Andra Zaharia outlines a comprehensive content marketing plan, emphasizing the importance of creating valuable and relevant content to attract a clearly defined audience, especially in the tech sector. The document discusses strategies for building a content marketing plan, including defining goals, identifying target audiences, and mapping content to the buyer's journey. Additionally, it highlights the benefits of content marketing over traditional marketing, such as lower costs and higher lead generation.

1. ANDRA ZAHARIA
THE
CONTENT
MARKETING
PLAN
SOMeetups-May9,2019

2. Hi! Hey! What's up?
10+ years in digital marketing
6 years in content marketing
500.000+ words written
1000+ outreach emails sent
500.000+ readers for my content
Focus on tech startups, cybersecurity,
AI, innovation
A bit about me

3. WHAT IS
CONTENT MARKETING?

4. “Content marketing is a strategic
marketing approach focused on
creating and distributing
valuable, relevant, and consistent
content to attract and retain a
clearly defined audience — and,
ultimately, to drive profitable
customer action.”
What is content marketing?
CONTENTMARKETING
INSTITUTE

5. Content marketing can be:
Blog articles
White papers
Reports
Guides
One-pagers
Videos
Podcasts
GIFs & memes
Case studies
Ebooks
Infographics
Checklists
Interviews
Social media
content

6. 65% less
CONTENT MARKETING
COSTS 62% LESS
3X more leads
AND GENERATES APPROX.
3X MORE LEADS THAN
TRADITIONAL MARKETING
But why?

7. 72%
OF BUYERS TURN TO
GOOGLE DURING THE
AWARENESS STAGE
85%
OF USERS IGNORE PAID ADS
AND FOCUS ON ORGANIC
SEARCH RESULTS
You probably do this too.

8. 95%
OF BUYERS ARE WILLING TO
SHARE THEIR NAME,
COMPANY & EMAIL IN
RETURN FOR CONTENT
47%
OF BUYERS CONSUME
BETWEEN 3 AND 5 PIECES OF
CONTENT BEFORE TALKING TO
A SALES REP
B2B, I'm looking at you!

9. WHAT MAKES CONTENT
VALUABLE & RELEVANT
Good ideas
The best ideas come from
experience.
Depth
Long-form content outperforms
shorter content by 40.54%
Curiosity
Curiosity + self-awareness +
knowledge of the customer are key
Uniqueness + helpfulness
The average person spends just
37 seconds reading online content

10. Things that
impact
content
marketing
pricing
acquisition model (freemium, free trial,
etc.)
length of sales cycle
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)
marketing budget
goal time to ROI (aka patience)
funds raised
company culture
product maturity
industry and vertical
age of business
customer service quality & more

11. How to build a content
marketing plan
Let's get practical

12. 1. Define WHY you create
content
To educate customers
about the topic
To create brand
awareness
To build expertise &
increase brand trust

13. Creating irrelevant or
undifferentiated content
2. Outline
the
potential
risks
involved
Not having enough
resources to execute the
content strategy
Not promoting content

14. ORGANIC TRAFFIC
INCREASE
unique visitors
time on page
bounce rate
ENGAGEMENT
comments
free resource downloads
newsletter subscriptions
generated leads
3. Set your
#ContentGoals
SEO IMPROVEMENT
rank on the first page for
designated keywords
backlinks
domain authority

15. 4. Figure out what unique
value you provide through
content
unique, personal stories
32 contributors, incl.
competitors - 19.000 words
brings emotion & relatability to
a difficult and abstract topic
evergreen topic people care
about in the industry

16. 6. List Your Channels
Website(s)
blog(s)
newsletter
social media
Youtube
external publications
(e.g. Medium)
Communities

17. 7. Define the audiences
you’ll create content for
CUSTOMERS COMMUNITYAMPLIFIERS

18. 8. Figure out
their content
engagement
cycle
1. Identify problem (Google search)
2. Research best practices (read articles)
3. Develop a solution plan
4. Research providers (brand presence,
know-how)
5. Compare options (positioning, testimonials,
resources)
6. Engage providers (sales pitch,
expertise, etc.)
7. Test providers (workflow, results, etc.)
8. Become a customer (on-boarding, walk-
throughs, etc.)

19. 9. Map content to the buyer’s journey
Website articles
and resources
LinkedIn posts and
articles
Guest articles
IDENTIFY
PROBLEM
Website articles &
resources
LinkedIn posts &
articles
Guest articles
Webinars
Podcast episodes
RESEARCH BEST
PRACTICES
Guides
Free tools and
resources
FAQs
DEVELOP A PLAN
TO SOLVE THE
PROBLEM

20. Isitworkingyet?
10. Set &
monitor
your KPIs
So you can know whether your
content marketing plan is working.
- Traffic
- Leads
- Conversions (aka sales)
- Backlinks
- Time on page
- New visitors vs returning visitors
- Brand presence & trust (NPS)
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5
40
30
20
10
0

21. How I do content
marketing for myself
Blog > Website
- landing pages
- blog articles
- social proof (testimonials, KPIs)
Podcast
- engage with influencers
- tell their story
- create evergreen content

22. How I do content
marketing for myself
Weekly newsletter
- grow an engaged community
- amplify the podcast
- get feebdack & ideas
Social media & Slack
- Twitter & LinkedIn
- support others & share their work (& mine)
- engage with people & share experiences

23. CARE
Care about:
your audience
content marketing
the industry
your performance standard
what really matters
critical thinking
being helpful
consistency
constantly improving

24. LEARN FROM THEM +
Louis Grenier - Everyone Hates
Marketers (Let's Change That) podcast
GrowAndConvert.com + @benjihyam
Brian Dean - Backlinko.com
Animalz.co + The Animalz Podcast
GetCodeless.com
EliseDopson.co.uk
ConversionXL.com
SiegeMedia.com + @RossHudgens
CopyHackers.com
RobertKatai.com
Brands: BUFFER, WISTIA, DRIFT,
INTERCOM, AHREFS

25. Don't be a
stranger
EMAIL ME
andra@thecontenthabit.com
DO @ ME
twitter.com/andrazaharia
READ & LISTEN
andrazaharia.com/blog
andrazaharia.com/newsletter
andrazaharia.com/the-podcast