While you can have immediate success with content, it is essential to have a long-term strategy that guides all of your future initiatives. Content is used in every aspect of sales and marketing and is instrumental in building a relatable and trustworthy brand. Creating a strategy that will be successful in both the short and long term requires a few key steps.

Create A Formal Content Marketing Plan

Having a formal written plan has a variety of key advantages. It will help you and your team determine what type of content you'll be using, the purpose of each piece, and where you'll be posting it. A formal plan should also define your target audience, what goals and KPIs you'll be measuring success by, and who will be handling each responsibility. It will also help you determine your ROI better, which aspects of your plan are working, and which ones need to be adjusted.

Craft A Content Calendar

Your content calendar will help to keep your plan organized by mapping out all of your content-related activities across your marketing department and organization as a whole. It will help keep everyone on track to complete their responsibilities within a given timeline and ensure you produce content at a consistent pace. A content calendar also ensures you aren't repeating the same messaging over and over again and that you're posting the correct type of content on each channel.

Assemble A Team Of Creatives And Managers

Your creative team will be tasked with developing the materials used for sales and marketing outreach. You'll need to account for a variety of disciplines, including website design, technical writing, graphic design, video production, and photography. The quality of your content will obviously play a major role in its success, so it is important to assemble the right team with the requisite skills. You'll also likely need to assign separate managers to handle SEO, social media, content development, email, events, and paid advertising.

Invest In A Variety Of Creative Tools

Once you've assembled a top-notch team, you'll want to give them the tools they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Some of the software that your creative team will require will typically include Adobe Suite, Microsoft Office, Grammarly, and Final Cut. This will give them the ability to create their digital assets. They may also need physical tools such as cameras, tablets, laptops, lighting, and backdrops. Communicate with your creatives to find out what they'll need to provide the best-finished product possible.

Use A Centralized Marketing Automation Platform

Managing all of your marketing initiatives from one centralized platform is essential in creating and maintaining a successful long-term content strategy. A robust platform such as HubSpot will give your team all of the tools and integrations necessary to build, house, and scale your content strategy. With everything in one place, you will be able to analyze your marketing efforts as a whole and determine where to continue investing your resources. It also helps to keep everyone on the same page and working toward mutual goals.

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