You’ve worked hard for months and you’re ready to release a product. 

 

 

One problem: Marketing. 

 

 

You feel anxious releasing it because there’s a chance it may flop. 

 

 

How are you going to reach thousands of people who may or may not know about your product? How will you start generating sales? How do you plan to retain your customers? These thoughts start running through your brain.

 

 

One potential answer is content marketing. Content marketing is the act of helping customers by publishing useful, inspirational, or educational content. But we all know formulating the right content marketing strategy is NOT easy. 

 

 

Each business requires an individual plan that will help propel them to success. 

 

 

According to StartupBonsai, more than 87% of businesses have a content marketing strategy. Developing the strategy is the hardest part because you have to ask yourself questions about the fundamental nature of your business and how it helps customers.

 

 

We’ve developed a simple 5-step plan to help you create your own content marketing strategy in 2022:

 

 

1) Ask Yourself: “Why”?

 

At the core of your marketing strategy is a big “why”. Why do you sell the product you’re selling? How is your service making people’s lives better? What is the value proposition your product provides them that they can’t find elsewhere? 

 

 

Take a minute to think about that. 

 

 

If you have the answer to the “Why” question, that fundamentally answers why you’re in business and you can design your entire content marketing strategy around that. All you need to do is get the answer and reverse-engineer what a business with that value proposition would present to customers.

 

 

Let’s say you’re a SaaS tool and you’re in business to sell a photo editing tool that rivals Canva and Photoshop. Unlike your competitors, maybe you provide value by giving them lower prices and flexible payment models. This opens up avenues where you could create content around finding affordable photo editing software, creating tutorials for photographers, and so on.

 

 

Knowing “why” will help you establish your goals with content marketing. 

 

 

2) Spy on the Competition

 

The best ideas are often already in motion. If you have writer’s block and you can’t think of any ideas for your content marketing strategy, spy on your competitors. Go to YouTube, Pinterest, Tik Tok, or any other social media where your competitors reside. Visit their pages and ask yourself what they’re doing differently.

 

 

You may think your business is “boring” and there isn’t a lot of creative content that can be produced for it. But you’d be wrong. Even a boring carpet cleaning company can stand out by making timelapse videos of their work and get millions of views. (Yes—I’ve seriously seen that on my Facebook feed).

 

 

If you want to hit that real, juicy virality—do something completely out of the ordinary for your industry.

 

 

Take the airline, RyanAir, as a prime example. They’re making funny Tik Tok videos and getting millions of views for it. Yup. An airline company with a sense of humour, who knew?

 

 

So, simply go out there and spy on your competitors. Once you get a unique idea, give it your own creative spin. Next up, this brings us to step #3…

 

 

3) Invent Your Angle

 

You have to get creative here and make sure you’re not stealing content from your competitors directly.

 

 

A really powerful tool for getting content creation ideas is TikTok. Open the search bar and type in your niche, then sort the videos by “Most Liked”. This will give you videos that millions of people like in your niche.

 

 

Pay attention to the sound and the content that resonates with your audience. Now ask yourself: “How do I make something similar for my business”?

 

 

You will probably think of something unique within an hour. Maybe it hits you while you’re having a shower. You don’t need a completely original idea, but you need to add your own spin on an existing idea. This will help your business stand out and make you seem more creative for your customers.

 

 

4) Produce It Affordably

 

Another thing to remove is try to get the content produced for an adorable rate if you’re on a budget. If your competitors are spending hundreds of thousands to get Hollywood-level production, you don’t exactly need to copy them. 

 

 

In fact, it might even be funnier and more relatable if you try to do the same thing yourself.

 

 

Plus, going cheaper means you can try a few different marketing channels to see what works. Maybe YouTube isn’t working, but your email list is popping. Try a few things and see what resonates with your audience the most.

 

 

Now, one thing to note is not to go too cheap. Good writing, video editing, and graphic design does cost money. If you only hire the cheapest option—your brand comes across cheap too. Unless you’re being clever about it, it’s worth finding the sweet spot.

 

 

Then, when you know what works—you can hire an expert to hit the next level.

 

 

5) Use A Publishing Schedule 

 

Content creation is not a one-off occurrence. You have to actively update your social media channels and stay on top of the game for months and years. Start by building a publishing schedule for your content and develop a timeline.

 

 

Let’s say you release 1 long-form video per week. This video is 5-10 minutes and you’ll be releasing a similar video at the start of each week. Now cut up that video into 10-20 smaller 30 second videos and deploy them on YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels,  and TikTok to make the most out of your content. 

 

 

A release schedule will help you test as you release content consistently. Plus, you can repurpose your content across different channels.

 

 

Key Takeaways

 

Content marketing is ALWAYS different and each business will have to figure out a unique approach that gives them an edge and inspires them to produce more for their customers. 

 

 

It truly comes down to giving value. Yes, we can always cheat by watching what our competitors are doing, but it’s ultimately up to us to design a truly creative content marketing strategy and take 2022 by storm.

 

 

With ScaleUpSales, we know how to drive engagement and generate leads. Contact us today to see what we can do for you!