In a perfect world (the kind Google wishes we all worked in any way), no site would actively build links; they’d simply create great content and let it earn natural links over time. And while there is no denying the SEO power of a great piece of content, most businesses can’t afford to create content and just wait and see what happens. That’s why strategic promotion is so important. Creating great content is half the battle (and sometimes the most difficult half!), but if you aren’t promoting and pushing that content then you aren’t going to get the return you deserve for your effort.
 
Here are 4 things you need to get strategic with your content marketing campaign:

@ An editorial calendar:

An editorial calendar helps tell you who is responsible for what piece of content and when it is due. Evergreen content never goes out of style, but chances are there are a few times over the course of the year when you Getting Strategic with Your Content Marketing CampaignMUST discuss certain hot topics. For instance, an accountant should really be focusing on creating content about filing taxes in the months leading up to the IRS Tax filing deadline. Any content that focuses too heavily on filing taxes after that isn’t going to get them much attention now (although it can kick around until next year!). With an editorial calendar, you can plan for certain events, certain hot times, and certain topics that must be addressed no matter what. It helps keep things from slipping through the cracks.
 

@ Editorial guidelines:

If you are working with a team of writers (lucky you!) it’s important that you establish some editorial guidelines from the beginning. What kind of language do you want them to use? Is there a particular style or tone they need to adapt to fit in with your branding? Are there certain things they need to steer away from or some call to action they must incorporate into their content? Obviously, editorial guidelines don’t eliminate the need for an actual editor, but when you writers know what is expected of them hopefully there will be less back and forth.
 

@ A ongoing list of topics:

In my experience, one of the biggest roadblocks to creating great content is simply coming up with something to say! Having an ongoing list of topics ready helps ensure your writers are never strapped for ideas. But where do you find these topics? Well, every question your customer service or sales department gets asked is a topic. Every benefit your product offers can be spun into a blog post. “Hot topics” in the industry are always worth adding to your list (just make sure someone jumps on them fast). Big changes in your industry always make for great content fodder as well. Just remember, the people looking for your content are NOT experts. What may seem like old news to you could actually be brand-new information to a potential customer!
 

@ A keyword list:

Let’s not forget the main goal of creating all this content is to drive more visitors to your site through one medium or another. And while the social promotion is a critical component of this, you also want your content to show up organically. While this can take a while, depending on how frequently your content is crawled and indexed, you want to ensure your content is as optimized as it can be from the get-go. Keeping a list of important keywords that your writers can incorporate into their content helps that content appear organically for keywords that are important to your company’s SEO program.