The ultimate content marketing strategy guide for female founders
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16 June 2024
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Uncategorised
Content is your brand’s most valuable resource but it is worth nothing if you don’t have a strategy in place. Discover how to scale your business with our content marketing strategy guide for female entrepreneurs
As a female entrepreneur, you may be familiar with the term content marketing strategy. Yet as a busy business owner, you probably lack the time to replicate, scale and grow your content. If setting a constant cadence when it comes to publishing seems like an impossible task, don’t panic. This guide is designed to take the guesswork out of content creation. Map out your strategy and ensure that you experience secure and steady business growth.
What is a content marketing strategy?
Essentially, content marketing means giving away free information in order to build your brand. It also helps to increase response to marketing campaigns and boost online traffic or sales. The term itself was coined in 1996 by John F. Oppedahl at a roundtable for journalists held at the American Society of Newspaper Editors. However, the concept has existed for the last century with many major brands adopting the use of “bait pieces” in their marketing strategies. The free content, or bait piece, is used to hook prospective clients or customers and turn them into leads. Its proven success means that today, content marketing is a billion-dollar industry.
Content marketing for female entrepreneurs
Regardless if you are a solopreneur, a small business owner or a new member of a company’s executive team, you will need to understand the ins and outs of content marketing. Today, businesses across the globe rely on content to convince their target market that the brand’s ideas are worth their time. What’s more, good content is not only worthy of the target market’s time but also that of their friends. After all, it is not enough for someone to simply “like” a piece of content. It needs to stir up an emotional connection to drive people to share it with their network, thus increasing the reach of your message. The ultimate goal in content marketing is to have as many prospective customers as possible interacting with your content.
Content marketing today
Today, free content is usually referred to as a “Lead Magnet” since it is created with the aim of magnetically pulling the target consumer towards the content. Lead magnets are always written with conversion in mind and need to make the consumer feel like the content was written directly for them, every single time.
In B2B marketing, the lead magnet is generally centred around the brand’s primary offer and the hook that will drive the target client to respond.
B2C marketing on the other hand, often centres their lead magnet content on an added bonus that links directly with a product sold. This can be offered as an added gift with the purchase of a product as a way to incentivise sales.
The 4 main formats of your content marketing strategy
When it comes to attracting your dream client, you want to capture their attention in as many ways as possible. The four key learning methods are reading, listening, watching and doing. Applying the psychology of learning to your brand’s content marketing strategy will not only diversify your content but also will ensure that your audience is engaged in as many ways as possible.
As a female founder, you are probably very aware of the marketing rule of 7s. But, for those who are new to this concept, it states that a potential lead must see your brand message at least seven times before they will be drawn to take action. So, by producing a diverse range of content that touches on the four key learning methods, you are not leaving any marketing opportunities on the table.
Here are some content examples that fit each of the four learning methods:
| Reading | Listening | Watching | Doing |
| Books | Podcasts | Youtube Videos | Workshops |
| Ebooks | Webinars | Tiktok | Classes |
| Blog Posts | Speeches | Roundtable events | |
| White Papers | Seminars | Slideshare | Retreats |
| E-newsletters | Internet Radio | Infographics | Conferences |
| Online Courses | Clubhouse | Traditional advertising | Demos |
| Articles | Short films | Boot Camps |
7 of the most common mistakes made in content writing
Any content whether it is a blog post or a Youtube presentation video must inform, engage and sell within seconds of the target customer landing on the page. With attention spans dipping by the second, our content needs to work harder than ever to spark a connection with our audience.
Yet, crafting compelling brand copy is harder than it looks. Here are the top seven mistakes that most people make when it comes to delivering written content.
- Mediocre writing
- Poor-quality research
- Not listening to the needs of their audience
- Lack of fact-checking or interviewing of subject matter experts (SMEs)
- Incomplete understanding of the subject topic
- Failing to credit sources
- Using subjective opinion over facts
Every brand has a story to tell, including yours
To build a successful brand, it is essential to connect with your audience and nourish the existing relationships. Content is your most valuable resource for doing this. It is important to think of your brand’s written content as a series of messages that allow you to communicate what matters most to your customers. Everything from brand values to your irresistible new product offering will be announced to your audience through storytelling.
What to do when creating content feels impossibly overwhelming?
Creating a constant cadence with your copy may feel exhausting. It also may be the reason why your content marketing strategy has remained a mere idea… until now. The truth is, consistency means something different to everyone. If you are able to produce four posts a week or just two, creating a schedule and sticking to it, however small or large your output is, means that your content will be consistent. But churning out tonnes of content is a worthless effort without a structure in place to help you achieve your goals and assist with your decision-making. The trick? Start small, but do start!
