B2B and B2C companies have widely adopted content marketing as an integral component of their marketing strategies, but it hasn’t yet reached its peak. Between 2022 and 2027, it is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 16.37%.
The rise of content as a preferred marketing method means competition in the digital space will only get stiffer. Your content operations team must be strategic in its approach or get lost in an ocean of digital content offerings.
The ever-shifting content landscape calls for revisiting your content marketing plan regularly. It can be challenging to determine what to consider when creating new strategies, whether your team is developing its first one or its 50th.
Let’s discuss what’s important to consider in 2023 and review the steps to creating a plan.
Content Marketing Plan Considerations for 2023
Before you delve into creating any new plans for the year, you should get a handle on the changing trends that could have the biggest impact on what you do with your content marketing this year.
Emerging Trends in Corporate Goals
Your company undoubtedly generates or reaffirms its goals every year. These goals drive your marketing strategy. Within the context of company goals is a big-picture shift in certain types of goals businesses focus on.
Values and Purpose
Over the past several years, the connection between brand purpose and consumer values has increased significantly, adding a new consideration when developing a content marketing plan. Environmental, social, and governance ethics are increasingly important for consumers, making purpose-driven content a growing priority for brands.
Image Source: Accenture
Strategic Partnerships
Is your company considering strategic partnerships? If so, you will enter the 57% of companies that use partnerships to grow their customer base. Co-marketing is one type of strategic partnership, and it’s worth looking into as you develop a plan for your content marketing this year.
Changing Landscapes in Social Media
Staying on top of social media trends can seem like a full-time job, but doing so is essential for effective content marketing on social media platforms. Some of the latest trends include the following:
- Livestreaming keeps gaining popularity.
- Short-form video finds its way into YouTube and Meta platforms.
- Video content remains strong.
- Newer platforms such as Mastodon, Discord, and Hive gain traction.
- Talk of a broader TikTok ban in the U.S. continues.
Before you develop a content marketing plan, you may want to evaluate how your brand’s accounts currently perform and determine whether you will try out a new platform or eliminate any that don’t fit your brand or target audience well.
Evolving Trends in SEO
Google continues to place a heavy emphasis on user experience. Also, though the company recognizes the value of AI in content creation, it intends to crack down on the irresponsible use of artificial intelligence.
Another growing SEO trend is the recognition of multiple content formats in search results. Users can also conduct multi-searches that combine images and text to generate a query.
Two other aspects of search engine optimization to consider in your content marketing plan are the increasing importance of search intent and a move toward prioritizing long-tail keywords.
As you determine your SEO approach with these trends in mind, you should also make sure you aren’t still engaging in outdated practices.
Refining Analytics in Google
If you use Google Analytics, you might want to brush up on the company’s new version, GA4, and address these changes in your content marketing plan KPIs. Google is also phasing out Universal Analytics, which will end processing on July 1, 2023, though you can still access existing reports for some undefined period after that date.
Once you’ve made the transition to GA4, DivvyHQ’s content analytics module includes a customizable, GA4-compatible dashboard to help you track and measure KPIs across all your web properties.
Content Marketing Plan Steps
As your team works together to build a plan, fold these considerations into each step.
1. Establish Goals and KPIs
Set clear goals for every plan you create. You want your goals to reflect new trends or address any new products or services your business plans to roll out over the coming year.
You should also develop KPIs for each goal, so you can track your progress and determine the effectiveness of your content marketing plan.
2. Define Your Target Audience
While your annual plan may define all customer personas for your brand, you’ll likely have a narrower audience for the individual plans you create for each campaign or project. You want to ensure your content and audience align.
3. Conduct Research
Your research should include customer conversations/surveys, SEO analysis, topics, and keywords. You also want to look at your competitors to determine what their relevant content looks like and how you can improve yours.
4. Perform a Content Audit
Audit your existing content to determine what is working, what needs revamping or reoptimizing, and what you should ditch. Our content audit template guides you through the assessment process.
5. Determine Content Types and Channels
Every content marketing plan should specify the content types and channels you intend to use. You may or not include every content type or social media platform in all plans.
6. Determine Your Resources
Resource considerations include the budget, people, and tools needed to implement the plan and meet the defined goals. With DivvyHQ, you can streamline your production tasks with our workflow builder.
7. Plan & Schedule Your Campaigns & Content
Generate a content calendar to ensure you have a plan for where, what, and when to post your content. You can also create your calendar to track where each piece of content is in the production stream and who is responsible for all production tasks.
8. Establish Creation, Promotions, Analytics, and Maintenance Processes
Your plan should also outline the processes you will use for content creation and promotions. Decide when and how you want to track performance and adjust your plan as needed.
Content Marketing Plan Simplified
When it’s time to create your content marketing plan for 2023, let DivvyHQ help you simplify the process. Our platform places everything your team needs in one central hub, and our integrations ensure you can seamlessly incorporate current tools and systems. Request a demo to see what we can do for you!
