Knowing what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and when to do it is an essential component of any successful content marketing strategy.

By documenting what needs to be done and how you will do it, you’ll be more likely to get it done. Plus, you’ll be able to better understand what’s working and what’s not, as well as better understand how much you should invest in your content plan based on the value you’ll receive from it. Without documentation, you’re just shooting in the dark.

Many areas are covered in a documented content marketing strategy, such as:

• Develop audience personas
• Develop your content plan
• Advance your brand story
• Decide which channels you will use to publish your content

Your content plan can be as detailed as you need. Exactly how much you document will depend on how many others you need to bring into the plan and who you need to convince to invest in the plan. The more people involved, the more documentation you’ll need to explain and convince others to participate, as well as keep a team working toward your chosen goals.

Your content marketing strategy should answer the who, what, when, why and how of your entire strategy. With a documented strategy, you’ll be able to track your progress, determine what’s working and not working, justify the costs, and define the business value of your content marketing strategy. Plus, you’ll have a plan to follow to make sure you’re successful.

Your content marketing strategy must answer:

• What you hope to achieve with content marketing
• Who is your audience and how big is your audience?
• The content marketing channels you plan to use
• How do you define your worth?
• Answer what strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats exist in the market

You then need to match these answers to the sales cycle of the business you are creating the content marketing strategy for. You’ll need to know what to say, when to say it, and how you’re going to say it, as well as what channel you’re going to say it on. It helps define the sales process before developing your content marketing plan.

This process will allow you to convert leads to leads and leads to buyers. Using your product funnel and your audience personas, you can develop the content you need for each phase of the sales cycle. Using the sales funnel with insight into your audience’s buying cycle as a starting point for creating your documented content strategy makes sense, because you’ll be able to immediately see where you’re missing.