How To Plan a Winning Content Marketing Campaign | Brafton

When it comes to content marketing strategy, you need to have goals on the table. An audience in mind.

Content that builds trust, authority and character. That’s the only way to avoid making mincemeat of your marketing investment. Here’s how to craft an excellent campaign from the start.

Step #1: Define Your Objectives

You’d think that deciding what content should do is the easy part. Not quite. 50% of marketers believe that tying content to a goal is one of the most challenging aspects of the content marketing process.

After all, you can’t begin to understand whether your efforts are worth the talent and trouble without a clear end in sight. Kick off with the basics: what you want to achieve, how you’ll assess performance and if you can feasibly create and share it.

We can turn to the SMART model for guidance. This is a blueprint for every kind of content you’ll dream up, whether it’s part of a series or acts as a campaign pillar piece.

• S = Specific: Outline the tasks that should be accomplished and who’s responsible for them. 
• M = Measurable: Describe how you’ll track and compare progress and impact. 
• A = Achievable: Determine how realistic your objectives are and how you’ll keep them that way.
• R = Relevant: Define how you’re serving your target readership, drawing them back to your products or services.
• T = Time-bound: Include a timeframe for due dates, along with any other phases leading up to them. 

Instead of shoving a ton of content onto your social, website and print channels as quickly as possible, you’re giving teammates iterative benchmarks to guide their work. They have one blueprint for delivery. Month by month, you can then change those SMART goals to raise or lower targets based on what results you’re seeing. 

Let’s consider how that might shake out for one element of a content campaign …

Social Posts for a New Fashion Collection

Month #1

• S: Michele drafts three posts a week showcasing our autumn range. 
• M: We’re hoping for a minimum of 3.5% engagement and 2% conversion rates on Instagram.  
• A: The schedule will live in the content calendar. Michele will write and submit all posts on the Friday prior. 
• R: Weekly performance reviews will show us what people are responding to the most, including outfit pairings, hashtags and carousel images.
• T: We’ll post on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 

Month #2

• S: Michele drafts four posts a week showcasing our autumn range and limited-time deals. 
• M: We’re hoping for a minimum of 4.5% engagement and 3% conversion rates on Instagram.  
• A: The schedule will live in the content calendar. Michele will write and submit all posts on the Friday prior. 
• R: Weekly performance reviews will show us what people are responding to the most, including outfit pairings, hashtags and carousel images.
• T: We’ll post on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 

See how this social campaign adapts ever so slightly, raising the stakes? Knowing when you’re set to become more ambitious ensures you aren’t stretched too thinly for other aspects of your job. 

Before you get busy with SMART, it’s worth considering how you’re positioning content for the months ahead, i.e., the main goal it can serve and the supplementary goals around it. As writing whizz Mateusz Makosiewicz explains:

“Imagine that your goal is to make content that will generate more leads. Does that mean you can forget about building trust, creating brand awareness and educating the audience on that same piece of content? … You can’t just pick one of those traditional goals and forget the rest.”

For example, you can educate an audience on a problem they already have, which is good for brand awareness. But meanwhile, you might be able to inspire them to realize there’s another, hidden pain point — a need or desire that makes complete sense when you describe it well. Inspiration increases your influence and helps you earn a readership that keeps returning for more surprises. 

The basic point is, content can fulfill more than one purpose at any point in your campaign, even if you’re largely targeting prospects at the awareness, consideration, conversion or loyalty stages. 

Step #2: Find and Get To Know Your Audience 

There’s no point in marketing the very best strategies to the wrong people. It’s like psyching yourself up to direct a production of “Hamlet,” only to hear hundreds of audience members chanting “Sister Act” songs in their seats. 

So, discovering who you should be writing for is absolutely crucial to making your campaign pay off. As you serve more relevant interests, you’ll get more clicks and conversions. And, as that happens, you’ll climb the search engine rankings, earn more followers and spur profitability. The trick is realizing how to discover and prioritize the audiences that are going to get the most value from your content cycle. 

Entrepreneur Seth Godin told Journey Further that the secret lies in serving a small, hyper-specific demographic first, then expanding outward: 

“Instead of saying, ‘Let me seek out the people who don’t get the joke, who don’t understand me, the non-believers … We begin with the smallest viable audience — that group of people who share the same tastes we share, who want to go where we’re going. They’re the fuel to becoming a singular, peculiar entity.” 

With that in mind, try to master: 

Deep Market Research 

Launch a survey. Read reviews. Look at who’s talking about your closest competitors online. There are plenty of methods to trace intent, concerns and buying habits across businesses like yours. Some of them hone in on content straight away. You can find hot topics in your industry with tools like Pulsar and BuzzSumo, which offer insights on volume, trending news and influencer marketing. 