Creating a content marketing strategy for your brand
Defining your brand’s audience, voice, tone, aesthetic and content distribution channels is the first step in laying down a solid framework for your content marketing strategy. Once these key elements have been clearly established, the execution of your content will begin to flow and feel less labour-intensive.
Here are the critical content marketing strategy elements to keep in mind for your brand.
1. What is the overall goal? What does your content need to achieve?
Writing a piece of content with no strategy is like driving a car with no fuel. It won’t get you very far. Failing to define our content KPIs and overall business goals from the beginning will mean that your content will lack a clear sense of direction. As Simon Sinek says, it is important to start with the why. Once you have established the reason why you are creating your content, you will be able to write with purpose and develop copy that works just as hard as you do. Working on this step first ensures that valuable time and resources are not wasted and your audience is not left feeling confused by your messaging. It also allows you to evaluate the ROI of your content in the long term.
2. Who will be reading your content?
As a female entrepreneur, it can feel like the only person who reads your content is your mum. Yet, a quick review of Google Analytics will be enough to banish any feelings of impostor syndrome and self-doubt. Push your content out to the right set of eyes by ensuring that your audience is at the front of your mind when writing. Creating brand personas is an essential exercise that will guarantee that your content’s theme, voice and structure will resonate with what your ideal customer is looking for.
3. Location, location, location
Imagine your social media, website and blog as physical locations. What is the vibe at each place? Do the same people hang out in each one? What are the nuances between each place? Your chosen group of channels will be an invaluable resource for transmitting your message directly to your audience without having to rely on costly advertising. However, don’t get struck by “shiny object syndrome”. Pick two or three key channels and exploit them, catering your content to the needs of each audience.
4. Get inside the mind of your target audience
Good content entertains but truly effective content creates an emotional connection that will keep the reader coming back. As humans, conversation and communication are an essential part of life and our online life is no different. Engage your audience by getting inside their mind and addressing topics that are a top priority for them. To really hook them in and convert them into customers use a tone of voice that resonates with them and helps to build trust in your brand and offerings.
5. Keep your message visually on-brand
As mentioned previously, delivering content that provides a solution to your audience’s problems will keep your readers engaged. But, first impressions count and if your content is not visually appealing, you will lose people before they even begin reading. Don’t let your creatively crafted copy go to waste. Display your content in a way that sparks interest in what you have to say. Do you have a long-form article? Spice it up with some aesthetically on-brand images or create a Youtube video that summarises the content in a bite-sized way. Maintaining a cohesive brand aesthetic makes your content instantly recognisable and helps your readers understand the story that you wish to tell.
6. Make Google happy and adopt best practices for your content marketing strategy
No man is an island and this applies to female entrepreneurs too. It is easy to feel that we have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to building our brand. Yet, by keeping things simple we actually allow more room for creativity to flourish. Successful business owners streamline their content marketing strategy by employing and implementing content best practices. By correctly using headlines, keywords word count and page layout to their advantage, they not only make their content more compelling to read but also save so much time since the framework has already been built. A well-put-together piece of content is what Google looks for and it will help to give your SEO a little boost.
7. Make your content audience friendly
Not only do you need to make your content easy to read but your content hub (website or blog) needs to be easy to navigate and quick to use. Making your customer journey friction-free promotes engagement and means that your audience is more likely to desire and purchase your offering. Search for ways to improve your main content hub so that you can best serve your audience’s needs.
8. Spot patterns and scale for growth
As a female entrepreneur, you are required to wear many hats, one of them being a content detective. Deducing performance patterns in your copy allows you to cut back on the posts that are not converting and scale the winning content pieces. Repurposing old content and finding innovative ways to tell your brand story are all part and parcel of creating a strong content marketing strategy.
9. Make copywriting a team sport
Time is a limited resource and if you are not a natural wordsmith then consider outsourcing your content to a professional copywriter. They will handle all the content strategy and planning as well as create copy that is aligned with your core business goals. Yet, it is worth noting that if you do choose to create a team for your content marketing, time will be required to manage this investment.
10. Content without distribution is just words
To gain traction with your content it is important to strategically select your distribution methods. Using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to your advantage will push your content up through Google’s rankings and help with your organic traffic. It is also worth considering content partnerships, securing paid placements and social media to share your brand message with your dream audience.
Are you ready to press publish?
Producing content successfully may feel like an art. Yet approaching it in a structured, strategic manner will help you quickly decide what works best for your brand. Measuring performance and getting inside the mind of the reader are all part of the process of creating successful content. Think like a professional copywriter and streamline your processes, automate anything you can and most importantly, don’t lose momentum. Creating a content marketing strategy may seem like an overwhelming task, but careful planning will save you buckets of time (and money).
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