A watertight content marketing checklist will help you ensure that you have everything in place to generate and distribute effective content. Key components include clear objectives, audience research, keyword optimisation, consistency of tone, content formatting, quality assurance and promotional planning. You’ll need to find ways to measure performance too; this will help you to maximise the impact of your content marketing output, and that of future strategies.
To make sure that everything needed is present and correct, it’s important to pinpoint any potential gaps.
- Content audit review – Assess existing content to identify topics that can be included.
- Competitor analysis – Look at what your rivals are doing to see if there are areas you may have failed to cover.
- Establish audience needs – Use audience research data to evaluate which topics and/or questions your target audience is searching for and is interested in.
- Keyword research – Using keyword research tools, pick out appropriate keywords/phrases that you aren’t currently employing.
- Analytics – Review website analytics to assess areas of content that are garnering low user engagement.
- Content mapping – Map out your content marketing funnel to see if you can identify any stages or topics that aren’t adequately covered.
- Feedback – Garner audience responses to understand how effective your marketing approach is while taking note of the sort of things your audience is looking for.
Let’s look at each of some of these points in a little more detail…
Content audit review
This will enable you to see what’s missing from your marketing strategy. In respect of current activities, as well as being a useful exercise, it’ll help to inform future projects too.
The easiest way to go about a content audit is to inventory your website content and transfer the results to a spreadsheet. The sort of information you’ll require will include page views, average time spent by visitors on a page, page-one keyword rankings, backlinks and bounce rates.
The audit process should also consider what your rivals are doing…
Competitor analysis
While rival companies may target similar audiences, they’re approaches will likely vary, even if only in subtle ways. While identifying these variances, you can help to freshen up your own marketing approach, ensuring that it offers more widespread appeal, for example.
To begin, you should create…
Competitor profiles
This will enable you to benchmark key rival statistics by breaking down your spreadsheet into the following categories:
- Name of rival business
- URL
- Rival business’ foundation date
- Number of employees
- Number of customers
- Annual turnover
- Market share
YOU | COMPETITOR 1 | COMPETITOR 2 | COMPETITOR 3 | |
NAME | ||||
URL | ||||
DATE FOUNDED | ||||
EMPLOYEE NUMBERS | ||||
CUSTOMER NUMBERS | ||||
ANNUAL TURNOVER | ||||
MARKET SHARE |
Once you’ve established who your key competitors are, you’ll then need to fill in the other blanks. Some of the required data can be found simply by clicking on a company’s URL. However, to pull together all the information you need, you’ll have to dig a little deeper. A good place to start is with GOV.UK’s company register. Here, you’ll find financial statements and annual returns, and usually, information relating to turnover. A business directory is a useful resource too, such as this one, provided by Dun & Bradstreet.
Determining market share can be a little tricker as there are many sources to pull from. The Office for National Statistics offers valuable insights, as do various trade associations and/or regulatory bodies.
Alternatively, divide a rival business’ total sales revenue (for a given period) by the total revenue for the industry (over the same period). Multiply that figure by 100 to determine the market share percentage.
The four Ps
Focus on the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion – these are essential marketing factors.
- Product – More than likely, this will be very similar to your offering but its entirely possible that your competitors are exploiting a gap in the market that you haven’t identified.
Do they offer any perks, a trial or freemium version, for example? Do they provide complementary tools or services? The product part of your spreadsheet will likely be the most detailed section. - Price – Are your competitors undercutting you? By comparing like-for-like prices, you can make an informed decision on your overall pricing strategy. One way to grow market share is to offer lower prices. At the same time, you need to ensure that your margins continue to deliver sufficient revenue.
Other things to look for: affordable plans (for startups and small businesses, for example), discounts (e.g., for non-profit organisations and students). What pricing strategies do your competitors employ? For instance, do they provide the money-saving convenience of monthly and/or annual plans – and what, if any, packages do they offer? - Place – Look at where your rivals are focusing their attentions most. Perhaps it’s an underutilised location that you can also target. To find out where competitive brands are being mentioned most, it’s worth investing in an effective social listening tool.
- Promotion – How do your rivals advertise to their customers? This could take many forms and the results can be illuminating, allowing you to learn from perceived mistakes while taking inspiration from those things that work.
Where do your competitors promote? Which channels do they use? For instance, do they advertise directly, by referral, organically, via a particular social media platform…?
There are of plenty of advertising research tools out there that can help you narrow down your list of competitors while observing how their ads perform. Ad Intel (Nielsen), BrandIndex (YouGov), Comscore and Mintel are just four examples.
Competitive analysis spreadsheet
Create a spreadsheet that’s easy to scan and maintain. We’ve included a simple example below, which should give you an idea of how you can shape yours.
YOU | COMPETITOR 1 | COMPETITOR 2 | COMPETITOR 3 | |
PRODUCT | ||||
PRICE | ||||
PLACE | ||||
PROMOTION |
In conclusion
Implementing a rigorous content marketing checklist that addresses content gaps is essential in today’s competitive marketing landscape. By continuously evaluating and refining your content strategy, you’ll be able to ensure that your efforts continue to satisfy your audience’s needs while remaining in step with industry trends.
Don’t forget, consistency and adaptability are key. It’s important be proactive while monitoring performance metrics and adjusting your approach accordingly to maximise impact and maintain relevance.