A Content Marketing Model: Are you a Content Starter, a Content Marketer or a Content Master?

Your content marketing level will reflect your business level

As you learn how to effectively apply the strategy of content marketing to grow your business, you will progress through three stages of development with your content: Content Starter, Content Marketer and, eventually, Content Master.

These stages directly relate to where you're at in your business. For example, if you're a Content Starter, you're likely either brand new in your business or you're brand new to online marketing. 

If you're a Content Marketer, you're getting established online and building your following. You're crystal clear about what you do in your business and who you do it for.

If you're a Content Master, you have a high level of visibility online. In your business, you're transitioning into a true leadership role, where your systems and teams leave you free to develop new ideas and to deliver high-end services.

(Check out these similar three-stage models of business growth recently published by my colleagues Tina Forsyth and Alexis Neely.)

How much content are you generating every month?

If you're a Content Starter and brand new to content marketing, you're creating just about one new piece per month, likely a newsletter article. You're building an archive of core pieces as you learn more about the needs of your current and ideal clients.

If you're a Content Marketer, you've bumped up to 2-5 posts in a month, and it's likely that you've got a blog as well as a newsletter. Hopefully you're also posting your articles in other places.

You're more confident about your writing now, whether you're doing it yourself or you're getting ghostwriting or editing support. That's freeing up your creativity to put out more original and innovative thought pieces.

And with stronger networks and more time online, you're probably adding more connective pieces into the mix as well. Meanwhile, you're still providing lots of value to both your new readers and your regular readers with core pieces, and packaging them together for sale. 

As you move into content mastery, you're generating content at the rate of 6-10 pieces per month (or more), a rich combination of the three different types of content. You're posting consistently to your own blog as well as maybe writing some guest posts.

Your content is sharply targeted to provide stellar value to your readers and to engage with them at all levels of your product and service funnel. Your content packages are larger, serving as "flagship products" that reinforce your brand, expertise and value. And you can easily see the next flagship just up ahead.

No matter where you are right now in your business, how confident you feel about your writing and what you have to say, there is a place for you in this content marketing model. Even better, there is always a place for you to grow next.

Stay tuned for a series of blog posts where I will explain what you need to have in place before you get to each stage of this content marketing model, and the specific strategies you'll be working on as you climb the path to content mastery.