The first three things you should do when starting a content marketing campaign

We’ve heard Australia small business owners are planning to go hard on content marketing over the next 12 months, and estimates from the Content Marketing Institute show businesses spend approximately 29% of their marketing budget on content marketing.

However, just doing content marketing isn’t as easy as just posting a good idea. Establishing a user base, creating the content, and getting people to read it are just a few of the challenges involved in drumming up support for your venture through content marketing avenues.

Writing for Entrepreneur, founder of SEO agency AudienceBloom, Jayson DeMers, outlines steps for businesses and individuals to take when getting stuck into content marketing. Here are three of them.

1. Research your competitors

Something DeMers recommends before “writing anything” is to check out the playing field when it comes to the sort of content you’re looking to promote. If you’re wanting to write about video games, for example, you might find a number of other offerings available, but for something like meatball recipes, perhaps not.

“Look at businesses like yours, and see what they’re doing in terms of content marketing. What types of articles seem to be the most popular? How often are they publishing? Whom are they targeting?” DeMers says.

“Even if your businesses are nearly identical, don’t be tempted to copy others’ strategy, exactly. Instead, learn from them, and take inspiration to form your own.”

2. Set strong goals

“Start setting goals for your publication — and determine what results you want to see,” DeMers says.

“For example, how often do you want to publish? How many impressions do you hope to achieve with your first publication efforts, and how fast and high do you want them to grow?”

“Finally, how do you want to improve yourself as a marketer? You need to set a vision for yourself.”

3. Treat your first posts as experiments

Sitting down and smashing  out a blog post for the first time won’t necessarily be easy, and sharing it around afterwards might not gain you much traction. This is why DeMers says it’s key to treat your first posts as experiments, but says “don’t let that stop you from completing them”.

“Take some time after the draft is complete to revise and edit your work, following the best practices you learned when you briefed yourself; then put them into practice,” he says.

“Treat these articles as an experiment, watching carefully to see how people react to your work and taking notes about what you could do better.”

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