If your social media presence is weak, your engagement is low and you rarely follow a strategic plan (if at all), it may be time to revisit your marketing strategy.

When done well, content marketing can cost 62% less than outbound marketing and can generate 3x the amount of leads.

Great content should always add some kind of value to the lives of your audience, you can achieve this by utilising your insider’s knowledge to produce content that will inform and support your potential lead. By creating content on a topic that is relevant and engaging you are able to build trust and become a valuable source of information.

Follow our guide to create a simple (but effective) content marketing plan.

Where Do I Start?

There are 3 key elements you must address before creating your content marketing plan, these are:

1. Who is the content for?

Before you begin you must know your target audience, for some, your target audience may be multiple groups for others it will be a specific one. Once your targeted audience is determined you should then conduct research to discover what their needs are and what their content engagement cycle looks like.

You may also want to map out content you can deliver throughout the buyer’s journey in order to move them closer to your end goal.

2. What is your audience interested in?

The next step is determining what topics will engage your target audience. Your content should be informative, relatable, engaging and help build trust between you and the audience.

Discovering what your target market wants to know can be easier than you think! Each day you will receive enquiries whether that be in person, over the phone or by email. Inform your team to begin making note of each enquiry, then take those questions and write a blog, a social media post or even a FAQ E-book.

Another great tool is Answer The Public. Answer The Public allows you to search a specific keyword and the tool then brings up the most frequently googled questions surrounding that topic. This is a great way to not only create valuable content but to become a source of reliable information for your audience.

3. What is your desired end result?

Your end goal will help determine the type of content you produce. If your goal is to raise awareness for a campaign, then your content will be significantly different to if you want to generate leads. This will help determine how much of your content is educational and how much drives the audience to book an appointment or purchase a product.

Different Forms of Content

Social media graphics are great but consistently using them can get boring. Your content plan should consist of a range of content, you should consider including:

E-books
Social Media Posts
Videos
Infographics
Podcasts
Blogs

When used strategically and set up correctly these can be a great way to improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) and Google ranking.

Publishing and Managing Your Content

Even the most valuable, engaging content plan won’t get you far if you’re managing it incorrectly. It’s important to post regularly and at the times when your social media pages receive high engagement.

A great way to ensure you are consistently sharing quality content at the most engaging times is to schedule your posts using Facebook and other scheduling services. Facebook has the option to do this through their platform but for Instagram, you will need to use services like Buffer or Loomly.

How Often Should I Post Content?

Firstly, your content plan should always follow the ‘quality over quantity’ rule. You don’t want to inundate your followers with constant posts just for the sake of posting, keep them engaged but in the correct way.

We recommend posting 1-3 times a week on all social media platforms. Your content should include a range of videos, blogs, graphics, E-books and infographics. This allows your audience to see a range of different content and keeps your page interesting.

APHRA

The most important part of your content plan is compliance. Your content should ALWAYS be compliant, when doing your own marketing it is essential to know the APHRA guidelines inside and out.

Your content can’t in any way:

Be false, deceptive or misleading
Use discounts or gifts without explaining the terms and conditions
Use any testimonials that aren’t general comments:
“It was a nice waiting room.” ✔︎
“Dr Smith saved my life.” ✘
Create unreasonable expectations of treatment or surgery
Encourage an unnecessary use of regulated health services
Have the word cure, can help/ improve/ treat, effectively treat, safe, effective in your content

That’s only the beginning! You can read more on the APHRA guidelines here.