We’ve spent the last several days talking about the factors that can affect your success with content marketing. Today we’re going to put together a simple content marketing plan to give you a starting point for designing your own plans in the future.

This might be a different content marketing approach than you’ve seen in the past. Rather than churning out a bunch of media and randomly submitting it all over the place, try this simple 7-step system that strategically places your content where it will have the most impact.

Ready? Here it is…

1. Select a product

Distributing content is a wonderful thing…if you remain focused on helping the people in your market find the right solution to their current situation.

You are in business. That means you exchange value for money, yes? Your business won’t survive if you don’t sell something!

Before you put the pen to paper (or fingers to keys), decide what it is you’re promoting. Determine up front exactly what you want your prospects to do after they read your content. Do you want them to try an entry-level item from your product line? Will they get the biggest benefit from starting with a bigger package? Even if you want to focus 100% on sharing your opportunity, product sales are crucial to your success.

So decide on a product (or package), and then create your content around that topic.

2. Write articles

Rather than writing a single article about a given topic, create content using the 7 tips formula. This is something that I learned years ago from one of my mentors, and it works like gangbusters.

You need to create a helpful 7 tips article, which might include:

• 7 tips to solve a problem
• 7 frequently asked questions
• 7 problems faced by someone in your situation
• 7 tools you can use
• 7 pitfalls to watch out for
• etc.

Once that article is complete, expand on each of those tips in a new article. When you’re finished, you’ll have 8 high-quality articles that will help your audience gain a better understanding of the problem they’re facing and what it will take to solve that problem.

3. Record audio

At this point, you need to set aside the first article – the 7 tips article – and start repurposing the 7 articles you created from each of the tips.

This is really complicated (NOT!).

Grab your microphone and record yourself reading each article. Read in a natural voice, try to sound like you’re talking to your audience rather than reading to them.

That’s it.

If you don’t have an audio recording tool you like to use, Audacity is a fantastic FREE professional-grade audio editor and is highly recommended.

4. Create Slide Shows

Use presentation software such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint ( get it on Amazon for a great price!) or OpenOffice Impress (which you can download for free) to create a slide show for each of the 7 articles you created.

Create a slide for each topic in the article. You can simply copy the text from your article and paste it onto the slide, or you can jazz it up a little by adding relevant images. Use a simple color scheme that reflects your brand throughout the whole slide show.

Also create a cover slide and a call to action slide. For congruence, make a template for your cover and call to action slides, then just change the title and call to action for each slide show.

And you’re done!

5. Create Videos

If you use PowerPoint, you can create the video without any additional software. Insert your audio on the first slide and set it to play automatically and across all slides. Use the Slide Show tab to record the timings, and just click through your slides as the audio plays. Run the slide show with the recorded timings to make sure each slide advances when it should. Then just export the file as a video using the recorded timings.

If you don’t have PowerPoint, there are two highly-recommended options for creating your videos.

First, use screen recording software like Camtasia Studio (get it on Amazon) to record yourself delivering the presentation. To get the best quality video, play your audio recording of the article, and record only the screen as you click through the slide show presentation in time with the audio. Then add your audio file to the project and sync up the timing. Play the video to make sure the audio and visuals are lined up correctly, and render your video.

Camtasia is great because it allows you to create AND edit your screen capture videos. If Camtasia is out of reach for you right now, there are free tools available. You will need one tool to capture your screen and another tool to edit your video and combine it with your audio. Here are two GREAT tools that work very well together for screen capture videos: Camstudio to record and Shotcut to edit.

6. Schedule Content

Set up each of the 7 videos to be published on YouTube at o-dark thirty on sequential days. You’ll need to upload them as private and then set the schedule for when you want them to go live. In the description, be sure you set up a link to your website, including the http!

Set up each of the 7 articles to be published on your blog at o-dark thirty on the same day as their corresponding video will be published. Consider embedding the video version of the article in the blog post to give your audience another option for consuming your content. Be sure your blog is set up to automatically syndicate your blog posts on all of your social media properties. The best tool for this is Social Networks Auto Poster.

Set up each of your slideshows to be public on Slideshare at o-dark thirty on the same day as their corresponding article and video will be published. Just like with your YouTube videos, you’ll need to upload them as private and then set the schedule for when you want them to go public.

7. Expand Your Reach

Finally, after the 7th article/video/slideshare group has gone live, it’s time to publish the big daddy.

Publish your main article – the original 7 tips article – on Hubpages. After each tip, embed the video you recorded for that tip. Include 1-3 links to helpful Hubpages Hubs that will enhance your reader’s experience. Also include some interactive elements like polls to increase the reader’s level of engagement.

Use your audio editing program to combine your audio recordings into a single stream. At the beginning of the timeline, record an introduction to the series (you can use words from your original 7 tips article for the content). Listen to the audio and edit as needed so that transitions are smooth and there is one main call to action at the end. Publish your final product on a popular Podcast site like SoundCloud.

Following this strategy is incredibly effective for driving traffic and building relationships.

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