Content marketing is a hot topic in the marketing world today. Really, it’s something that many companies have been doing for some time now. But now it has a name. Now it has an industry. And now everyone is getting involved.

Bonus: For some great info about content, pick up a copy of Branding for Bloggers!

But getting started in the content marketing space is not as easy as just writing something. Step 1 is putting a plan together. And your plan should cover what I consider the 3 Stages of Content Marketing.

Stage One – Creation

Developing the right content is key. What you’re looking for is content that is going to be easily promotable, that has relevance to your company and your market, that demonstrates a level of expertise, and that has the potential to get shared. Content marketing companies will use the term “link bait” to describe a piece of content meant to go viral.

Content can be articles, blog posts, how-to’s, lists, videos, or graphics. You can pay for it or create it yourself.

Stage Two – Promotion

Once you create the content, you need to get it noticed. Here is where you need to think about everything from where the content will live, ie. YouTube, your own site, a microsite you develop, a blog, Facebook, etc.

And you will need to develop channels to push more people to it. This might mean developing an email list, promoting the link in social media, contacting other publishers in your space to let them know they can repost your content, etc.

Make it easy for people to repost, share, and like it, maybe even incentivize them to do so by offering giveaways or membership.

Stage Three – Capture

The last stage is the one that most often gets overlooked. What is the goal of your content? Is it signups, members, customers? Placing great content on your site and driving people to it is great, but where they go or what they do from there is most important.

You need to develop a clear and easy call to action that will steer your new visitors down the sales funnel. Excelling in this stage will mean the difference between success and failure in the content marketing world.