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With so much content being published daily, you need to take a strategic approach when it comes to creating content for your business. If you have not created an effective content strategy, you may just be wasting your time.

A strategy will allow you to produce better content that provides what your customers need. When your content has value, it:

• Demonstrates your expertise
• Creates authority
• Builds trust

And valuable content is a must in order to rank in the search engine results and attract your ideal client. Because without content, the search engines have nothing to index on your behalf.

What is a content strategy?

A content strategy is the planning, creation and delivery of content targeted at what your customers want or need. A content strategy helps you determine:

• What content you will provide
• Why you want to provide it
• Where the content will be distributed
• And to what target market

Content can be created in any media including written, images, video or audio. The strategy also defines what channels you will use to distribute your content so that it becomes visible to your target audience.

Having a defined content strategy helps you create better content faster because you will know what you need to create, when and why.

Benefits of writing quality content

Content is the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy. It is the primary vehicle to attract visitors. If your content attracts the right visitors, you can turn them into leads by offering them something of value. From there, you can nurture those leads and convert them into customers.

But there are additional benefits of providing quality content.

Increases your reputation as an expert

Content that helps your audience solve a problem makes you memorable. When you demonstrate your expertise and authority, you will attract your ideal customers. The content you provide will show them you are an expert. 

When you provide authoritative content that helps your target audience, you will then develop the third piece that will help you get found – trust. And when the challenge is bigger than they can handle on their own, they will turn to you for help.

Helps with search engine optimization

There are many tools that you can use to find what terms people are using to search for content. Browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere and Ubersuggest provide the phrases people use. These can help you decide what content is important for you to provide.

Writing unique content using the phrases people use to search will help your content gain visibility within the search engines.

Makes it easier to get inbound links

Having great content encourages inbound links from blogs that find something you say interesting. I link to quality content and love to find a great post from someone I never heard of before. Providing that inbound link helps them and helps my readers.

Enables you to show your personality

Writing in your own voice helps people get to know you. Show your personality so that you connect with your audience. Write as if you have having a conversation with someone. This makes it easier for your reader to get the message quickly and easily.

Helps you to stay up-to-date within your field

Researching and writing a blog post helps you to stay current on what’s new. It helps you not only gain additional knowledge, but you then translate that knowledge into content that helps your reader. This becomes valuable to your clients because you are the person they see the leader in your field.

Makes you the central source for quality content

If you always provide content that helps educate your audience and solves a problem, people will come back when they need more help. Sharing your content plus some from other sources on social media keeps you visible to your connections. This can make you a resource for quality information, both from you and others in your industry. Plus people are more likely to follow you on social media (and connect with you) if you provide good information.

Keeps your website fresh

Stale website content is the kiss of death. People who want to do business with you are looking for the most up-to-date information. A website built on WordPress with an active blog and powerful cornerstone pages is just the recipe for a powerful online presence. The simplicity of updating content in WordPress will encourage you to add new, fresh content on a more consistent basis.

Create an effective content strategy in 8 steps

So how do you get into a rhythm of creating content? This simple process can help you create an effective content strategy for your business.

1. Define your goals

Know what you are trying to achieve before you start writing. This will help you focus your efforts and not waste time on content that doesn’t help your business.

For most small businesses, having a blog expands your digital footprint. The more pages to index, the more opportunity you have to appear in the search engine results. This helps create visibility, generate traffic to your website and establish an expert reputation. 

Great content helps your business stand out from the competition. When people find your content and hear what you have to say, you are seen as an expert. 

2. Understand your client’s challenges

One of the reasons I encourage small business owners to develop a simple marketing plan is to understand the wants and needs of your target market. The more you know about the types of challenges your customers face, the more you can focus producing content that can serve them.

3. List your content categories

Brainstorm topic areas you will focus on for your content development efforts. Then you can create a list of titles that can fall into those categories.

For example, if you are a financial planner, you may have topics such as retirement planning, financial planning, investment advice and insurance. If you are a landscape construction company, you could organize your topics around retaining walls, excavation, drainage, demolition and grading. 

