Knowing what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and when to do it is an essential component of any successful content marketing strategy.

By documenting what needs to be done and how you will do it, you will be more likely to stick to it. Plus, you’ll be able to better understand what’s working and what’s not, as well as better understand how much you should spend on your content plan based on the value you’ll receive from it. Without documentation, you’re just shooting in the dark.

Many areas are covered in a documented content marketing strategy, such as:

• Develop audience personas
• Develop your content plan
• Advance your brand story
• Decide which channels you will use to publish your content

Your content plan can be as detailed as you need. Exactly how much you document will depend on how many others you need to bring into the plan and who you need to convince to invest in the plan. The more people who participate, the more documentation you will need to explain and convince others to participate, as well as to keep a team focused on achieving the goals you have chosen.

Your content marketing strategy should answer the who, what, when, why, and how of your entire strategy. With a documented strategy, you’ll be able to track your progress, determine what’s working and what’s not, justify spending, and define the value of your content marketing strategy to the business. Plus, you’ll have a plan to follow to ensure success.

Your content marketing strategy must answer:

• What you hope to achieve with content marketing
• Who is your audience and how big is your audience
• The content marketing channels you plan to use
• How do you define your value?
• Answer what strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats exist in the market

Then you need to match these responses to the sales cycle of the business you are creating the content marketing strategy for. You will need to know what to say, when to say it, and in what form you will say it, as well as what channel you will say it on. Helps define the sales process before developing your content marketing plan.

This process will allow you to convert prospects to prospects and prospects to buyers. Using your product funnel and your audience personas, you can develop the content you need for each phase of the sales cycle. Using the sales funnel with insight into your audience’s buying cycle as a starting point for creating your documented content strategy makes sense, because you’ll be able to immediately see where you’re lacking.