MS2LC8 Developing a Content Strategy.pdf
- 1. DIGITAL MARKETING PRO COURSE Milestone 2: Social Media Marketing Live Class Pointers: Developing a Content Strategy and Content Calendar Social Media Marketing and Platforms What is Social Media Marketing? We have all heard about and used social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Quora etc. Social media marketing is defined as the use of social media platforms to create awareness, advertise, and promote products and services along with engaging or interacting with users and customers. In the last decade, social media has played a very important role in shaping consumer behaviour. Today, every company recognizes the power of social media marketing which has to lead to the immense growth of the industry thus creating more job roles and opportunities for marketers. Which platform to use and what content should we post? Social media is used by individuals for their personal interests and by businesses to promote their products and services. Some key platforms that most brands use are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Quora. Determining what platforms should a brand use, depends: ● What is the product or service that you are selling? ● Where is your target audience spending most of their time on social media? For eg: If you are a job consultancy service, most of your target audience will be found on LinkedIn. Therefore, LinkedIn becomes your primary social media marketing platform. On the other hand, if you are a brand that sells home decor services, your target audience would mostly be on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Once you have determined your primary social media platforms, you then need to decide what kind of content you should post on each platform. alok
- 2. To understand what type of content goes on each platform, you need to first spend enough time on that platform as a user first. For example, Instagram is a platform that people come to enjoy in their free time. It’s a platform where people like to log in, scroll through reels, check out some stories and log out. Basically, it’s an app for mindless content consumption. In this scenario, posting serious, lengthy topics might not work for your brand. Does that mean you can’t post informative stuff on Instagram? Not. It simply means that even the most informative topics need to be curated in a fun manner so that your content doesn’t feel out of place on the platform. Some general types of content that work well on major platforms are given below: ● Facebook: Videos ● Instagram: Reels, IG stories (AMA, polls, quizzes etc.), High-res photos ● LinkedIn: Jop postings, company updates, HR tips and tricks etc. ● Twitter: Short content related to updates, news, GIFs etc. It is important to note here that each platform has an algorithm of its own. This algorithm gets updated from time to time. Hence, as social media marketers, it’s our responsibility to stay up to date with the trends and update our content strategy accordingly. Social Media Management Tools There are various tools that you can use to schedule your posts and analyse their performance. Some tools are listed below for you to check out: ● Everypost ● IFTTT ● Buffer ● Later
- 3. Goals to keep in mind while making the Content Strategy Each brand comes on social media with a set goal in mind. It is, therefore, important to curate a strategy that is aligned with those goals. Some goals that most brands have are: ● Increase brand awareness Social media is a great tool to bring more visibility to your brand. You can use social media to introduce your brand, its products and services, create testimonials etc. ● Drive traffic to your website Once you have introduced your brand to your audience, you can further use different tactics that encourage your audience to come to your website to explore and possibly make a purchase ● Generate new leads Lead generation is a key goal for many brands and social media helps boost this. ● Grow revenue (by increasing signups or sales) Increasing leads and signups means possible conversion into sales. Social media can help create more revenue for your brand. ● Boost brand engagement Engagement is a clear indicator of whether your content is resonating well with the audience. Higher the engagement, the better your strategy. ● Build a community around your business Identify the core of your brand and with the help of social media, create a community that trusts in not just what your brand sells, but also your brand philosophy. Having a trusted community is a key indicator of how healthy your brand’s social media game is ● Provide social customer service Many people reach out with complaints, doubts or queries via social media. With your social media presence, you can interact and solve your customer’s queries one-to-one. ● Increase mentions in the press
- 4. With a great content strategy in place, your brand can be the talk of the town. Other media publications and even social media marketers themselves will use your content strategy as an example. ● Listen to conversations about your brand Since social media is a two-way communication mode, as much as you talk to your users, they also have the opportunity to communicate directly with you. This helps you understand what users like about your brand and what areas you need to improve on. Customer Persona Building your Marketing Persona To make a content strategy, it is important to know who you are talking to. This will help you determine what language you should use, what kind of content you need to shoot, what type of editing etc. Below are some questions that can help you create your customer persona: ● Who they are? ● What are they interested in? ● Where do they hang out Online? ● When do they look for the type of content you can provide? ● Why do they consume the Content? ● How do they consume the content? How to plan out a Content Strategy and execute it? ● Setting Goals for Your Content To create your strategy, fix your goal. At any given point, it is advisable to have only 2 goals: 1 primary goal and 1 secondary goal. Having just 2 goals in every phase will help you create a more detailed strategy. ● Identify your audience This is where your customer persona comes in handy. Once you have the customer persona ready, you can curate a strategy targeting them, specifically.