WordPress and other blogging platforms enable you to categorize your posts, so knowing before you start writing what your categories are will make it easier to develop ideas that fit within these topics. Plus you can provide a broader range of content in different areas of expertise.

4. Define your frequency

Writing requires creative thinking. Some people can create a blog post in minutes. For others (like myself), writing takes more time. Some write short posts more frequently. Others writer longer posts less often. Know which type you are and which would benefit your business the most. Then schedule your writing time accordingly. Do not commit to more than you can realistically achieve. To stay on track, try some of the following tips:

• Schedule time in your calendar to write
• Note ideas and topics that you want to write about
• Use your categories to organize topics to write
• Subscribe to blogs that may help generate ideas

5. Define your content type

Content is not just words. It can be video, audio, images and text. Use what is comfortable for you and develop a good mix that makes your content interesting and easy to consume.

There are several types of content that get attention such as cornerstone content, evergreen content or blogging regularly. The type that is most suitable for your business will depend on your resources, your industry or your target audience.

6. Determine your distribution strategy

Besides your blog, where else will your content be distributed? Consider posting a link to your content on Twitter, your Facebook Business Page and LinkedIn, depending on where it makes the most sense. Consider having your content feed syndicated to other reputable sites. In order to drive people to your Website, you need to cast a wider presence by getting your content out to where your target audience is spending time.

7. Audit existing content and create a content calendar

If you have content already written, you should do a audit to see what to keep, update or eliminate. Then put it all in a content calendar so you can track your progress.

Having a content (or editorial) calendar is one of the most important parts of a successful content strategy. It helps you organize your content for publication. (You can get an editorial calendar when you sign up for my email list).

8. Measure your results

Don’t make this a complicated exercise. Spend an hour or two putting the strategy in place, making an agreement with yourself to implement the strategy as a key marketing activity that will benefit your business.

And if you have a challenge creating the content yourself, don’t hesitate to consider outsourcing the writing to someone who can get it done faster. You have enough to do as a business owner to feel like you must write the content yourself. You could dictate your thoughts, turn it over to a writer and then edit the content.

Knowing how your target audience searches for solutions to problems can help you create content that helps them solve their challenges. By doing so, you become a valuable resource that they will turn to when they need help.

If you don’t have a content strategy today, create one for your small business. Then put together your content marketing strategy (how you will promote your content) to increase the probability that your business will be found.

Related Posts

• Content Strategy or Content Marketing – Do You Need Both?

  A consistent flow of quality content is critical to implementing a successful inbound marketing strategy that will support your brand and attract your ideal client. But what content do you need and how will you create that content on a regular basis in order to remain visible to  your ideal clients?

• Evergreen Content – A Critical Component of Your Content Strategy

  Adding evergreen content to your content marketing strategy has many benefits. While creating content frequently can be hard to sustain, creating evergreen content may be a better investment, especially for smaller businesses with fewer marketing resources, because it can drive traffic for a longer period of time without the need to write more frequently.

Article source: https://masterful-marketing.com/effective-content-strategy/

With so much content being published daily, you need to take a strategic approach when it comes to creating content for your business. If you have not created an effective content strategy, you may just be wasting your time.

A strategy will allow you to produce better content that provides what your customers need. When your content has value, it:

• Demonstrates your expertise
• Creates authority
• Builds trust

And valuable content is a must in order to rank in the search engine results and attract your ideal client. Because without content, the search engines have nothing to index on your behalf.

What is a content strategy?

A content strategy is the planning, creation and delivery of content targeted at what your customers want or need. A content strategy helps you determine:

• What content you will provide
• Why you want to provide it
• Where the content will be distributed
• And to what target market

Content can be created in any media including written, images, video or audio. The strategy also defines what channels you will use to distribute your content so that it becomes visible to your target audience.

Having a defined content strategy helps you create better content faster because you will know what you need to create, when and why.

