Creating a Content Strategy in 8 Easy Steps outlines an 8 step process to create a content strategy: 1. Define business goals such as growing new customers or increasing revenue. 2. Identify target audiences and their key pain points. 3. Determine the brand's unique expertise and angle. 4. Conduct keyword research to find topics audiences search for. 5. Choose content formats that work for audiences and are feasible. 6. Create an editorial calendar to stay organized and accountable. 7. Plan content distribution methods to amplify content. 8. Publish content while following SEO best practices and tracking performance.

1. Creating a
Content Strategy
in 8 Easy Steps

2. TITLE SPONSORS
TRACK SPONSORS

3. HEADLINE SPONSORS
PARTNER SPONSORS MEMBER SPONSORS
AutoDesk
Bradford, ltd
CenturyLink
City & County of Denver, OED
Colorado House of Pod
The Commons On Champa
Cooley
DCPA - Seawell Ballroom
eTuk Ride
General Assembly
Hired.com
Husch Blackwell
ImageSeller
Intelivideo
Luna Gourmet Coffee & Tea
Mass FX Media
Nanno
Netsuite
Nordstrom
OfficeScapes
The Passport Program
Peak Beverage
Perficient
Slalom Consulting
Spectrum
Test Double
Verizon Wireless
Workiva
Xactly
Zayo
Granicus
Hogan Lovells
Meyer Law
Photomadic
Slifer Smith & Frampton
Swiftpage

4. •
•
•
•
•

5. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SUMMARY OF STEPS:

6. An element that informs, entertains,
enlightens, or teaches people who
consume it.
Content comes in any form (text,
image, audio, video).

7. A L I G N M E N T
Team is aligned around
common goals and
mission and how content
contributes to those.
P R I O R I T I Z AT I O N
Team knows what
audience(s), content
topics and types to focus
on.
AC C O U N TA B I L I T Y
Team has goals to
achieve, understands
how to measure success,
and feels compelled to
follow through.
WHY A CONTENT
STRATEGY?

8. INTERESTING STUDY:
J O E P U L I Z Z I , C O N T E N T
M A R K E T I N G I N S T I T U T E
ONLY 65% OF B2B
COMPANIES HAVE A
DOCUMENTED CONTENT
STRATEGY.

9. W I T H A D O C U M E N T E D
S T R AT E G Y F I N D T H E I R
E F F O RT S E F F E C T I V E .
C O M PA R E D TO O N LY 3 2 %
W I T H O U T O N E .

10. STEP 1

11. N E W C U S TO M E R S
Grow larger audience and
customer base.
R E T E N T I O N
Improve customer retention by a
certain percentage.
R E V E N U E
Grow revenue overall by a certain
percentage.
DEFINE YOUR
BUSINESS GOALS

12. NEW CUSTOMERS
• Grow unique organic website visitors
with new search-optimized awareness
content.
• Get in front of new audiences utilizing
guest posting, paid/native advertising.
• Amplify content through new
distribution channels.
CONTENT GOALS TO SUPPORT

13. RETENTION
• Create content for utilizing
product/service better.
• Develop campaigns to engage current
customers, cross-sell, and encourage
referrals.
• Create a campaign to encourage
customers to share their stories with
others using a particular hashtag.
CONTENT GOALS TO SUPPORT

14. REVENUE
• Develop lead generation content with
supporting personalized drip email
campaigns.
• Create more bottom-of-funnel content
like comparision articles, case studies,
and reviews/testimonials.
CONTENT GOALS TO SUPPORT

16. STEP 2

17. You are NOT your target
audience.
SAY IT WITH ME:

18. What pain points does your
product solve?
Who has those pain points?

19. CURRENT AUDIENCE(S)
• Customer Service
• Sales
• Product Management
• Product Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Technical Support
WHO TALKS TO CUSTOMERS?

20. •
•
•
•
HOW TO
IDENTIFY
AUDIENCE
PAIN POINTS

21. •
•
KEY
AUDIENCE:
RECENT
COLLEGE
GRADS

22. •
•
KEY AUDIENCE:
ESTABLISHED
CORPORATE
MANAGERS

23. JOBS TO BE DONE
When I ____________, help me
___________ so I can _____________.
PUT THE PAIN POINTS TO USE

24. JOBS TO BE DONE
When I graduate college, help
me learn how to manage my
money so I can afford to live on
my own.
PUT THE PAIN POINTS TO USE

25. JOBS TO BE DONE
When I receive a promotion,
help me find the right money
management strategy so I can
build more wealth at a risk
level I'm comfortable with.
PUT THE PAIN POINTS TO USE

26. •
•
•
•
•
RECENT
COLLEGE
GRADS

27. •
•
•
•
•
ESTABLISHED
CORPORATE
MANAGERS

28. STEP 3

29. What makes
your brand
different from
others?

30. What if your
content
disappeared
from the Earth?

31. •
•
•
YOUR
BRAND'S
EXPERTISE

32. DEFINING YOUR
BRAND'S UNIQUE
ANGLE
Your Brand's
Knowledge/Skill
Passion/Customer
Pain Point
Finding Your Content
Angle

33. EXAMPLE
Outdoor
activity
Zero carbon
footprint
Patagonia's
Unique Angle

34. EXAMPLE
Innovative
technology
Simplicity
Apple's
Unique Angle

35. EXAMPLE
Creating wealth Demystifying finance
Jargon with humor
The Motley Fool's
Unique Angle

36. YOUR TURN

37. STEP 4

38. What is
keyword
research?

39. KEYWORD TOOLS
• Keywords Everywhere
(Chrome Extension)
• Wordtracker
• Uber Suggest
• Answer the Public
• Google Trends
FREEBIES

