5 Steps to Create a Content Strategy That Drives Results

Want your content to actually deliver results? Start with a clear strategy. Here’s how you can build one in just five steps:

1. Set Clear Goals: Link your content to business objectives using SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).

2. Know Your Audience: Create detailed personas and match content to buyer stages (Awareness, Consideration, Decision).

3. Optimise for SEO: Use keyword research tools to identify the right terms, focusing on search intent and long-tail keywords.

4. Create and Share Quality Content: Plan with a content calendar, repurpose content across formats, and distribute on key platforms.

5. Track and Improve Results: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor performance and update underperforming content based on data.

Key Stats:

• Companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month.

• Interactive content is 39% more effective at educating buyers.

• 42% of marketers see improved results by updating older content.

Follow these steps to ensure your content connects with your audience and achieves measurable outcomes.

How to Craft an Audience-Driven SEO Content Strategy

Step 1: Set Clear Content Goals

Clear goals are the backbone of any successful content strategy. Research shows that marketers who set defined goals are 377% more likely to succeed than those who don’t. Your content goals should align with your business objectives and be both specific and realistic.

Link Content to Business Metrics

Did you know that 75% of companies with well-structured content strategies have successfully generated revenue from their efforts? A great example is HubSpot, which tailored its content to different audience segments: educational content for new visitors, solution-focused pieces for prospects, and optimisation content for existing customers. This approach boosted customer retention, increased sales, and strengthened brand recognition.

Here’s how you can connect business objectives to content metrics:

Once you’ve identified the right metrics, set your goals using the SMART framework.

Create SMART Content Goals

SMART goals ensure your efforts are focused and measurable. Here’s how to structure them:

• Specific: Clearly define your aim. For example, "increase organic blog traffic from UK-based manufacturing professionals."

• Measurable: Add numbers to track progress, like "achieve 10,000 monthly unique visitors by December 2025."

• Achievable: Be realistic. If you’re at 1,000 visitors per month, aiming for 1 million in three months won’t work.

• Relevant: Ensure goals fit into your broader business objectives.

• Time-bound: Set a deadline for achieving your target.

"The right KPI doesn't just answer questions, it starts conversations - this is where your team will find the strongest leverage for change and growth." - Kyle Harper

Break larger goals into smaller monthly milestones, monitor progress with analytics, and tweak your strategy as needed. It’s worth noting that 84% of companies now use content to build loyalty and trust with their customers.

With clear, measurable goals in place, the next step is to identify your audience.

Step 2: Know Your Target Audience

While 81% of marketers believe they understand their audience, 78% of consumers feel otherwise. This gap highlights the importance of digging deeper into audience research.

Once you've set clear content goals, the next step is understanding who you're speaking to.

Create Audience Personas

Buyer personas help ensure your content speaks directly to your audience. A detailed persona should cover the following:

Here’s how to gather this data:

• Use analytics tools: Platforms like Google Analytics and social media insights can reveal demographic details. Tools such as Tower Data can provide extra layers of insight, like income and purchase intent.

• Survey your audience: Direct feedback is invaluable. Interestingly, 99% of marketers report that personalisation strengthens customer relationships.

• Monitor online spaces: Forums, reviews, and social media discussions are goldmines for identifying customer pain points.

"Personas are not fictional! They are the distilled voice of real customers that represent attributes for a very specific set of people. Sure, they are fictional in the sense that one profile wraps so many attributes, but their problems, needs and interests are very real." - Kelly Hungerford, Former Director of Community at Paper.li

Match Content to Buyer Stages

Nearly half of B2B buyers (47%) review 3-5 pieces of content before contacting a salesperson. Align your content with their journey to keep them engaged:

For example, in 2024, Nextant, a business consulting firm, offered a free onboarding checklist based on their proven framework. This downloadable resource included data-driven insights to guide users.

Since 79% of consumers feel brand information often misses the mark, use your persona research to create content that directly addresses their challenges and needs.

Your strategy should remain flexible, adapting to audience feedback and performance metrics. Tools like pop-up surveys and exit interviews can provide ongoing insights into how well your content connects with your audience.

With a clear understanding of your audience, you're ready to refine your SEO keyword strategy in the next step.

Step 3: Research and Apply SEO Keywords

After understanding your audience, the next step is identifying the right SEO keywords to improve your search rankings. This step sets the foundation for effective content planning.

Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools help you understand search behaviour and spot content opportunities. According to Google, content that includes the same keywords as user queries signals relevance.

Here’s how to make the most of keyword research:

When choosing keywords, balance search volume with competition. While 20% of searches focus on broad "fat head" terms, most users search for specific, long-tail phrases.

"If you're not checking key phrase difficulty, you're not doing key phrase research. You simply don't have a chance of ranking for phrases that are way outside your website's authority".

Organise Keywords into Groups

Grouping keywords into related clusters helps establish authority on a topic and avoids keyword cannibalisation - when multiple pages compete for the same terms.

Key factors to consider when grouping keywords:

Other useful strategies include:

• Looking at semantic relationships between terms

• Analysing search trends with tools like Google Trends

• Tracking keyword performance over time

"Creating content focused on the right keywords can mean the difference between driving traffic and new customers - and getting ignored".

Step 4: Make and Share Quality Content

After setting your goals and identifying your audience, the next step is creating and distributing top-notch content that delivers results.

Plan Your Content Calendar

A well-organised content calendar ensures consistency and helps you align your content with business goals. Studies show that documented calendars significantly improve content marketing outcomes.