Benefits of writing quality content

Content is the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy. It is the primary vehicle to attract visitors. If your content attracts the right visitors, you can turn them into leads by offering them something of value. From there, you can nurture those leads and convert them into customers.

But there are additional benefits of providing quality content.

Increases your reputation as an expert

Content that helps your audience solve a problem makes you memorable. When you demonstrate your expertise and authority, you will attract your ideal customers. The content you provide will show them you are an expert. 

When you provide authoritative content that helps your target audience, you will then develop the third piece that will help you get found – trust. And when the challenge is bigger than they can handle on their own, they will turn to you for help.

Helps with search engine optimization

There are many tools that you can use to find what terms people are using to search for content. Browser extensions like Keywords Everywhere and Ubersuggest provide the phrases people use. These can help you decide what content is important for you to provide.

Writing unique content using the phrases people use to search will help your content gain visibility within the search engines.

Makes it easier to get inbound links

Having great content encourages inbound links from blogs that find something you say interesting. I link to quality content and love to find a great post from someone I never heard of before. Providing that inbound link helps them and helps my readers.

Enables you to show your personality

Writing in your own voice helps people get to know you. Show your personality so that you connect with your audience. Write as if you have having a conversation with someone. This makes it easier for your reader to get the message quickly and easily.

Helps you to stay up-to-date within your field

Researching and writing a blog post helps you to stay current on what’s new. It helps you not only gain additional knowledge, but you then translate that knowledge into content that helps your reader. This becomes valuable to your clients because you are the person they see the leader in your field.

Makes you the central source for quality content

If you always provide content that helps educate your audience and solves a problem, people will come back when they need more help. Sharing your content plus some from other sources on social media keeps you visible to your connections. This can make you a resource for quality information, both from you and others in your industry. Plus people are more likely to follow you on social media (and connect with you) if you provide good information.

Keeps your website fresh

Stale website content is the kiss of death. People who want to do business with you are looking for the most up-to-date information. A website built on WordPress with an active blog and powerful cornerstone pages is just the recipe for a powerful online presence. The simplicity of updating content in WordPress will encourage you to add new, fresh content on a more consistent basis.

Create an effective content strategy in 8 steps

So how do you get into a rhythm of creating content? This simple process can help you create an effective content strategy for your business.

1. Define your goals

Know what you are trying to achieve before you start writing. This will help you focus your efforts and not waste time on content that doesn’t help your business.

For most small businesses, having a blog expands your digital footprint. The more pages to index, the more opportunity you have to appear in the search engine results. This helps create visibility, generate traffic to your website and establish an expert reputation. 

Great content helps your business stand out from the competition. When people find your content and hear what you have to say, you are seen as an expert. 

2. Understand your client’s challenges

One of the reasons I encourage small business owners to develop a simple marketing plan is to understand the wants and needs of your target market. The more you know about the types of challenges your customers face, the more you can focus producing content that can serve them.

3. List your content categories

Brainstorm topic areas you will focus on for your content development efforts. Then you can create a list of titles that can fall into those categories.

For example, if you are a financial planner, you may have topics such as retirement planning, financial planning, investment advice and insurance. If you are a landscape construction company, you could organize your topics around retaining walls, excavation, drainage, demolition and grading. 

WordPress and other blogging platforms enable you to categorize your posts, so knowing before you start writing what your categories are will make it easier to develop ideas that fit within these topics. Plus you can provide a broader range of content in different areas of expertise.

4. Define your frequency

Writing requires creative thinking. Some people can create a blog post in minutes. For others (like myself), writing takes more time. Some write short posts more frequently. Others writer longer posts less often. Know which type you are and which would benefit your business the most. Then schedule your writing time accordingly. Do not commit to more than you can realistically achieve. To stay on track, try some of the following tips:

• Schedule time in your calendar to write
• Note ideas and topics that you want to write about
• Use your categories to organize topics to write
• Subscribe to blogs that may help generate ideas

5. Define your content type

Content is not just words. It can be video, audio, images and text. Use what is comfortable for you and develop a good mix that makes your content interesting and easy to consume.

