Do you know that 63% of businesses that do not have a content marketing strategy in place?
Content marketing is a tactical approach aiming to develop relevant content and distributing them evenly through various online platforms to attract viewers. But, how do most content marketers keep the wheels turning on in the right direction?
The answer is that they do it using the content marketing process. Here are 5 of the most important stages in the content marketing process.

Stage 1: Research and idea generation
The research includes audience insights, exploring new platforms and learning about new tools, technology, and the latest industry trends. The knowledge you obtain from the research will help you to create content as per your targeted audience. Suppose, you are selling a product, consider its main features and how it is going to benefit users. Find out the reasons why people will choose your brand over others. Determine demographics, income, gender, and more to know buyers persona. Once you know what the consumers want, you can establish goals, such as whether you want more conversions or brand popularity in the market.
Stage 2: Develop a strategy
Your strategy determines the content you will write and where you are going to distribute it which actually shows what you intend to pursue. For this, you need to understand your current performance, which can be determined by website, content and social media audits. The next step includes finding those key phrases that can make your content appear on the top search of search engines. There are plenty of keyword research tools that can help you understand the search volume of a keyword. The more the search volume is, the more popular the phrase is.
Stage 3: Content creation
Once you have a list of keywords, it is time to create interesting and engaging content. Your consumers seek for answers, and you need to develop a blog that can satiate their queries. Furthermore, you need to be consistent with your brand’s tone which means what a reader must feel after going through a blog. Informed? Educated? Empowered?
Stage 4: Content distribution
Publish your content on different channels and social media platforms to get more and more views of the audience. Do not forget to place keywords in the title and Meta descriptions as it will entice the viewers to click it.
Stage 5: Measurement
At this stage, you will be collecting data and measuring the performance. Plenty of online resources are there that can help you to gather data on content performance. Focus on weekly and monthly reports so that you know where you are heading into.
Always remember, effective content marketing should be clear and flexible enough to add new changes as per consumer behavior and market trends.
Final thoughts
Can you think of any other points with respect to the most important stages in the Content Marketing process? Let us know in the comments below.