Content marketing is a fantastic tactic to capture the attention of customers and prospects, but successful content marketing requires a well-thought-out and well-executed strategy.

Here are our tips for creating a successful content marketing strategy to tell your brand story the best way you can.

Rally the Troops

First, you need a content team to assign roles and responsibilities.

Who will write what? Who will review, edit and publish?

Maybe Sally in Sales has a secret talent for shooting and editing videos? 

Don't be afraid to pull people from across different departments to help with the content marketing effort. The best people to tell your brand story are the people that make up your brand.

Create a Scalable Editorial Plan & Workflow

Once your content team is sorted out, the next step is to create a plan to produce and distribute content. The program should be tailored to the team and resources you currently have, but it should also be scalable for it to grow as you produce more content or hire more people that can contribute.

This stage of planning should outline and define:

• How often content will be published

• What tools will be used

• The process of approval that a piece of content has to go through before it can go live

• Where it will be syndicated (on social media and other content-sharing platforms)

Be Good Storytellers

Tell the stories that only your brand can tell. Use internal insights, analysis, and experience to craft content. It's also good to avoid content that promotes your product or service.

No one wants to read that while enjoying their morning cup of coffee. They want to be entertained, and they want to learn. Produce content that your audience will care about, and you'll see more results than you would by only producing traditional marketing messages.

Stay Consistent

Your brand's voice should be consistent across all messaging. A lack of a consistent voice can be confusing for your audience.

One tool in your arsenal that can be used to keep branding consistent is your content management system.

Marketing teams can use their CMS to set and store brand rules and standards. It can be used as a hub for branding guidelines that are easy for your team to access. Check out How to Use Your CMS to Help Improve Online Brand Consistency.