There are several types of content that get attention such as cornerstone content, evergreen content or blogging regularly. The type that is most suitable for your business will depend on your resources, your industry or your target audience.

6. Determine your distribution strategy

Besides your blog, where else will your content be distributed? Consider posting a link to your content on Twitter, your Facebook Business Page and LinkedIn, depending on where it makes the most sense. Consider having your content feed syndicated to other reputable sites. In order to drive people to your Website, you need to cast a wider presence by getting your content out to where your target audience is spending time.

7. Audit existing content and create a content calendar

If you have content already written, you should do a audit to see what to keep, update or eliminate. Then put it all in a content calendar so you can track your progress.

Having a content (or editorial) calendar is one of the most important parts of a successful content strategy. It helps you organize your content for publication. (You can get an editorial calendar when you sign up for my email list).

8. Measure your results

Don’t make this a complicated exercise. Spend an hour or two putting the strategy in place, making an agreement with yourself to implement the strategy as a key marketing activity that will benefit your business.

And if you have a challenge creating the content yourself, don’t hesitate to consider outsourcing the writing to someone who can get it done faster. You have enough to do as a business owner to feel like you must write the content yourself. You could dictate your thoughts, turn it over to a writer and then edit the content.

Knowing how your target audience searches for solutions to problems can help you create content that helps them solve their challenges. By doing so, you become a valuable resource that they will turn to when they need help.

If you don’t have a content strategy today, create one for your small business. Then put together your content marketing strategy (how you will promote your content) to increase the probability that your business will be found.

Related Posts

• Content Strategy or Content Marketing – Do You Need Both?

  A consistent flow of quality content is critical to implementing a successful inbound marketing strategy that will support your brand and attract your ideal client. But what content do you need and how will you create that content on a regular basis in order to remain visible to  your ideal clients?

• Evergreen Content – A Critical Component of Your Content Strategy

  Adding evergreen content to your content marketing strategy has many benefits. While creating content frequently can be hard to sustain, creating evergreen content may be a better investment, especially for smaller businesses with fewer marketing resources, because it can drive traffic for a longer period of time without the need to write more frequently.

Article source: https://masterful-marketing.com/effective-content-strategy/

Sometimes we need to get back to basics when creating a marketing strategy for your small business.

In many conversations with small business owners, I have realized that my conversation with them seems to focus on the same topics. They want to do some type of marketing because “someone said they should”.

But not all businesses are the same. Even if you are in the same industry, what you should be doing for marketing may or may not be the same as your competitors.

You need to understand the various options available based on the type of business and the target market. Once we have that data, then we can determine whether a marketing activity is appropriate now, later or never.

Having this same conversation with many different people got me thinking. How many small businesses:

• Get distracted by the next shiny new marketing thing because they were told they should?
• Wasted time and money on marketing that wasn’t right for their business because they believed what they were told?
• Are frustrated now because they believe marketing is a wasteful expense?

Before you add any new marketing activities to your plate, make sure you know the following 5 things about your business. This will help you determine the most effective marketing strategies for your small business.

What is your vision

What is the vision you have for your business? Your vision is the key driver of your marketing.

If your vision is to grow your business substantially, then your marketing will be very different from a competitor who wants to stay the same size and keep the pipeline full. Knowing this helps you make decisions on how much marketing is needed.

This will help you make decisions about what to do to keep moving towards the vision you have set.

Who is your ideal client

I’m sure you’ve heard this before. Narrowing your target audience can help grow your business. Knowing who you ideally want to work with and how you can help them makes marketing a lot easier. This helps you know what they want and why. You can then incorporate clearer messages into your marketing.

Successful small businesses understand that only certain types of customers will buy their product or service. If you can determine who those people are and target your marketing efforts toward them, you can develop that trust relationship that will in time, turn them into customers.

