The 3 Stages of Content Marketing You Should Know

When you think about it, all marketing is content marketing-your sales page, your blog, your website, your message, your emails, your videos, your podcasts-they’re all content.

So, why do so many coaches (and other solopreneurs) cringe at the thought of having to market their business?

• They don’t like creating content, or they don’t feel confident about it.

• They don’t feel like they have enough time to create content.

• And/or they don’t know how to distribute content for maximum efficiency, in the crucial areas of their business.

So, successful marketing is all about how well you can produce and distribute content. And many solopreneurs are either not producing enough content to market their business effectively, or they often don’t know where that content needs to be put.

So here is a quick summary of the 3 main stages for content marketing:

1. Content Basics, or what you need to know before you create your content

2. Content Channels, or the channels of distribution, and

3. Content Marketing Strategies, or the actual marketing using content, once you have it in place

Stage One

In the first area, Content Basics, you need to know how to write content for your specific target audience-content that they will best understand and most easily relate to. Many coaches are unknowingly targeting the wrong market and consequently are not getting many sales. Usually, this is because they haven’t done their market research. Once you have the correct target, you need to know enough about them to create an accurate client profile. Only then will you be able to create relevant content specifically for them.

Then you need to create a compelling message for your target audience, and use it in a strategic way to build your brand. You do that by planning out how you will brand yourself with your content. There are six types of content that every business needs to create as part of an effective content marketing strategy for their brand. This will enable you to start spreading awareness of your brand and building solid relationships with audiences

Stage Two

The second area is Content Channels of Distribution. On your website there are different format strategies that you can use to get more traffic. For example, long-form and short-form content, and creating content series that are designed to get people to return to your website.

Another content channel is your blog. Not every marketer has a blog, but it’s a valuable tool that can be used to attract traffic and make sales. And your content quality is extremely important in order to accomplish that.

Your email is a third valuable channel. Every email you send out should have a compelling subject line, relevant and informative content, and strategic CTAs (call-to-action). They contain enough value to make your subscribers want to read every email you send out. And every email promotional campaign should result in sales.

Stage Three

The last area regarding content is the marketing itself. You need to know how to use content in a product launch, which requires a large amount of content (and can overlap some of the other above areas). Another important use for content is just to keep clients and customers and to get their repeat business. For that, it’s important to understand the lifecycle of a customer. And then there are many no cost marketing strategies you can use your content with to get ongoing organic traffic to your site.

As you can see, there’s a lot to know in order to use your content to make your business profitable. You can start by understanding these three stages of it.

In Summary

There are 3 stages of content marketing that you need to be aware of. They are:

1. Basics such as your target market, your message, and your branding.

2. Channels of distribution such as your website, blog, and emails.

3. Marketing itself such as product launches, different entry points of a client and the ongoing nurturing of a client, and the strategies and tools that you will use in your marketing efforts.