How to Build an Effective Content Marketing Plan

According to the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report, content marketing is on the rise, with 93 percent of marketers using content marketing, compared to 91 percent last year. For most, this is not all that surprising. Also not surprising: 42 percent of B2B marketers consider themselves effective at content marketing, up from 36 percent last year. All of this explains why, this marketing planning season, we’re seeing a dramatic increase in inquires for content marketing planning. Most marketers or business executives, especially those doing this for the first time, haven’t been through social media marketing courses a content marketing planning process before. While every plan is different, let me address some common elements that should be a part of any content marketing plan. Before I dive directly into content marketing goals and objectives, know this: If your content marketing goals and objectives are designed to stand alone, you’re starting in the wrong place. Content marketing goals should come from marketing goals. Marketing goals should come from business goals. Content marketing, therefore, should support the business, not just marketing. Aligning content marketing with your marketing and business objectives needs social media marketing b2b to guide your approach, but don’t go overboard, especially if this is your first content marketing plan. I typically recommend setting some simple but specific one-year goals, and then identifying some broader two-or-three year goals, which you’ll need to revisit on at least a quarterly basis.

Strategic Approaches to Developing a Social Networking

Every business plan, campaign, or project comes down to Tactics, Tools, and Strategies (hence the subtitle of my book). To conceive, develop, and implement a sound social media marketing strategic plan that will be successful needs to have those three critical components. The order of execution may vary depending upon the person developing the plan. Some people do better with looking at lots of tools and asking themselves “How can I use these tools to accomplish my goals and which ones do I use?” While others may look at tactics that have been tried and proven successful and determine which tactics best apply to them and their goals. And, many start with developing a sound strategy, then determine which tactics and tools best suits their needs to accomplish their goals. For this example, social media marketing for small business I will take them in the order of Strategy, Tactics, and Tools. So let’s begin by looking at the three levels of strategy necessary for developing a strong successful social media marketing plan. To begin, you may need to do some homework, look around the web, get some thoughts, read a book or two (like The Social Media Bible), and read some blogs. This will provide some exciting ideas about where you would like to start the process of developing your plan. When you begin to develop your high level strategy you will find that multiple strategies will immediately emerge. You may identify two, three, four, of even a dozen different, sound strategies that will achieve your goals. Continue to develop all of the possible strategies you can until you have either exhausted social media marketing job description all of your ideas or developed a list of strong candidates to choose from. The next step is to explore each possible strategy you developed and weigh each one for their ROI (Return On Investment). You’ll need to estimate the amount time needed to develop and execute, the associated costs and expenses, and determine the return on each, based on your particular conversion strategies. Once you have determined the cost/value for each, you will know where the best ROI or bang-for-the-buck is for each possible high level strategy.

Social Media Content Creation Process by Geoff Livingston

Many folks ask how to go about creating social media for their company. As a service to the industry, find here an open source version of a draft social media content development process. This process is general enough to guide development of specific initiatives. It does not recommend blogging or video, per say. Rather the process allows content creation to move towards the market’s needs, and within the company’s resources. While social media can be a great marketing tool – especially since it's free – knowing how to implement it is unchartered territory for some accountants. PracticeWEB Marketing Manager Elizabeth McMahon has provided the following structured framework that can help your firm get the most out of social media tools. Setting goals for using social media in your firm is marketing and social media imperative. Identifying goals will ensure that everyone in the firm retains the same focus, which, in turn, reduces the potential of wasted chargeable hours. Make sure to include elements in your financial and nonfinancial goals that will help you measure return on investment (ROI). The types of goals you set should be aimed at increasing your network overall. Converting networking leads to referrals is the best way to gain new business. Social media is like any form of marketing. After you set your goals, the next stage is to identify your audience. Start by finding out where your clients hang out in the social media arena, what sites they visit, what kinds of articles they read, what groups they're on in LinkedIn, and who they follow on Twitter. It sounds like a lot of work, social media marketing salary but going through your client list to find out what interests them and who is on what platform will contribute to your ROI. Think about the target groups identified in your firm's practice development plan. Who do you need to reach to meet your objectives? Ask yourself what key points you want to make and what you want to get out of social media.