Very useful 10 steps:

Goals - You can’t score if you don’t have a goal. Numerous business problems can be solved in part, through content marketing (besides increasing sales). This includes everything from recruiting to public relations to customer service.
Buyer Personas - What characterizes the customers you’re trying to reach? Who are you trying to engage? Empathize with customer needs and think about how to meet them while meeting your own as the brand.
Keywords - What search and social media keywords best represent demand for your products and services?
Content & Assets – Inventory the content and digital assets you currently have available for keyword optimization and social promotion. Map keywords to content so there’s accountability for keyword performance of content in search.
Editorial Plan – Your brand is now a publisher and that means an editorial calendar for content creation, optimization, promotion and measurement. If you understand how newsrooms work, you have an advantage here.
Operationalize SEO - Whoever is responsible or capable of content creation for the brand should have keyword glossaries available as well as SEO training on how to use them. SEO should be part of the content creation and publishing process.
Develop Off-Site Content - You’ve likely seen the hub and spoke publishing model we promote. Create content off of your web site to extend your reach and engage customers where they are.
Socialize - Connect with others and grow the social networks that will extend your reach and ability to engage.
Promote - Make it part of the editorial plan and content marketing process to promote content on the social networks and off site content destinations that you’ve created.
Measure & Refine - Identify the key performance indicators that represent progress in engagement and reach. Track what’s working and what’s not, testing and making iterative improvements.