Content marketing is a constant balancing act where you’re having to keep up with the latest trends, changes, updates and best practices. That’s why it’s important to set goals and with it being a new year and new decade, now is a perfect time.
But if you’re new to creating a plan or don’t know where to start, here are some tips to not only make content marketing goals for 2020 but realistic goals that will make it through the year.
Look at Your Previous Goals and Current Company Goals
First, look back on your previous content goals. Did any miss the mark or go above and beyond? It’s not a bad thing to reuse goals but increase the stakes.
Once you know what content to focus on, look at your company goals and see how they can work toward those. If your company wants to increase lead generation, blog frequency is a good area to focus on because it has a significant impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and improves lead generation. Or if your company is a B2B and wants to build awareness and engagement online, a goal geared toward LinkedIn and utilizing best practices would be a great option.
All of this will help you determine where you should focus your efforts.
Know Your Content Marketing Capabilities and Limits
When it comes to developing content, there’s always a limit to what we can and can’t do. We would all love to have an abundance of high production videos, blogs and posts on social channels, but that isn’t realistic. However, that isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to aim higher. Look over your budget and see what’s attainable in the new year and what aligns with your company goals.
If you have employees that help with content, check-in with them to see if they’d like to expand their skillsets and try something new. Employees are eager to learn and switch things up if they have the capability to do it. It will take time, but if you’re moving into another area like video or SEO, you’ll achieve more than if you hadn’t tried it.
If there are goals you know you can’t achieve this year, but want to have in next year’s budget, make a note of it so you can try to make it part of your goals next year.
Try a Goal Method Like SMART Goals
I recently wanted to make goals for the year and found the SMART marketing goals template from HubSpot. SMART is an acronym for what makes a goal SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. This format makes it easy to make goals data-driven and realistic and with the template, you can draft your goals in no time.
Make Time for Goals
Being organized is the best skill to have to achieve content goals. I use the Todoist app to help me set reminders for things I need to do, whether it’s a one-time task or a reoccurring task. When it comes to content, these reminders are great for drafting content, posting content, going over content goals and reassessing content goals. Another great option is to set time blocks on your calendar for these goals, so you can hold yourself accountable.
Review Your Progress and Reassess Goals
It can be a struggle to remind ourselves to review our progress, but it’s necessary to achieve your content goals. It’s also a good opportunity to reassess your goals and make tweaks if needed. For instance, you might notice that your email newsletter is bringing in more leads than social does when your original goal was to build your social media channels to gain leads. That tells you that you either need to do more to build your social channels or that you need to refocus your efforts on email. It’s likely the latter, but you wouldn’t know that had you not checked in on your progress. It’s especially important to do this working in digital marketing because updates to technology are constant and can sometimes make or break your goals.
Through discipline, organization and checking in, you’ll stay ahead of the game and make your goals a reality.
AFJ Digital 