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Marketing
Build a Content Marketing Plan in 10 Steps
Content marketing is more than just writing blog posts or social media captions — it's about sharing useful, relevant content that connects with your audience at every stage of their journey.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing means creating helpful and consistent content that informs, entertains, or solves a problem for your audience. It’s not about selling - it’s about building trust.
10 Simple Steps to Create Your Content Marketing Plan
1. Set Clear Goals
Decide what you want your content to achieve - like more traffic, leads, or sales. Set goals for each stage:
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Reach: Boost brand awareness and engagement.
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Consideration: Increase blog traffic and time spent on your site.
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Conversion: Get more sales or email sign-ups.
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Advocacy: Encourage shares, reviews, and backlinks.
Tip: Start with 1–2 goals per stage to keep it simple.
2. Know Your Audience
Understand who you’re talking to. Use tools like Google Analytics to find out their age, interests, and online habits. Then, create buyer personas based on their needs - emotional, social, or logical.
3. Stay Relevant
Talk about what matters to your audience - not just what you want to promote.
Ways to stay relevant:
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Do keyword research
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Listen on social media
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Use SEO tools
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Ask your audience what they want
Test different types of content
4. Use the Funnel to Guide Content
Each stage in the customer journey needs different content:
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Awareness: Blog posts, videos, and social media
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Consideration: Reviews, comparisons, and case studies
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Purchase: Product demos, free trials, and landing pages
Post-Purchase: Emails, how-to guides, and upsell offers
5. Pick Your Content Pillars
Choose 3–4 key themes or topics that reflect your brand and what your audience cares about. These should guide all your content. Example pillars:
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Thought leadership
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Tips and how-to’s
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Product info
Customer stories
6. Balance Push and Pull Content
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Push: Promote your content actively - on social media, email, and podcasts.
Pull: Attract people through search, referrals, and useful blog posts.
Use both to grow your audience and build trust.
7. Try the Hub-and-Spoke Model
Create a main piece of content (hub) around a broad topic. Then make smaller, related pieces (spokes) that link back to it. This boosts SEO and shows you’re an expert.
8. Use Content That Captures Data
Offer valuable downloads in exchange for contact info. Good examples include:
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Ebooks
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Templates
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Webinars
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Research reports
Style guides
Post these on pages that get a lot of traffic.
9. Use Advocates to Boost Your Brand
People trust people - not ads. Get others to talk about you:
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Influencers: Even small ones can help spread the word.
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Customers: Ask for reviews and testimonials.
Referrals: Reward people who recommend you.
10. Track Results with KPIs
Measure how your content is doing. Useful KPIs:
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Website visits
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Time on page
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Shares and comments
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Leads or sign-ups
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Sales from content
Backlinks from other sites
Final Tip: Keep your plan flexible. Test, measure, and adjust your content based on what works best. Content marketing is all about learning and improving over time.