate and distribute a regular newsletter, highlighting top-performing content and fostering audience engagement.
- Evergreen content library: Build and maintain a repository of evergreen content for future repurposing and consistent audience value.
- Co-marketing and link-building: Forge partnerships with complementary brands or services for co-creation, cross-promotion, and link-building, enhancing brand visibility and authority.
- Launch ads: Design and deploy targeted ads on platforms like Meta and TikTok, utilizing evergreen content to maximise reach and impact.
By meticulously implementing this guide, any consumer-facing business can effectively generate, optimise, and leverage content, paving the way for increased visibility, engagement, and conversions.
Want us to take charge of your Content Marketing? Reach out and book a call.