Now that more than half of the year is over, it’s time to reevaluate and revamp your content marketing for the rest of 2021. And even if you don’t have a content marketing plan yet, it’s not too late to create one for your business.
We’re here to help you clarify your goals and plans so you can create better content that attracts growth for your business.
Ready? Let’s start with…
Step 1: Knowing your business and your customers.
It’s important to have a clear picture of your goals, your business, and your audience. It will serve as your guide for reviewing your content now and the content you want to create in the future.
Here are some of the questions you can ask:
Who are my current customers/clients? What are their general demographics? What are their current needs and how have you helped them in the past?
Who is my target audience? Try to get really specific with this. Here’s a great guide to help you get a clear picture of your ideal customer.
What are my business’ core values or themes? Do you value sustainability? Family? Fun? Professionalism?
What are my goals for the rest of 2021? Try to be specific as much as you can. For example, instead of thinking about “gaining more followers,” think of how many followers you actually want to gain. Is it 50 more? 300 more?
Remember: the more specific and detailed you are, the better your guide and direction will be for your content marketing plan for the rest of 2021.
Step 2: Reviewing your content.
To figure out your content marketing strategy for the rest of 2021, it’s important to review the content you’ve produced in the past 7 months.
Here are some examples:
Social media: Your profile, groups, posts, information, ads, branding, images, etc.
Website: Website pages, blog posts, announcements, product listings, links, etc.
Email: Welcome emails, newsletters, cold emails, etc.
Digital Freebies and products: Ebooks, worksheets, guides, videos, templates, digital flyers, etc.
Print marketing: Business cards, flyers, posters, merchandise, signs, etc.
In each of the following platforms, think about the time and effort you spend creating content for them, the kind of content you’ve been creating, and how they’ve impacted your business so far.
Here are a few guide questions to help:
- How many social media platforms am I using? Am I active in all of them?
- How many followers do I have on each of these platforms?
- Am I actually connecting with my customers and target audience? Or am I just following/being followed by random people?
- Is my business information updated on my profile or website?
- What kind of content or posts have I been creating for my audience? Am I posting pictures, videos, or just texts?
- How much time and effort goes into each piece of content?
- Am I creating content that resonates with my current customers and target audience?
- Do I give them enough valuable information or service through my content?
- Does my audience engage with my content? Do they read it? Do they comment, share, or like?
- Does my content reflect my business’ core values, branding and themes?
- Does my content help me build meaningful relationships with my customers?
- Am I getting the traffic or growth I want with my current content?
- What tools and resources have I been using to create my content? How effective are they?
Resources:
While reviewing these questions, take advantage of different resources to help you identify your growth and how your audience sees your content.
Instagram Business Profile: Instagram gives you a detailed report of your followers, their demographics, how they interact with your posts, and even when they’re online. Check out this guide from Sprout Social.
Facebook for Business: If you have a business page on Facebook, you can access their Facebook Business Suite for free and learn about your audience. You can even schedule your Facebook and Instagram content to post automatically.
Mailchimp Insights: If your business has an email newsletter or does any kind of email marketing, chances are that your email automation platform can give you Insights about your email campaigns. Check out this feature on Mailchimp.
Google analytics: Google provides you with insights about how your website is performing, including where your visitors are from, what they search on your website, and even your top performing content. Neil Patel has a helpful list about cool things you can do with Google Analytics.
Step 3: Planning your content marketing strategy for the rest of 2021.
Now that you have a clear picture of your goals, your current progress and efforts, it’s time to think about how to move forward.
Here are a few guide questions to help you out:
- What tweaks or changes to my content can I make to bring me closer to my goals?
- How can I make my content reflect my business’ core values, branding, and themes more? Do I have to change the tone, the colors, the imagery, etc.?
- How can I make content creation easier for me? Can I delegate it to someone else?
- How many followers/subscribers/downloads/visits do I want to have by the end of 2021?
- What types of content would resonate with and engage my audience? Do they like photos? Videos?
- What types of content would help me get to know my audience more and build relationships with them? Do I need to start an online group?
- What types of content would allow me to build up trust and credibility?
- What types of content or new trends have I not tried before that may engage my audience?
- How can I tailor my content to support the needs of my audience?
- How can I keep providing value to my customers through my content?
- Is my branding still in line with my business?
Resources:
There are a lot of creative ways to improve your content marketing for the rest of 2021. Here are some resources and tools you can use to spark some ideas.
Pinterest: Pinterest has a lot of boards and pins that can help you brainstorm new content ideas.
Hashtags: Try looking through the posts under a relevant hashtag. You’ll see what content is popular and what other people are posting about the same topic.
The Biz Spa: Our monthly boxes are filled with educational resources and practical tips to help you reach your business goals, including content marketing.
Facebook groups: Facebook groups are not only a great place to network with other professionals and businesses, but also gives you access to communities where people ask questions, share their experiences, etc.
Quora, Reddit, AnswerThePublic, Google, and YouTube: People use these platforms as search engines to ask their burning questions—questions you can answer and use to build your credibility and trust.
Google My Business, Yelp, etc.: Need to find out what your customers think of you and your services? Do you want to find out the type of service your customers are looking for? Take notes from their reviews.
Your own social media feed: What are people talking about these days? What are they sharing? What are they commenting on?
The news: What current events are impacting the lives of your audience? How can you help them? How can you give them support and show them you care?
Reflecting on your business and reviewing your current content strategy can give you a clear idea of how to improve your content marketing for the rest of 2021. The key is being specific, honest, and resourceful.
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