Content Strategy Training: What You Need to Know to Succeed In the Industry
Content marketing is exploding as an industry. With 91% of B2Bs using content marketing, the industry itself is set to be worth $412 billion by 2021. This means, of course, that there are no shortage of jobs available in our beautiful industry. Searching “content marketing jobs” near me in Austin Texas alone, I find there are hundreds of jobs available: If you’re in marketing at all, your job will probably cross over in content marketing, heavily. Content marketing is marketing’s future. If you run an agency, ensuring you or your staff know how to implement content marketing for your clients will seriously boost your bottom line. So, how does content strategy fit into this content marketing of today? (In today’s guide, we’re talking all about content strategy training.) Content strategy drives the planning, development, and management of content marketing. Content strategy is, in fact, critical to the underlying success of your content marketing. When you’re lining up what you need to know to serve your clients best in content marketing skillsets, think content strategy. What base knowledge should you have a grasp on, and which topics do you need to dive deeply inside of to get ahead in the industry? If you don’t know what kind of content strategy training you need to succeed, you’re in the right place. You can teach yourself everything you need to know to implement successful content marketing – or have your staff members take this course, and with this knowledge empower them to better serve your client base. How much is that worth? Possibly thousands of dollars. But first things first. Let’s find out what today’s necessary content strategy training topics are. Ready? 13 Content Strategy Training Topics You Need to Succeed According to the Content Marketing Institute (one of the major industry leaders in our beautiful industry), you need a documented strategy for your content and marketing. Why? Because it makes the entire process easier. And what’s more important – more successful. You’ll be more effective, feel more confident in your efforts, and will have zero problems justifying why a specific chunk of your marketing budget (or your company/client’s marketing budget) should go to content marketing. Why is a strategy so vital to the process? Why does strategy = success? It provides a framework to follow – a roadmap to ROI. It leaves out any guesswork. Instead of guessing, it tells you exactly what you need to do to power your content marketing. CMI defines the underlying framework for successful content marketing as 5 principles that are essential for this sturdy foundation: Purpose and goals Audience Story Process Measurement CMI goes into further detail about these principles in their Content Marketing Framework for 2017: These principles are at the heart of every facet of a content strategy. Helpfully, we can map them to the content strategy training topics you should know and understand. They branch out into 13 different areas: Foundations of Content Strategy (purpose and goals) Audience Personas (purpose and goals, audience) Sales Funnel Content Mapping (purpose and goals, audience) Brand Content Style Guidelines (story) Understanding Keywords (audience, story, process) Researching SEO Opportunities (audience, story, process) Creating Keyword Reports (story, process, measurement) Building Authority Online with Content (purpose and goals, audience, story, process) Content Creation and Guest Blogging (audience, story) Content Promotion (audience, process, measurement) Budgeting (process) Creating and Preparing an Editorial Calendar (process) Maintaining Your Content Strategy (process, measurement) Naturally, each and every one of these topics is covered in the Content Strategy & Marketing Course, over 6 modules (check out the course syllabus to see how this shakes out). To give you a general overview of what each module entails, we’ve outlined them below. This book is a useful resource both on its own and as a reference while you’re moving through the course modules. 6 Modules in The Content Strategy & Marketing Course Explained Each module in the course covers the major topics involved in content strategy creation, execution, and maintenance. Here are how the topics divvy up (and what you’ll learn in the process): 1. Module 1 – “Core Foundations of a Practical, ROI-Focused Content Strategy” The course begins with making sure your content strategy is based on core foundations: Your expertise, including content topic areas you can cover with authority Your content differentiation factor (CDF) – What sets you apart from other brands, and how your content can tie in Your content goals – what you hope to achieve with your content marketing You’ll find out why these matter, as well as how to define them for your own content strategy. 2. Module 2 – “A Beginner’s Guide to Audience Persona, Sales Funnel Content Mapping, & Brand Content Style Guidelines” The second module is all about how your audience informs major pieces of your content strategy. That includes: Why and how you should create audience personas as reference tools How to do audience persona creation for existing and new audiences Low-budget ways to research your audience How to map your buyer persona to sales lifecycle stages (and create sales awareness content) How to create a brand content style guidebook that will direct future, audience-based content creation for all your team members 3. Module 3 – “Understanding Keywords, Researching SEO Opportunities, & Creating Keyword Reports” The third module explains in detail how SEO and keywords should tie into your content strategy for higher organic ROI. You’ll learn: Why your overarching content goals need to inform keyword research Why organic search brings in higher ROI than paid search How to discover profitable keywords to target in your content Recommended keyword tools and a comparison of top options How to find long tail keywords for local SEO and geotargeting How to create a keyword report 4. Module 4 – “How to Build Content Cores for an Authority Presence Online” Module 4 dives into why and how you should build your core content – the main assets that will work as authority and trust-builders for your brand. This section covers: How to create a content focus Why you should focus on doing a few things … Read more