What makes you different from your competition

The secret to understanding how your business is different is knowing what your ideal client really wants and delivering it better than anyone else. Don’t be fooled – this exercise is not easy to do. It takes a lot of thought, brainstorming and sometimes some trial and error to see what works. Sometimes we are just too close to our businesses to see that differentiating quality that makes us stand out.

What is the value you offer

Your target audience will have different issues, goals and needs. They will be looking for a solution that works for them. You need to define your value proposition so that there is no doubt in their mind that you can help them solve their problem.

Remember that your value proposition is the value you promise to deliver to customers after they buy from you. It describes the benefits your customers can expect from your products or services. It should clearly convey:

• Value. The specific benefits you provide your ideal client.
• Relevancy – How you solve your customers’ problems.
• Unique differentiation. Why customers should buy from you and not your competition.

Remember to say who you work with, how you will help them and why you are the best to deliver on this promise. Don’t underestimate what you do. The value you offer may be something simple for you but complicated for others.

What are your available resources

How much time and money do you have to realistically spend on marketing? There are plenty of options available especially in the digital marketing arena. We just need to be selective and spend our precious resources on what will get us the best return on our investment.

Once you have decided on the best marketing activities for your business, be disciplined about how you spend your time and money. It’s easy to get enticed by empty promises and activities that don’t pay off for you.

Having a solid understanding of these 5 fundamental pieces of information about your business helps you determine your strategy, stay on course and measure your results. And when that new shiny opportunity arises, having this plan can help you quickly determine if the opportunity is worth pursuing.

Related Posts

• 
  Small Business Marketing Activities – Where to Focus?

  Today’s climate has every business looking at ways to change the way they market their business. This is especially true for home services businesses. Homeowners need quality landscapers, electricians, plumbers, HVAC services and remodelers. When they need them, they will go online to find one.

• 
  Is Your Value Proposition Helping or Hurting You?

  If someone is willing to invest in your business, what do you promise to do that provides value to them that matters? This promise, or value proposition, needs to be based on something you do that is uniquely different from your competition.

Article source: https://masterful-marketing.com/small-business-marketing-strategy/

AI is expected to yield $14 trillion additional revenue and 38% increase in profitability by the year 2035. It has helped businesses enhance their customer experience by approaching them with relevant and data-driven insights. It’s high time small businesses start making the most of this AI revolution.

AI can automatically figure out things with the help of three Ds.

• Detect – In this step, AI discovers the attributes or elements that are most predictive. Then it helps to determine the ones you can pay attention to and the ones you can do away with.
• Deliberate – AI weighs the most predictive attributes against each other to suggest personalized recommendations or answer questions.
• Develop – Machine learning, a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence lets it program and reprogram itself. Subsequently, it can modify and evaluate the data according to the information or results obtained through experiments. The beauty of AI is that it matures with every iteration.

When it comes to email marketing, AI can be incorporated in each and every step of the process. Let’s understand how.

1. Better segmentation and personalization

With the help of segmentation, you can target your subscribers with personalized messages. 74% of marketers think that targeted personalization enhances customer engagement rate.

Predictive analytics comes into picture here. It means that complex algorithms are used to predict the kind of customer behavior, which eventually helps in creating emails that are more relevant for the subscribers. Predictive analytics is used by 28% of U.S businesses and most of them consider it a ‘critical’ or ‘very critical’ step.

Through AI, you as a small business, can build audience groups that exhibit similar kinds of behavior and target them accordingly.

2. Improved subject lines

Tools like Phrasee, an AI copywriting tool, enable brands to craft better subject lines by employing AI. These subject lines are likely to resonate with the reader more and entice them to open the email.

While manually drafted subject lines work on the basis of trial and error, AI-driven subject lines are based on data-driven insights which makes them more effective for your small business.

3. Automated A/B testing

There was a time when A/B testing used to be a two-dimensional process. It has now become a multichannel hyper-targeting model that allows you to test a number of variables in different combinations.

Bandit testing lets you determine the kind of traffic you would get. In case you find that one of the variables is winning, bandit testing can help you get the statistical significance faster.

