Content plan – that is, how to effectively support customers in making purchasing decisions

In the third decade of the 21st century. it probably doesn't need to convince anyone anymore that writing a company blog is an important part of marketing activity that few can afford to ignore. Technology companies, service companies, as well as online stores are investing in creating guides to attract potential customers and bind them to the brand.

Everyone knows this is the right thing to do, but still many companies are not doing it in a structured, thoughtful and strategic way. Just writing more articles on topics chosen spontaneously by a content manager is usually a waste of time and money.

Strategy and customer journey

First of all, you need to answer the question of why you are creating content on your site and how you will make sure that anyone finds out about it. Without this, you may end up "writing to the drawer," that is, developing more articles that almost no one will read.

The brand and communication strategy should specify what goals we want to achieve. In online marketing, it is very important to observe the behavior of users – not only on the website, but more broadly, across the entire online network. The one who understands the paths of users on the Internet, as well as the patterns based on which the user becomes a buyer, has a simplified task in increasing sales. It is then enough to appear in certain places, increase the number of points of contact with the brand and provide the right incentives to move on to the next stages of the so-called "brand". customer wandering.

Wandering, from English customer journey , is precisely the process that a consumer goes through from realizing a specific need, through the search for ways to satisfy it, to making a specific purchase decision and finalizing the transaction. In a broader sense, it can also include building loyalty (building so-called "loyalty"). customer lifetime value ), as well as fostering the phenomenon of brand advocacy . The latter boils down to building a community of satisfied customers who identify with the brand so much that they practically support its goals by themselves – leave positive reviews, recommend it to friends, recommend its products and services during social media discussions.

Having an idea of the behavior of your customers, you will probably notice that somewhere along the way to the purchase decision there is more than likely a search stage. It can be characterized in several ways, which usually intersect to some degree:

– search for knowledge (deepening understanding of the problem),

– search for inspiration (relying on someone else's experience),

– seeking specific recommendations (facilitating the choice between several equivalent solutions).

Each of these processes can be helped by thoughtful content marketing, usually carried out within their blogs, knowledge bases, near-store guides.

Search, or Google

If we talk about the stage of internet search, it is impossible not to mention search engines. And among these, Google has been invariably king in Poland for years, with a market share of 97%.

To effectively attract traffic from Google's free search results, a number of steps must be taken. The totality of these processes is referred to as SEO (search engine optimization). Search Engine Optimization ), which consists of off-page SEO (i.e. building off-page SEO signals – mainly acquiring links to the site) and on-page SEO (i.e. all on-page optimization activities). One of the most important elements of the latter, is precisely the creation of content that addresses issues that are frequently searched for by search engine users. Google wants to respond to users' needs by serving them relevant content. To make this process successful for your business, you need a little help from luck.

Keyword analysis – demand analysis and journey mapping

First, you need to know what they are actually looking for before they decide to choose a particular service or product. To do this, it is necessary to conduct a keyword analysis. This process should identify a number of important keywords (topics, questions asked by users) based on a number of criteria:

1. Topicality of keywords (broad overview of as many search phrases as possible in a given topic niche),

2. Keyword popularity (a search scale to help with subsequent prioritization),

3. Competitiveness of phrases (comparing the strength of domains targeting keywords of interest),

4. Intent behind the phrases (answering the question of whether the user is actually looking for information or inspiration).

Planning usability and topic coverage

After finding the right issues, it is necessary to plan the content. The content plan is what we call a list of topics expanded with detailed guidelines for each article.

When creating content plans at Takaoto, we always consider the following elements:

– the title of the article (based on the targeted keyword;)

– mid-headings (Hx headings that dictate the structure of the text);

– supporting phrases (a number of issues that should be included in the content of the article);

– outlining the main concept of the article for the copywriter (what questions it should answer, what function it should perform, what style it should be written in).

Supporting phrases should, in my opinion, be selected based on the frequency of co-occurrence with the targeted keyword, competitors who are effectively positioning themselves with their content for the keyword of interest, and be well aligned with user intent. It may be helpful to identify specific questions asked by users on Google in what is called a "search query. Conversational form (that is, actually in question mode). Tools that help at this stage include Senuto, Surfer, Ahrefs, Contadu (formerly Contadu.ai), as well as Answerthepublic.

By planning content in this way, you will reach users who could potentially become your customers. If you neglect any of the steps of creating a content plan, you either won't show up for the right, frequently searched keywords, or you'll show up in low positions because Google won't find your content comprehensive or useful enough.

Content plans, or if you act, act with your head

So if you create content to attract search engine users, only on the basis of well-designed content plans.

Finally, it is worth considering existing articles when creating a publication plan as well. An experienced SEO specialist can suggest which ones to refresh (so-called. content recycling), and which to consolidate (when several texts treat the same topic). In addition, counting the ROAS of content marketing conducted in this way is worth looking at the use of content in a broader context than SEO alone. After all, well-crafted articles can be regularly published on the company's social channels, within Facebook topic groups, used in newsletters, etc. Paraphrased can be used as input for sponsored articles and guest posts. You can take them as a basis for creating a podcast or vlog. The possibilities are really many.

Author

Szymon Nightingale, founder of boutique agency Takaoto, SEO specialist, blogger, speaker, lecturer and trainer providing dedicated training for companies. Gathered more than 10 years of experience, working at an interactive agency, in-house on the client side, as an independent consultant and creating a new agency from scratch.