Unique Audience Personas 

What budget does your ideal buyer have? Are they going to buy from you repeatedly — and why? Also, are they making the decision themselves or influencing someone who can? Content campaigns should focus on particular personas within your existing list. It’s worth getting back to basics and asking which audiences can afford you right now, why they’d want to make a purchase and how long (historically) their conversion journeys tend to take. 

Top-Performing Content Reviews 

Learning what’s worked for current content suggests what pressures, contexts and benefits are really hitting home. You can double down on that messaging or tweak it subtly for new demands. Either way, dive into the stats with platforms such as DashThis and HubSpot to find out which blogs, landing pages and emails have garnered the most interest. 

Step #3: Sketch the Actual Roadmap Out 

Now that we’ve done the theory, it’s time for the practical. Your campaign needs a concrete plan for what must be written, edited, proofed and delivered on schedule.

Chiefly, that means having a solid grasp of: 

• A timeline that works for everyone. 
• Roles and responsibilities you can stick to. 
• Tools to track your content en route to the finish line. 

A content calendar allows you to bring each of these requirements together. No one will be searching for drafts or answers while the campaign progresses; instead, your briefs, roles and copy links are waiting in an accessible digital hub. Some of our favorite calendars include Trello, Monday, Airtable and Asana. They have their own perks for various content workflows, from social to email and long-form publications. Find something you’re comfortable with. 

Generally, you should be able to provide the following information before launching your campaign: 

Phased Dates for Individual Content Pieces 

First, lock down when you can feasibly ask a writer to complete their initial crack at the work, then make revisions. Is it the same day, or the next? When can an editor jump in? Make sure you have a slot for the project manager’s final approval, too — they shouldn’t be swamped by a backlog out of the blue. Finally, aim to get the content ready in your CMS (or, for social posts, pre-scheduled) at least a day before it’s meant to be live.

Useful Metrics for the Campaign

Click-through rates (CTRs) and web visits can tell you whether an email series is effective. On the other hand, lead capture is the golden goal if you’re just trying to stir brand awareness, while direct conversions are more appropriate for red-hot sales content. Decide which metrics are going to measure the value of your messages’ form and function along the nurturing journey.

A Reference System for Themes and Channels

You don’t want to hammer one channel with the same kind of content week after week. Diversity encourages audiences to check out what you’re up to, actively looking forward to new posts, newsletters or downloads. You should therefore categorize content with an easy visual scheme — like a color code. For example, a real estate company might label apartment promos “yellow” and city lifestyle posts “blue.” When the team gathers for sign off, you can all glance at the colors on the calendar, guaranteeing there’s enough variation. 

Step #4: Nail Your SEO Strategy and Keyword Research

Even the greatest content in the world can land with a thud if it isn’t optimized for search. Searchers trust results in Position 1 significantly more than those just one place below. Pages in Position 1 have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 39.8%, while Position 2 sits at 18.7%.

It often pays to start with the most fundamental questions: Who is my audience and what are they searching for? Then, unpack varying degrees of interest in your industry — the common and niche subjects that guide what you offer.

Short-tail keywords, which tend to cover broad topics in no more than three words, are your bread and butter. They’ll attract the highest number of web visitors with general search intent. Subsequently, they’re trickier to bid on and rank for. You’re going up against thousands of similar businesses with a head start. We recommend sticking with a handful of short-tails and staying patient, since they’ll take a while to prove valuable.

Conversely, long-tail phrases are the meatier details in the search sandwich — the more unique queries that some people really want to resolve. As you might expect, there’s less volume and competition. They usually expand on your short-tailers, e.g., “content marketing strategy tips” versus “content marketing.” 

Using a mix of both keyword categories (or splitting them further into Tiers One, Two and Three) sets you up for success. When it comes to writing, remember the following SEO dos and don’ts.

• DON’T overstuff: Bending a piece of content inside out for keywords is going to harm your ranking. Avoid repeating a phrase over and over in every sentence, and bear good syntax in mind (for instance, “marketing plan benefits” probably won’t fit with much). 
• DO tweak titles and subheaders: Blogs, case studies and other articles should have a keyword in the main title, while you can pepper short-tail keywords into your H2s and H3s. 
• DON’T ignore links: They’re a powerful ally to raising your search profile. Why? Because Google, Bing, et al. think your website is more useful when users click and explore it. 
• DO optimize your images and meta descriptions: Ensure your pictures and videos are renamed to describe what they’re showing, with alt tags for visually impaired users. Give your content metadata as well, which includes your focus keyword. 

