By: Craig Spooner
The task of creating content for your own company or for a client can be an exhilarating (and exhausting) process. Finding new and exciting ways to promote a particular brand or message requires a lot of work and, more often than not, hinges on a basic set of criteria that your company follows prior to posting to your own site and other media outlets.
Unfortunately, deadlines, limited bandwidth and budget often have a major effect on when, where, and how this content gets disseminated, all of which can undermine the effectiveness of your messaging. So what is the antidote to tight deadlines, limited hands on deck, and tight budgets? A well-crafted ed tech marketing calendar!
Following these steps for every piece of content you create will help establish a cycle that will simplify the who, what, where, and when portion of your content deliver strategy, allowing you to actively engage with key education decision-makers at the right time and provide value to your customers when they need it most.
Step 1: Determine your buyer persona.
In the ed tech market, not all consumers are created equal! In order to properly serve your customers, you must first define who that customer is and why they are coming to you for help. Investigate what pages they visit on your site, what social sharing content they interact with—and then meet them where they are.
Step 2: What stage of the buyer’s journey are your customers in?
Are they visiting your site for the first time or have they read every post of your blog? Have they downloaded premium content from your site? Have they filled out a contact form requesting more information? Answering these questions will help you discover how primed these customers are for your sales pitch.
Step 3: Define your topic/keyword.
Do the research. Use a keyword planning tool and examine which keywords are easy wins for your business. Then highlight that keyword in the headline, body copy, meta description, alt tags for images, and URL. Seems overly redundant, but SEO is exactly that!
Step 4: Decide what content you’ll offer before you begin writing.
Align your CTA to the assets and content you’re providing. Since you’ll already know what you’re offering your customer, you can drive them to “sign up for your upcoming 30-minute webinar” or “download the complimentary eBook.” Having the offer prepared prior to your content creation is essential to this process.
Step 5: Choose your author ahead of time and cycle your authors.
Readers want to know that your team is larger than one person writing and curating content. More staff writers mean a greater industry expertise, which creates trust in your customers and helps expand your reach.
Step 6: Decide which social networks are best suited to share the content.
Again, I encourage you to meet your customers where they are. Research where your customers congregate and prepare content specifically designed for them!
Step 7: Set deadlines.
No calendar is complete without project deadlines. Take into account how many team members will be needed to complete each task and be realistic about how much time it will take you to produce the above information. Building trust in the ed tech market begins with delivering on your promise to produce work in a timely fashion.
Following these steps will help you clarify which content your site may be lacking and will help you address any content deficiencies that your customers may be waiting for. For more information on creating a content machine that people can't help but engage with, read our post on the 4 Questions You Should Ask Before Launching Your Content Marketing Campaign! Now go forth and build your marketing machine!
Thank you for sharing!