How can you beat your competition with better content?

1 Analyze your competitors' content

In order to create content that stands out from the competition, the first step is to conduct an audit and analysis of their websites, blogs, social media, and other channels. You can use tools such as SEMrush, BuzzSumo, or Ahrefs to do this. When looking at your competitors' content, you should consider what topics and keywords they are covering, what formats and styles they are using, how frequently they are publishing, how engaging and authoritative their content is, and what gaps and opportunities there are in their content. By analyzing your competitors' content in this way, you can identify their strengths and weaknesses and find ways to differentiate yourself and create value for your audience.

3 Create your content plan and calendar

The third step in your content marketing strategy is to create a content plan and calendar. You'll need to consider your audience personas, the topics and keywords you want to target, the formats and styles you'll use, the channels and platforms you want to use, and the frequency and schedule of your content. Tools like Trello, Asana, or CoSchedule can help you organize your content ideas, tasks, deadlines, and resources. Additionally, Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, or Quora can help you discover relevant and trending topics for your content. Creating a content plan and calendar will not only streamline your content creation process but also ensure consistency and quality across all of your content.

4 Produce and distribute your content

The fourth step is to produce and distribute your content, which should be valuable, unique, optimized, and engaging for your audience. You can use tools like Grammarly, Hemingway, Yoast, Canva, Unsplash, or Lumen5 to create content that is both appealing and optimized for your goals. Additionally, tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Mailchimp can help you automate and schedule your content distribution across various channels and platforms. By producing and distributing your content strategically, you can deliver value to your audience and achieve your goals.

5 Monitor and evaluate your content

The final step is to monitor and evaluate your content. You need to measure how your content is performing against your goals and metrics, and how your audience is responding to it. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or HubSpot to collect and analyze data on your content performance and impact. You can also use tools like SurveyMonkey, Hotjar, or UserTesting to gather feedback and insights from your audience.

By monitoring and evaluating your content, you can identify what is working and what is not, and make adjustments and improvements to your content strategy.

By following these steps, you can beat your competition with better content that attracts, engages, and converts your audience. Content strategy is not a one-time project, but a continuous process that requires research, planning, execution, and optimization. If you want to learn more about content strategy and how to create better content, check out our online course on Content Strategy Essentials.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?