- 5. ● Choose the Right Social Platforms If your target audience is most likely to be found on Instagram, there is no point in focusing your energy on LinkedIn. Choose your main platforms and concentrate on those. ● Develop a unique strategy for each platform: FB, Insta, Twitter, YT, and LinkedIn It is advisable to make your social media feeds on every platform different. A single concept can be utilized in many ways. For example, it can become a video to be posted on Facebook, or a short reel for Instagram. Make your strategy unique and engaging. ● Plan Social Content and Choose Formats Keep a note of what kind of formats you want to experiment with. Planning your content will help you streamline your strategy better. ● Create a Content Calendar Having a content calendar in place is of utmost importance. Have monthly plans ready with details on what content format you will be following. ● Post relevant content regularly Consistency and quality are the two main words to keep in mind. You need to post relevant content consistently, without compromising on its quality. ● Interact with followers Remember to always check on what your followers are saying. Check your comment sections daily and reply to queries/doubts. Keep a note of your DMs and respond as much as you can. Hold weekly AMAs, quizzes and polls so that your followers get to engage with you. This will also help you understand your followers better so that you can curate content accordingly. ● Reflect on your brand identity Your social media feeds should be an extension of your brand identity. Using your brand colours, brand fonts, and brand visuals across all content will help you establish your brand identity in the minds of your users. ● Analyze and Measure Your Content's Performance
- 6. While creating a good content strategy is important, don’t forget to keep a check on how your content is performing. Check your analytics regularly, take your learnings and make tweaks to your strategy. Types of content strategies: 1. Omni channel In this marketing strategy, the focus is always on the customer. The type of messaging that you do in this strategy ensures seamless and a unified experience for the user. This allows the customer to easily access information from any of the channels, which are all connected. All channels- website, blog or social media handles all work together in this strategy. Eg: Zomato, My Captain All their communication on any of their channels provides a seamless experience to their customers. For example, if a user visits their Facebook page, the visual style is similar to what you see on their Instagram, Twitter or app. The philosophy behind going omnichannel is the belief that customers like brand consistency, which in turn has the following benefits: ● Customers see that you pay attention to small details. ● They can trust your business since it’s consistent. ● They become loyal to a business that they trust Pros: ○ Customers have better access to products ○ Customers spend more time and money in your store ○ More flexibility saves time
- 7. Cons: ○ More channels open the door to online competition ○ Multiple channels lead to weaker margins ○ Omnichannel relies on open communication 2. Multi-channel In this model of strategy, the product is at the core. Every communication is suited to the product or service as the focus. This strategy uses more than one media channel to communicate with customers and prospects including TV, print, social media, email, billboards, display ads, and more. However, these channels are not necessarily integrated. For example, the content and style of your Facebook ad might be completely different from what you put out on Pinterest or in your promotional emails. In short, each channel in a multichannel strategy works individually and exists as a separate sales opportunity. For eg: When it comes to multichannel, Apple is a great example of using this strategy to focus on the product. While they operate in both physical and online stores, their retail store concept is seen as unique among retail companies. Instead of focusing on in-store sales, iStores are, first and foremost, built to complement the company’s e-commerce business, which accounts for most of Apple’s total sales. In this way, the tech giant’s physical stores work as separate customer touchpoints that serve the big-picture Apple experience. As such, customers can visit stores like galleries, without feeling obliged to buy Apple products on the spot. Beyond using stores for advertising, Apple uses additional channels and services to create demand for its hardware. These include the Apple TV+ streaming platform and the Apple News+ news subscription service, as well as iTunes, which provide the company with extra revenue streams. This gives Apple the flexibility to pursue different strategies across different marketing channels, which helps the company promote and sell its wide range of products to a diverse set of customers.
