By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team

The attraction of playing poker is the risk-reward paradigm. What separates a good poker player from a successful one is the skill employed in playing the hands. Effective content, whether it is for your social media activities or for your website, is based on how well you craft and communicate your message. In online marketing, you want to stack the deck in your favor. That’s why you need a coherent content strategy to amass more chips, or in web terminology — more desirable actions, conversations and conversions.

Poker Hand

The following strategy outlined below includes five phases: Discovery, Relationship Building, Content Creation, Execution and Assessment

1. Discovery: I liken this to the “homework” phase. First you need to identify the goals you are trying to achieve — whether it’s increased brand awareness or customer engagement. Then you must classify all your target groups and segment them as primary, secondary and so forth. Next you have to “listen” to these market segments – what are they saying on the social web; what are their concerns and needs. Finally, you need to determine what type of content can be leveraged for the conversation to begin to craft your message.

2. Relationship Building: Being aware of what resonates with customers is a marketing step forward. Good content writing involves making a connection with your audience. It’s about building trust and developing relationships. When communicating through the social media, engagement is critical and you must be active with your networks. Get known, offer useful suggestions and nurture the relationships.

3. Content Creation: Once you have identified your plan of action, the next step is to determine how you are going to craft your message to make the most impact. Developing good content is going to help you connect with your audience and strengthen your relationships. If your users find your content informative and relevant, they will be more likely to engage and be interested in maintaining communication. In the social media arena, do not constantly promote your products and services. You will come across as to aggressive and self-interest oriented. Focus on the users and what they are saying or needing. If they want to know more, they will ask.

4. Execution: This is the implementation phase. Rolling out your content should be in alignment with your strategic development previously mentioned. A user’s consumption of your content will depend upon relevance and the user-experience. Multiple posts on various social mediums and tweets should be monitored for quality assurance. Too often people post in haste with wrong or unedited content marketing its way on the Net.

5. Assessment: To understand how your content is performing you need to monitor it by listening to your users and their comments and how they are using your content. Be flexible and open-minded. If some of your content is better received analyze why. The reverse is true with negative response to your content. The ability to work in a fluid environment and make adjustments be the fine line between success and disappointment. Update your content based upon user trends, along with industry and technology trends. If you find the marketplace softer in one area, heavy up there. Don’t spend valuable resources for little return. You can’t be all things to everyone or be in all places and do them well.

The Final Analysis

Whether you are marketing social media content be a good poker player by implementing these 5 basic content creation phases and up the ante. Your content strategy can result in developing a long lasting relationship with your audience. Content is conversation. Your job is to convert it into a two-way exchange.

Grow Your Business Online: These tips are meant to be used as a guideline to improve traffic to your site, increase your conversion rates, help turn visitors into buyers, and keep you ahead of the competition. Turning to a web marketer can ultimately save you time and money and increase your success online. The Web Success Team has many proven marketing strategies and techniques. The Team would be happy to discuss your web marketing needs with a complimentary consultation and web marketing assessment of your current site. Simply mention this article when contacting bob@websuccessteam.com or call 818-222-5643 for an appointment. Please visit our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter for more information. To your web success!