Your content calendar should include the following elements:

Incorporate key industry events, seasonal trends, and business milestones into your calendar. For example, retailers might highlight Black Friday or Boxing Day.

"A content calendar helps you plan, organise, and track your content efforts so that you can deliver the right content to your customers at the right time".

After setting up your calendar, maximise the impact of your efforts by repurposing content into various formats.

Turn One Piece into Many

Repurposing content allows you to reach a broader audience with minimal extra effort. For example, Spotify used its Email Verification API to cut its bounce rate from 12.3% to 2.1% in just two months, boosting deliverability by 34% and generating around £1.84 million in revenue.

Here’s how you can repurpose content effectively:

"The two biggest mistakes are assuming you need to repurpose content into dozens of formats and then share it on every platform possible. Both of these mistakes will hold you back. The best thing you can do is create a repurposing plan that you will stick to. Even if that means creating only two types of content and distributing on a few key channels. Executing fewer things consistently will drive way more growth than if you try to do all the things at once and get burned out."

Focus on creating in-depth content that can be adapted for different platforms. Use analytics tools to track engagement and find out which formats work best for your audience.

"I start thinking about repurposing opportunities from the moment I'm reviewing a content brief. It's a strategic part of content creation, with an eye on lifecycle and future engagement"

• Chima Mmeje, Senior Content Marketing Manager, Moz

Once your repurposed content strategy is in place, you’ll be ready to measure and refine your results.

Step 5: Track and Improve Results

Once you have quality content published, the next step is to measure its performance and make improvements based on the data.

Tracking how your content performs helps you fine-tune your strategy to better meet your business objectives. By relying on data, you can make informed adjustments that lead to better results.

Monitor Content Performance

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides essential metrics to assess how your content is performing. To access this data, go to Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens in GA4. Here, you’ll find detailed insights for each piece of content.

Some key metrics to focus on include:

Consider setting up a performance dashboard in GA4 to track these metrics more efficiently. For example, GA4’s "engaged sessions" metric provides deeper insights by tracking sessions that last over 10 seconds, include a conversion event, or have at least two pageviews.

Use this data to identify underperforming content and make adjustments as needed.

Update Content Using Data

When you spot content that isn’t meeting your goals, update it promptly. Research indicates that updating older content has helped 42% of marketers improve their content marketing efforts.

Here’s how you can refresh your content to improve its performance:

For instance, Sprout Social keeps its content relevant by updating its platform-specific statistics articles every year.

To stay ahead, conduct regular audits using tools like Google Search Console. This will help you track keyword rankings and uncover areas for improvement. Since long-tail keywords account for 70% of all traffic, try to include them naturally in your updates.

Lastly, calculate your content’s return on investment (ROI) using this formula:
ROI = ((Return - Total Content Investment) / Total Content Investment) × 100.

This approach ensures that your content remains effective and aligned with your business goals.

Conclusion: 5 Steps to Better Content

Building a strong content strategy doesn't have to be overwhelming. By following these five steps, you can create a solid framework for success in your content marketing efforts.

Research reveals that more than 40% of organisations plan to increase their content marketing budgets by over 10% this year. These statistics highlight the growing recognition of the importance of a well-structured content strategy.

This approach works across different industries and businesses of all sizes. It ensures consistent delivery of content that connects with your audience.

Here’s why these five steps work so well:

These metrics highlight why this strategy resonates with audiences and achieves results. Experts agree:

"A good content strategy considers a KPI, and then works towards reaching it. It is a roadmap that plans out the exact steps that if followed, help you to reach that goal."
– Outbrain

The evidence backs it up. For instance, CNN Brasil saw a 91% rise in total pageviews, surpassing 1 billion views, along with a 19% improvement in their top 10 Google keyword rankings.

Content marketing thrives on a cycle of creating, measuring, and refining. It’s a core part of modern marketing that drives measurable outcomes.

FAQs

How can I make sure my content goals support my overall business objectives?

To ensure your content goals align with your broader business objectives, start by defining clear and measurable goals that directly support your organisation's priorities, such as increasing revenue or improving customer retention. Understand your audience's needs and tailor your content to address their challenges while reflecting your brand's value.

Conduct a content audit to identify gaps and opportunities, then create a content calendar to plan and organise your efforts effectively. Regularly track performance using tools like Google Analytics to measure success and refine your strategy as needed. Consistency and adaptability are key to ensuring your content drives meaningful results.

What are the best ways to create detailed audience personas?

To create detailed audience personas, start by gathering insights from your sales and customer support teams, as they often have direct knowledge of customer needs and behaviours. Conduct interviews or surveys with existing customers to understand their preferences, challenges, and goals.

You can also analyse performance data from tools like Google Analytics to identify audience demographics and behaviour patterns. Reviewing online feedback, such as customer reviews or social media comments, can provide further valuable insights. Combining these methods will help you build accurate and actionable personas tailored to your audience.

How often should I update my content to keep it relevant and effective?

There’s no fixed rule for how often you should update your content, but regular reviews are essential to maintain relevance and effectiveness. A good practice is to audit your content every three months to identify pieces that may need refreshing. Focus on updating outdated information, improving SEO elements, and aligning with current audience needs.

If you notice a decline in search rankings or engagement, it’s a clear sign that an update is needed. Staying proactive with content updates ensures your strategy continues to deliver results and keeps your audience engaged.