Let’s be honest, content marketing often feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks.
You jump on every trend that’s a “hit”, and yet nothing seems to take off and go viral.
You blog. You post. You tweet. Then you wait – for nothing (sometimes something) to come in.
Did you know that there’s 2.45 billion Facebook posts published in a day? Without a clear plan, even the best content gets lost in the noise.
What if, instead, you had a step-by-step system that helped you create the right content for the right people every time?
Let’s break it down. Here’s how to create a content marketing plan that doesn’t just look good on paper, but actually drives results for you.
1. Start by Knowing Who You’re Talking To
Meredith Hill once famously said, “If you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one”. A principle that even Seth Godin himself recognises and applies.
You can’t market to everyone. You’re not Amazon.
So before you create anything, get crystal clear on your audience. Ask these questions:
- Who are they?
- What do they care about?
- What problems are they trying to solve?
Dig into your data. Talk to real customers. Review support tickets. Stalk your competitors’ comment sections.
Even if you don’t have any existing data, don’t just make a wild guess based on your gut. Go do research about your potential customers using secondary data sources such as academic journals, books, reports, online databases, and news articles.
At times, you may find real gold in the forums (think Reddit, Quora) where users discuss certain topics and share their frustrations. These “frustrations” are real gold for you to understand what keeps them up at night.
The goal is to build real, detailed profiles of the people you want to reach (which we cover in the next section), so you can speak their language and show up where it matters.
2. Create Content Buckets Based on Your Target Audience Groups
Once you’ve got a handle on who your people are, group them into audience groups and create content buckets for them.
These are clusters of folks with shared needs, behaviors, or stages in their journey. Having this in place will help you to create more specific messages and content that resonate with them even better.
Think:
- People who’ve just discovered your product
- Loyal customers who already love you
- Execs who need ROI to sign off
- Industry-specific users with unique workflows
Each of these audience groups have a different mindset. Different questions. Different expectations.
And that’s exactly why treating them the same is a recipe for mediocrity.
Sounding the same like everyone else doesn’t help you get their attention, especially with AI now in the mix.
The new normal is to “do more” than your competitors to stay ahead and afloat.
3. Do Smart Keyword & Topic Research
Now that you know who you’re talking to, figure out how and what they talk about.
What are they typing into Google at 2 a.m. when they’re desperate for a solution?
When you’re doing your research about your target audience, you should have some inkling or thoughts about what kind of terms they should be searching for.
Let’s say you’re starting off on a blank slate with no existing data, then you should list out some terms that you could think of which your target audience could also be using.
For example, if you’re selling weight loss supplements, then you could come up with some keywords such as “weight loss supplements”, “weight loss methods”, “ways to lose weight” and so on.
Having about 5-10 short-tail and long-tail keywords (anything more than 3 words) would be a good start for you to start plugging into search engines like Google to figure out what content is popping up, or use Google Keyword Research Tool that will show you what keywords people are actively using to search up results.
If you’re trying to figure out what other topics that may be related, just look up the “People also ask” section on Google’s search results page.
To make your life easier, there are also tools like:
- Buzzsumo (for what’s already working based on engagements recorded)
- AnswerThePublic (for real-life questions)
- Ahrefs or SEMrush (for volume + intent)
Here’s the thing though: Don’t chase keywords just because they’re popular.
Chase the ones your audience actually cares about, and match them to the mindset of each bucket you’ve created.
4. Create Content Pillars for Each Bucket
This is where it all starts to come together.
Instead of randomly churning out blog posts, build content pillars that form the big-picture themes that truly matter to each of your audience buckets.
Think of them like pillars to your audience group’s house, they each come together with a purpose to support your audience’s discovery journey.
For example:
- For new prospects, your pillars might be: “Getting Started,” “Beginner Mistakes,” and “Why [Your Solution] Works.”
- For existing customers: “Advanced Use Cases,” “Hidden Features,” “Maximizing Value.”
- For decision-makers: “ROI,” “Cost vs. Benefit,” “Case Studies.”
- For industry-specific audiences: “Trends in [X Industry],” “Best Practices,” “Tools That Play Nice.”