4. Easier Channel Optimization

With the help of AI, you can determine whether the prospect or customer would respond better to an email, push notification or a message on social media. Armed with this information, you can then send the message on the appropriate channel.

5. Optimized send times

AI can determine the best times to send your emails based on when your subscribers are checking their emails. By knowing when your subscribers will pay attention to your emails, you will have  better chance of them responding. This information will allow you to send the right message to the right person at the right time, increasing your conversion rate.

6. More effective retargeting

Cart abandonment is one of the most unfortunate things for any marketer. Whether you are in the e-commerce industry, retail business or travel sector, AI allows you to more effectively re-target those visitors who abandoned their carts. Some customers respond to the cart abandonment emails sent immediately after while others may be more likely to respond a week later.

AI helps to differentiate between these groups of customers, sending the re-targeting emails at the optimal time. This helps you recover potential customers by reminding them of their attempted purchase. Through these emails, you can send out product recommendations and cross-sell or upsell products.

7. Enhanced automation

Persado is a wonderful tool that can assist you in creating persuasive messages for your subscribers. With the help of the Persado Go Service, you can analyze email copy and get suggestions through natural language processing and machine learning.

AI can ensure you send relevant emails by taking into account the subscriber’s past interactions with the brand and purchase history. Such insights can enhance your email marketing strategy without any manual intervention, saving time and resources.

Wrapping Up

Having gone through these 7 ways AI can be used for better email marketing, it is quite clear why 30% of the companies around the world are likely to use AI in at least one of the sales processes in 2020. 61% of marketers have claimed that AI is the most critical aspect of their data strategy.

With perfect combination of rule-based email marketing and constant optimization, you can improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns while reducing the time you spend on them. AI becomes a robust tool that lets you promote your small business business and eliminate uncertainties despite the dynamic customer behavior.

To learn more on the AI revolution in email marketing, take a look at this insightful infographic by Email Uplers.

Article source: https://masterful-marketing.com/empowering-email-marketing-strategy-with-ai/

You are probably wondering “what’s in it for me” when it comes to inbound marketing. It seems like a lot of work. Does it really work for lead generation?

The answer is definitely yes – inbound marketing does generate leads. In addition, there are many benefits to implementing inbound marketing as one of your primary marketing strategies. Inbound marketing:

• Increases visibility and brand awareness for your business
• Attracts better quality leads that are interesting in your offerings
• Demonstrates your knowledge of your industry by educating your prospects
• Provides long-term visibility unlike paid advertising which disappears when you stop paying
• Increases trust and credibility
• Is cost-effective.

The ultimate goal of inbound marketing is to help people find your business when in need of what you offer. Many buyers research solutions before they contact a business. If you provide quality, educational content that helps them move through the buyer’s journey, you are probably one of the solutions they will consider when they are ready to buy.

So add inbound marketing to your marketing plan. But like everything in marketing, lead generation using inbound marketing is a process. It only works when all the pieces come together and deliver a clear, compelling message.

Six step process to generate leads using inbound marketing

1. Develop your inbound marketing strategy

As always, you need a strategy. Developing your strategy helps you focus on the right things needed to consistently drive inbound traffic. Your strategy should incorporate:

• An in-depth understanding of your audience so you understand what content they need to solve their biggest challenges
• Knowledge of our top keywords and how to optimize our content for better visibility
• The right social media channels to build communities and develop relationships.
• An action plan to successfully execute your strategy

2. Create your content strategy

If you understand your audience, you know what type of content they need. From this, you can create the right content strategy to attract them to you and satisfy their needs.

To plan out your content, create an editorial calendar that includes:

• What content you plan to create
• What format you will use – blog post, podcast, YouTube videos, presentations and webinars
• Who will create it
• The style to be used across all media channels to project a consistent brand image
• Your schedule for sharing your content across all of your social media channels.

Don’t worry about the exact dates for each piece of content. Create the list and arrange as you go, selecting those pieces that you feel compelled to work on.

