When a customer comes to Fixate for their technical content marketing needs, we work from a proprietary playbook. 

Our process starts by helping you plan your content; that is, creating working titles and abstracts for specific types of content. These are then placed into a timeline for the next quarter or so. 

While every project is unique from customer to customer, the first steps follow a similar pattern. Use this worksheet to plan your marketing content:

This worksheet is a content calendar of sorts; an editorial calendar by another name.  Whether you are a Product Marketing Manager, or your role includes the responsibilities of promoting and raising visibility for your technology products, an editorial calendar should be part of your content marketing strategy.

While the worksheet is a great place to capture high-level information about your content plan, contemplate these elements beforehand:

• Content type – E.g., blog post, extended article, tutorial, white paper. (See the last page of the worksheet above for how Fixate defines the content types.)
• Target audience – Including where they are in your marketing funnel, from creating awareness to making the decision to purchase.
• Goal of the content – E.g., address a particular challenge; increase visibility of a particular product/feature; create baseline awareness or understanding
• Call To Action – Your intended CTA, if you have one.
• Complementary content – Consider your existing content and marketing initiatives. Include internal links when referencing them.
• Internal teams – E.g., Will the Product Marketing Manager or engineers be involved in reviewing and approving the technical marketing content? Involve them early on when you plan your content.
• Publication and distribution – Know where and when you expect to publish each piece of content.

Optimize Your Content

In addition to the basic elements included on the worksheet, your content marketing strategy should incorporate ways to optimize content, such as:

• Including internal links (links from your content to other owned content)
• Earning backlinks (links from outside sites and sources to your content)
• Making a percentage of content “evergreen”
• Earmarking content for repurposing (e.g., Fixate can compile your related blog posts into an eBook format)
• Inviting conversation through an engagement strategy

Manage Your Content Strategy

Managing your content strategy shouldn’t be done in isolation. Be aware of:

• upcoming product launches, 
• industry hot topics, and
• your competitors. 

All of these could impact your plan for content creation and distribution—which are the next steps in the process for reaching your target audience through digital marketing initiatives.