40. KEYWORD TOOLS
• SEMRush Keyword Magic
Tool
• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
• Moz Keyword Explorer
PAID

41. Seed
Keyword
(Hub)

43. Student
loan
debt

44. How to
invest
money

45. Export your
keyword
research and
prioritize topics
based on your
target
audiences.

46. STEP 5

47. WHAT FORMAT(S) DO
MY AUDIENCE WANT?
WHAT’S WORKING FOR COMPETITORS?

48. What's working now?

49. What's working now?

50. WHAT FORMAT(S) CAN
I SUPPORT RIGHT
NOW?
THINK TIME, RESOURCES, AND BUDGET....

51. (Generally) Easiest Most Difficult
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

52. WHAT FORMAT(S)
WORK BEST WITH MY
CONTENT PLANS?

53. Refinance Student Loans

54. Student Loan Calculator

55. Research what's
working for
competitors and
what
realistically
could work for
your plan.

56. STEP 6

57. Free
• Organic Search
• Organic Social Posts
• Guests Posts (Sometimes)
• Interview Guest
• Newsletter
Paid
• Google/Bing/Yahoo Ads
• Social Media Ads
• Sponsored Content
• Press Releases
• Get Influencer Reviews

58. Distribution:
• Press release
• Guest blog/article
• Guest on podcast/video series
• Paid ads (Google/Social/Podcast/Print)
• Sponsored content (Article or Newsletter)
• Organic search
BRAND AWARENESS
EX. DRIVE NEW TRAFFIC

59. Distribution:
• Google & social media ads
• Remarketing to article visitors
• Organic search (optimize your
articles well)
• Sponsored content
LEAD GENERATION
EX. 50% INCREASE YOY

60. STEP 7

61. Documentation
is the key to
staying on track
with your
strategy.

62. FIELDS TO INCLUDE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

63. SAMPLE CALENDAR

64. TRELLO

65. MONDAY.COM

66. STEP 8

67. BEFORE YOU PUBLISH...
• Include your primary keyword in the title
• Title tag should be < 65 characters
• Compelling meta description to inspire
people to click
• Meta description should be < 160
characters
CHECK YOUR TITLE TAG & META
DESCRIPTION

68. BEFORE YOU PUBLISH...
• Important for accessibility
• H1-H6 in order of importance
• Use primary and secondary keywords in
these without sacraficing flow and
reader experience
MAKE SURE YOU UTLIZE HEADER
TAGS

69. BEFORE YOU PUBLISH...
• Important for accessibility
• Must describe the image
• If you can get a related keyword in it,
great. Don't stuff it with keywords.
• Give each image unique alt text,
different from caption
• Use punctuation!
ADD ALT TEXT ON IMAGES

70. BEFORE YOU PUBLISH...
• Provides important context and priority
page clues to search engines
• If this is a spoke page, link back to the
related hub
• Link to other related content from your
site
• If you utilize quality external sources,
give them a link
UTILIZE INTERNAL LINKS

71. BEFORE YOU PUBLISH...
• What do you want your reader/content
consumer to do next?
• Provide ways to get to other relevant
pages or a deeper dive into the topic (ie.
e-book)
INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION AT
THE END

72. TRACKING TIP
U S E G O O G L E A N A LY T I C S TO
T R AC K YO U R P RO G R E S S
• Return to your goals...
• What are the most important metrics for you
to track?
Common Content Metrics:
• Sessions or Page Views
• Email Leads/Registrations
• Purchases
• Pages per Session
• Time on Page or Scroll Depth
• Bounce Rate

73. TRACKING TIP
S E T U P C O N V E R S I O N G OA L S I N
G O O G L E A N A LY T I C S .
• You will be able to match these up with your
traffic numbers, which will help you measure
true success.
• Set up as many conversion goals as make
sense.
• Thinking bigger than conversions. Think
leads. Think a certain amount of pages per
session. You can set up what’s most
important to you.

74. TRACKING TIP
U S E G O O G L E C A M PA I G N U R L
B U I L D E R
• Source: Where you're sharing the link
• Medium: Specific type of source
• Campaign: For your own identification
purposes.
• Term: if you're using this ad for a specific
paid ad on a keyword, include here.
• Content: A way to differentiate each ad.

75. TRACKING TIP
S E N D O F F L I N E E F F O RT S TO
YO U R S I T E V I A A U N I Q U E
L A N D I N G PAG E
• Noindex, nofollow the landing page
• Do not link to the landing page from
anywhere on your site

76. TAKEAWAYS FROM EACH
STEP

77. SET GOALS
To have a successful content
strategy, you need to have set
business goals first. Then
figure out how content can
support.
BRAND EXPERTISE
What's your brand's unique
angle? What's your passion
and skill set?
1
2
3
4
Learn what information needs
your audience has and pain
points your product(s) solve
by listening to your customers
or people who talk to
customers regularly.
AUDIENCE
Utilize keyword research tools
to uncover what people are
searching for related to what
you do.
TOPIC/KEYWORD
RESEARCH

78. FORMATS
What formats work for the
content you want to create,
and what can you realistically
produce?
EDITORIAL
CALENDAR
Document your content plans
to keep yourself and your
team accountable, and to
ensure you don't lose sight of
your purpose.
5
6
7
8
Based on your goals for your
content, find the best ways to
amplify your content. This
might cost you some money.
AMPLIFICATION
Don't forget to follow basic
SEO best practices. Track via
Google Analytics, and set up
conversion goals!
PUBLISH &
MEASURE

79. THANK YOU!
SLIDES: BIT.LY/DSWContent
TWITTER
@alliberry3
EMAIL ADDRESS
aberry@fool.com
WEBSITE
fool.com