- 8. Pros: ○ Diversify your audience reach ○ Give potential customers more avenues to convert ○ Tailor your marketing campaigns Cons: ○ Adds marketing costs ○ Makes in-depth customer research necessary ○ Requires more advanced analytics 3. Hub and spoke model In this model, you use supplementary content to promote one larger asset or use keyword clusters to plan content targeting searchers of similar types of intent. The hub-and-spoke model is unique in that it’s a way of generating content in a focused way around a broad topic. It’s a great way to not only become more relevant around that topic but can also help you increase keyword rankings, traffic, and downstream metrics like conversions, leads, and sales. For eg: Netflix uses a plethora of content - Youtube videos, interviews with a star cast, reels, influencer collaboration etc. but they all lead to one platform only - which is Netflix itself. Pros: ○ It creates authority around a topic via more relevant content. ○ It increases the overall keywords we rank for. ○ It generates more organic traffic and leads. Cons: ○ It is a competitive strategy and hence needs consistent prolonged efforts.
- 9. Content Calendars: How to create one? The goal of a content Calender ● Why do companies need a Content Calendar? In short, a content calendar is a sheet that shows you what you have posted in the previous days and what you are going to be posting in the upcoming days. In a content calendar, you write down exactly what you are going to post, where you are going to post and when you are going to post it. ● How does it help the companies? In terms of planning, focusing on the major goals of Lead Gen or Brand Awareness When a company comes on social media with the goals of brand awareness and lead generation, it is important to have a plan in mind. You can’t simply post whatever comes to your mind. It needs to have a reason, a format, relevant information and quality for it to help you achieve your goals. A content calendar gives you a complete overview of what you are going to be posting. With goals like lead generation and brand awareness, you need to be consistent in your messaging and approach. Having a content calendar can help you maintain this really well. ● Content Calander Makes your Task Easier As social media managers, it can get very overwhelming to decide what to post, when to post or what type of content to be shot. Making a content calendar can help you plan your content, days of posting, timing etc. really well. It makes your life easier when you don’t have to worry about not posting enough. ● Outline the process for the content calendar (process before handing it over to the content creator team etc.) - This is being covered in the next point How to Create a Content Calendar ● Define the Strategy and Goals - what would be your commitment to each goal
- 10. (lead gen or Brand awareness) Have a clear goal for each quarter. You may choose 2 goals for a quarter - one primary and one secondary but concentrate on only 2 for 3 months. Along with the goal, have a clear understanding of your strategy. Are you going to post more informative content? Are you going to concentrate on making entertaining reels only? Will you be bringing in some expert advice for your followers? ● Explain the template of the Content Calendar - Different brands use different templates There is no set template for a content calendar that is universal. Each brand has its own template and you can tweak one according to your comfort. Some key columns that are a must-have in any content calendar are: ● Day - The kind of content that goes on a weekend differs from a weekday content ● Date - Important so that you don’t miss out on key occasions associated with dates ● Format - Reels/IG stories/Videos etc. ● Topic - What is the theme of this content? Is it viral hacks or is it top 5 must-see locations? etc. ● Platform to post on - Which social media platform are you going to post this content on? ● Timing of posting - What time will this post go live?
- 11. ● Reverse engineer a content calendar for a Brand (Bombay Shaving Co.) - go to their major social media handles - look for the 10 days posts and their goals and the type of content they used to achieve their goals - Put them in the Content Calendar - Analyze what was their share when it came to Brand Awareness and Lead Generation.