Each pillar is a theme that can support dozens of content pieces, such as blogs, videos, guides, tweets, webinars. It’s like building a tree instead of scattering leaves.
In a time where users are more scattered across multiple platforms than ever, your content strategy needs to be more strategic and purposeful so that it gives you an efficiency edge.
5. Map Those Pillars to the Funnel
Not all content serves the same purpose. Some attract. Some convert. Some retain.
Your target audience goes through a buyer’s journey to decide if they want to buy from you, or not.
So, what you need to do is to create sufficient content that supports your audience’s buyer journey.
Typically, the most common funnel used involves 3-stages: Awareness, Consideration and Conversion.
But let’s not forget the fact that customers need to be retained. Just because they converted once, doesn’t mean they have to stay with you and convert again.
So in our example, we’ll work with a 4-stage funnel: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion and Loyalty.
Just like the one from SEMrush:
Now that you have your content pillars planned out, spread them out to cover every stage of the funnel:
- Awareness: Educational content, quick wins, fun ideas
- Consideration: Buyer guides, how-tos, checklists
- Conversion: Case studies, demos, customer stories
- Loyalty: Power-user tips, community features, sneak peeks
A bonus stage that you can consider is Advocacy, where you create content and channels for your existing loyal customers to share about your product or service to their friends who may also be interested in it.
For instance, a referral programme might incentivise your existing customers to share about your product or service.
All in all, the key takeaway here is that every piece of content should have a job.
If it doesn’t, don’t make it.
6. Choose the Right Channels (Not All Channels)
Here’s a trap: thinking you have to be everywhere.
Spoiler: you don’t.
Focus on where your audience already hangs out. If your customers scroll LinkedIn at lunch, show up there. If they’re searching YouTube tutorials, create video. If they love deep-dive newsletters, send them gold in their inbox.
The goal isn’t to be loud. It’s to be present—where it counts.
So now here’s the question you’re probably thinking – where do they hang out?
If you’ve tools such as GWI, getting insights as to where your audience is hanging out would be a breeze – but more often than not, this pricey tool isn’t available for everyone.
So if you’re starting new with no data to rely on, what you could do is focus on the more popular channels that most people are spending their time on. For example, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Maybe you might have a bit more resources, then of course spread out onto other platforms such as YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and so on.
Each platform has very different dynamics and audience behaviours, so it’s important to plan out an experiment to test and iterate on your distribution strategy.
But hold up.
Does it mean that you have to create a specific content strategy for each platform?
Quite frankly, no.
You would need to create content formats that are optimised for each platform so that you can get the algorithm to work better for you, but you don’t have to create different contents for each platform.
Remember, what we want to achieve is a content marketing strategy that works – meaning it actually drills your message into your audiences’ minds, and one that is efficient.
A consistent messaging is more effective than having scattered messages on different platforms, what you want to do is to remind your audience consistently across different platforms, not confuse them or divert their attention to something else.
7. Measure What Moves the Needle
Finally, don’t let vanity metrics fool you.
A thousand likes mean nothing if you’re not driving the right outcomes.
To make your content marketing strategy actually “work’, you need to track the metrics that actually lead to business impact or results.
For example, the following metrics would make more sense if you look beyond the terms:
- Website visits → Are they sticking around?
- Time spent on the website → Are leads converted faster than leads who don’t?
- Frequency → How many times do you have to show up before they actually buy from you?
- Retention → Are they coming back?
Set clear KPIs for each piece of content and track consistently. That’s how you learn what’s working and what’s just… noise.
Wrapping It Up
Content marketing isn’t about creating more. It’s about creating smarter, and being more efficient when you take a strategic approach.
With AI now rampantly creating contents day in day out, it’s more important than ever to create contents that actually bring value to your audience, not just empty cans.
In a time where budgets are a constraint especially, you would definitely need to be more strategic and create an efficiency edge for your business or company.
Start with your audience. Build themes around what they care about. Align content to the funnel. Choose the right channels. And measure what matters.
Do that consistently, and your content won’t just perform.
It’ll lead.
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