3. Develop your offer

Great content that attracts visitors to your website is the first step. But what do you want your visitors to do now that they have found you? Create an offer that will have them take some action, which will generate a lead.

What can you provide that has so much value to them that they will trade their email address for your offer so you can nurture them through the buyer’s journey? Creating the right lead magnet is important to attracting the right audience. 

• Will an eBook on the top 10 questions in your industry be something of value?
• Is your audience in need of useful templates, checklists and free tools to simplify a process?
• Can a free webinar covering a hot topic draw your audience in? Include a free recording of the event so those who can’t make it will still sign up.
• Could it be a free trial of your product? Or a free estimate for your home service?

As you can see, the type of lead magnet you choose to create depends on your business. Plus whether the lead needs to be nurtured or is ready to buy is also dependent on the type of business. Someone who is attracted to a free trial or estimate is further down the path to purchase than someone who signs up for your email list to get a template or checklist.

Those who want the checklist or template will sign up for your email list using a signup form from your email marketing company. But those who may want more information on your products and services will need a lead generation form. Therefore you need to …

4. Create the right lead generation forms

Once people are ready to pursue an engagement with your business, how do people contact you? You must have web forms to generate leads. Many people conduct searches for products and services at night, after dinner and after their children have gone to bed. If you don’t have a form that makes it easy for them to contact you when it is convenient for them, you are missing a huge opportunity to get qualified leads.

A well placed lead conversion form with a compelling offer is an important component of your website. Keep the form short and only ask for as much information as you really need. Also, respond to an inbound request as quickly as you can. If you wait, the lead may go to your competitor instead.

If you have all the above pieces in place, you have the foundation. Now our task is to implement the strategy in order to begin gaining visibility with your ideal client.

5. Implement inbound marketing action plan

How do you incorporate inbound marketing into your daily schedule while still working in your business?

An inbound marketing action plan creates a system that enables you to consistently execute your activities and see the results. Without a system, you will find yourself in one of two places:

• Doing nothing because you don’t know where to start
• Overwhelmed and ineffective because there’s too much to do while still servicing clients

As with setting any goals, if you write them down you will be more likely to achieve them. Put your system in writing and make sure that it will work for you. Start simple and expand if you find that you can do more:

• Start with an activity plan for when you will do certain inbound marketing activities such as create content for the blog, curate content to share and post to social media.
• Book time in your calendar to make it part of your schedule and stick with it. Your goal is to stay active and visible in order to continue to attract those that may want to form a trusted relationship.
• Be realistic about how much you can invest in time and money on marketing your business. If you only have 30 minutes each morning or at lunchtime, schedule it to do some inbound marketing activity that will benefit your business.

6. Make use of the right tools

To collect ideas and content to share, you can either use Evernote or the OneTab extension.

Evernote can be used to save content ideas and posts to share. Install the Evernote Clipper extension to make it easy to clip content and save it in specific notebooks.

OneTab extension to Chrome and Firefox can also be used to save content to read and share later. If I open the post and see that it is worth reading and sharing later, I save it using OneTab and organize it into a group. 

Either of these will enable you to save content to read and schedule for posting at a later time. This way you can set aside some time every week to fill the posting schedule of one of the following products so you remain visible.

Buffer or Hootsuite makes it very easy to schedule posts to Facebook, LinkedIn (both personal and company profiles), Twitter and Pinterest. They offer a different experience so check them both out to see which one you prefer. I use Buffer because the Buffer extension makes it easy for me to put content into the queue for all of my supported social media channels.

Both products offer a free limited version that gives you 3 social media channels, 10 scheduled posts per channel and 1 user. Start with the free version to decide which one you like best.

Next step

Now that you have your inbound marketing system in place, you can create and share content to start gaining visibility within your target audience. Stay consistent with your efforts and you can drive new visitors to your website that are likely to become leads.

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Article source: https://masterful-marketing.com/inbound-marketing-your-lead-generation-engine/