4 Steps to Creating Content for your Lead Generation Programs

Building a fit-to-purpose plan for creating content that suits your business.

Chances are, if you’re a founder in the tech sector, you’ve likely heard of the term content marketing. Myriads of studies have explained the value of content marketing and proven it’s here to stay. But for any resource-constrained venture, developing a regular flow of content can be a time-consuming process.  So how do you build a content plan that fits your organization’s needs and budget? Here are 4 steps to help get you started:

1. Types of Content

Choosing the right type of content to produce can be a challenge.  No matter what you decide, each type of content is important and serves different purposes. The following is a list of content asset types that can benefit your business.

Blog posts
Blog posts are a great way to share your thought leadership in a low pressure setting for your target audience. This type of content production is beneficial to companies that have the time to write short posts across a variety of topics regularly.  Learning how to write a great blog post may take time and practice, but will ultimately show your active online presence.

eBooks
eBooks are longer, slightly more in-depth version of a blog post. Generally, eBook content is considered to be of more value than a blog post, and as such, you can require your target audience to register their information in order to read it. eBooks give companies a better idea of the type of audience who is reading their content and also provides leads to the sales team.

Webinars
Webinars are presentations over the web, which can either be public or exclusive to those you invite. Viewers commit their time to listen in on your presentation. Whereas blog posts take just a few minutes to read, webinars are usually at least an hour and are targeted toward those who truly want to learn more about your company and your expertise.

2. Amount of Content

Deciding the amount of content to produce and at what frequency is important when it comes to marketing. There are a few different ways to approach this.  If you are metrics driven, you can decide how much content to produce based on the numbers of leads your company needs.  Another way to think about content volume is to decide how many campaigns your team has the capacity to manage, and calculate the amount of content you’ll need based on your lead generating campaign schedule.

To stay on task, start a list in Excel that outlines your ideas. This way, you can capture all your content ideas, create deadlines for when each content asset needs to be produced, and schedule the release of each asset.

3. Subject of content

Determining the right subjects about which to write that will attract and resonate with your target audience requires research. Getting to know the pain points and needs of your target market is key to understanding what they care about reading.

After you’ve come up with the subject of your content, choose keywords that are specific and relevant to catch the attention of your target audience. For example, if your startup teaches classes to developers, focus on reaching developers who want to expand their knowledge base.  In this instance, use keywords like “software development skills” and “learn new computer languages” which are easily searchable and can direct the right kinds of people to your company.

4. Disbursement of content

By using your budget sensibly and spending wisely, you can create content that will benefit you in the market. Once this content is ready, there are multiple avenues to push your content out to your target audience. If you have a contact list of prospects and clients, email can be a great way to stay engaged with them and share your latest content.

Social media is another channel to disburse your content.  Don’t worry if you have a small following. By using hash tags on Twitter and posting to LinkedIn groups, for example, you can expand the number of users who learn about your content.

By producing quality, targeted content, your company will stand out from the crowd and drive more interest from the market.  If you’re interested in developing your content marketing plan and still have questions, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.