One, two, cha-cha-cha!
Even if you’ve never danced the Cha Cha, it’s likely you’ve heard the familiar counting pattern before.
I’m no dancer. But I do understand that if you’re dancing with a partner and you miss a step, it’s likely someone falls flat on their face.
Ouch.
And wouldn’t you know it? Content marketing requires a series of steps. If you miss or skip a step, your strategy risks falling flat on its face.
Double ouch!
Wouldn’t you rather use content to partner with customers on a dance that has them staying longer and spending more?
Let’s take a look at the cha-cha-cha of a content marketing, shall we?
The goal is to make sure everyone moves on the same counts.
One, two, cha-cha-cha!
If you’re going to trip the light fantastic with your content marketing strategy, you need to know these steps:
- Audience
- Agony
- Cha – Attraction
- Cha – Alignment
- Cha – Action
Step 1. Audience
Who are you trying to reach?
Any decisions you make for your strategy stem from having a deep understanding of this audience.
Think about it. Your conversations differ based on who you’re talking to, right?
Step 2. Agony
What’s causing them the most agony in relation to your product or service?
When you pinpoint the struggle your audience is having, you know how to best help them.
Step 3. Cha – Attraction
You know who you’re trying to reach. You know the problem they’re trying to solve. Now you can create content that attracts them to you by putting the two together. Then focus on moving them to the next step.
Step 4. Cha – Alignment
It’s here that you share your plan for your audience.
How are you going to help them?
What are your beliefs in regards to caring for your audience?
What is your promise to them?
When you’re both aligned, you attract more people who are a good fit for you. They believe in what you do and they’re likely to stick around longer, promote you, and do more business with you.
Step 5. Cha – Action
What do you want your audience to do next?
If you’ve landed the previous steps, your audience is more likely to take that next step.
Shall we dance?
Now that you know the fundamental steps and understand the rhythm of each, you’ll be on your way to creating a content marketing strategy that converts more people to customers that stay longer and spend more.
Keep in mind the above represents the high-level fundamentals of a content marketing strategy. Each of these steps also has a series of steps within it, before it, and after it, but we’ll save those for another time.
Stick to and regularly practice these steps so you can start inviting more people to dance without fear of falling flat on your face.
Ready to get started?
Review each of the five steps and answer the following questions:
- Who is your audience? What do you know about them?
- What challenges can you help this audience overcome?
- What content can you create that attracts the audience you’re trying to reach?
- What is your plan to help them?
- What action do you ultimately want them to take?
Hope to see you on the dance floor. One, two, cha-cha-cha!