Step #5: Create and Promote Quality Content 

So, we’re in the trenches at last: your creative assault on the fears, doubts or mistaken beliefs between you and the ideal customer. 

Excellent content accomplishes two things: it gives us a solution to a problem, while making us care about that problem to begin with. Your audience might already be seeking an answer, but if you’re going to race ahead of the competition, you must demonstrate that you either know more than other companies, have a better grasp of what to do, or have found an ingenious, one-of-a-kind fix. 

Clarity and simplicity are essential, too. As Sarah Arrow advises on The Creative Copywriter: 

“You should focus on the one thing the reader can take away from what she’s reading and take action on … The biggest mistake any writer makes is to think they can write for everyone.”

Skew your content towards a precise call-to-action (CTA) that spreads across your campaign. You can use hashtags or specially-designed landing pages to hold it together. Drafting a theme in advance means you can refine your emotional hooks and break a larger concept down into sub-themes that support clear, key benefits such as saving time, earning more cash, trimming costs or sleeping easier. 

More generally, tackle these implicit queries around what your content is meant to do:

The Why 

• Describe a challenge or risk.
• Home in on a desire. 
• Gestured to the competition.

The When

• Give a sense of urgency. 
• Discuss wider business or consumer contexts. 
• Show how a challenge or solution has evolved.

The What

• Describe how you can help.
• Share examples of past work.
• Specify what a poor solution looks like. 

The Who

• Speak like your audience. 
• Respect their technical or professional skills.
• Understand how they work with other people. 

Attempt to cover as many bases as you can for content that’s going to resonate with your target readers. But what about sharing your pieces effectively? Brands with limited initial reach can struggle to get their marketing collateral seen, heard and felt, keeping their strategy from gaining momentum. 

The most obvious trick is to share every blog, case study and video on social media, either as a main post with a snippet and bio link or in your Instagram stories. Pull a quote and hint at what’s waiting. Point to a theme you’re pushing for individual campaigns, calling back to past posts on the same subjects. 

Elsewhere, experiment with gated content that asks prospects for a name/email address (at the very least) before they can read super valuable assets. This captures their details for email marketing, which can guide them to more useful pieces or offer exclusive content that warms up their lead potential. 

Thirdly, you might want to explore content partnerships (just like we’re doing right now), writing free guest posts for a website or trade magazine that digs into your audience’s concerns, frustrations and emerging hopes. 

Step #6: Track and Measure Success

Yes — your content has the green light! The calendar is packed and churning out great work. Your teammates are handling their responsibilities capably, while there’s a diverse array of subjects that lean on a common CTA. 

Before you celebrate too early, though, it’s crucial to hold a measuring stick against what you’re uploading and distributing. Tracking metrics can be a constant struggle — unless you’re certain what to look for and which tools can assist you.

Top metrics to track include: 

Traffic 

The number of users who visit your site is a decent baseline for interest. You can analyze where they’re coming from, too, which might affect key geographies for future marketing. 

Bounce Rates 

How many people hit your page and then leave without visiting another? Bounce rates reveal the content that might be earning high viewer counts, but doesn’t encourage more clicks and exploration. 

Conversions 

Precisely what you define as a conversion is up for debate. It’ll depend on the campaign and content you’re launching. For example, you could be after direct sales using a comprehensive whitepaper, or gathering signups for a newsletter that’s supposed to ramp up sales messaging later in the year. 

Open Rates 

These are mostly relevant for email marketing, which holds a lot of weight in subject lines and intros. Good or bad open rates provide insights for A/B split tests. 

Click-Through Rates (CTR)

There’s a formula for CTR: the number of clicks in a pay-per-click (PPC) ad divided by the number of times (impressions) your ad is displayed on Google or social media. A higher CTR tells you that PPC campaigns are becoming a better investment. 

Once you’ve landed on metrics that suit your goals and formats, it’s important to find a platform that can clue you into the stats as they change in real time. Search for technologies that can: 

• Audit older content so you can refresh or remove it. Semrush has a slick auditor on its projects dashboards, carving out overall areas for improvement and analysis.

• Provide deeper audience insights on who’s engaging with your content and (potentially) the organizations they’re working for. Every touchpoint can inform “known” accounts that help you tailor campaigns to hidden buyer personas. Leadfw is one of the most useful tools in this regard, leveraging artificial intelligence to qualify visitors for your sales and marketing teams.

• Listen in on digital media conversations, especially those that mention your brand. When you have an ear to the ground online, you can track the value of wider PR success. Check out Sprinklr for a gateway into richer marketing awareness.

Find a style that marshals your best ideas beautifully, and you’re well on your way to a content campaign that captures attention. Happy campaigning!