7 Steps to Start Your First Content Marketing Campaign

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By now, you’ve heard about all the amazing benefits of content marketing. You know that with the right strategy, you can earn more traffic, build a better reputation, and see compound growth in both areas without greatly increasing your budget over time.

It’s truly one of the most cost-efficient marketing strategies around, but its rewards are proportional to the quality of your strategy and execution. That’s why more experienced writers and marketing agencies charge more, and why long-running strategies perform better.

So what if you don’t have any experience with the content marketing at all? It seems like someone unfamiliar with the strategy wouldn’t stand a chance at using it effectively — but at the same time, everyone has to start somewhere, right?

The truth is, you can enter the content marketing game with no experience. You won’t live up to your full potential right off the bat, but if you follow this approach, you’ll be publishing with the best of them in no time.

1. Get a Briefer

Your first job is to get a briefer on what content marketing involves. Yes, as you’re reading this, you probably have a grasp of the basic concept, but try to dig into more details. Understand the beginning, middle, and end of a piece of content’s life, how you’re going to measure your results and ROI, and the process you’ll use to build your empire.

Get a high-level perspective on the strategy before you dig into any details — you’ll be glad you did.

2. Research Some Competitors

Next, before you start typing, take a moment to research some of your competitors. 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? Who are they targeting?

Even if your businesses are nearly identical, don’t be tempted to copy their strategy exactly — instead, learn from them, and take inspiration to form your own.

3. Draw Up an Editorial Calendar

Once you’ve spent some time brainstorming and reviewing the competition, it’s time to make an editorial calendar. Don’t worry about this being perfect —…