What Is a Content Strategy?
A content strategy provides a holistic view of how content will impact every aspect of a business. Content Marketing Institute blog describes it as “The process that helps you get the right content in front of the right people, at the right times, for the right reasons.” Within a content marketing strategy, all content must serve a purpose. It’s the master plan showing how you will use content to achieve your company’s business goals. Content marketing centres around the process of planning, developing, and managing content.
Read on: Social Media Marketing: A Copywriting Guide
Understanding the Difference Between Content Strategy and Marketing?
As discussed, prior, content strategy is what goes behind creating great content. Content marketing is how you then distribute this content – it’s the tactics you’ll use. These two concepts go hand-in-hand to help you achieve your marketing goals. Think of content strategy as your roadmap pinpointing your dream destination and content marketing as your vehicle to get there.
Source: Content Strategy Course
What Are the Benefits of a Content Strategy?
Creating content with no clear strategy is not a viable way of reaching your business goals. Having a clear and documented strategy is the optimum way to achieve your ambitions and arrive at your desired destination. Here are some other reasons why you should consider content marketing:
- Content can increase your organic search traffic and drive traffic to your social channels.
- Content can be used to guide potential customers down the sales funnel, increasing their likelihood of purchase.
- Content can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
How to Create a Successful Content Strategy
The basics of a content marketing strategy can be established by answering the 5 W’s and the H.
WHY are you creating the content?
You must establish what the purpose of the content is and what you’re trying to achieve with it. It is easier to create content when you understand the goal of that content. For example, you may write a social media post to establish your authority on a topic or to drive clicks to your website – either way, you’ll edit the content to achieve that goal.
WHO are you targeting?
Unpack who your target audience is. This is an essential step because understanding who you’re creating content for will allow you to tailor the content to them. Whether that’s changing your tone, simplifying the content, or using images, having a picture of who you’re addressing will help you deliver authentic and relevant content that drives results.
WHAT content will resonate with them most?
Once you understand who the target audience is you can establish what kind of content needs to be created. As touched on in the above point, you can create content that resonates with your target audience. Moreover, you will create content that aligns with your ‘Why’.
WHERE will the content go?
Decide on which platforms you think will best suit your audience and your ‘why’. This process requires some research into which type of content performs best on each platform and what audiences use that platform for. For example, LinkedIn is mainly used for B2B and networking purposes so posting content that appeals to this is a best practice.
WHEN will you create the content?
How much time will be needed for the rollout of the strategy? This is where your content calendar comes into play. A content calendar is a document that includes the dates and content you plan to promote. By doing this you will have a visual indication of how to distribute your content as well as how much time it will take to create.
HOW will you measure your success?
The ability to measure your goals is crucial when it comes to content strategy. Knowing what performs well and what doesn’t will inform your strategy going forward and help you make the changes needed to ensure the best possible outcomes. In this step, you will decide what key performance indicators are relevant and what tools you are going to use to measure them.
Source: allyouneediscontent
Best Practices
Now that we’ve touched on the basics of creating a content strategy let’s examine some top tips and best practices.
Keep It Consistent
They don’t say “consistency is key” for no reason. No matter what type of content you’re publishing or which platforms you’re working on, your strategy should make sure you’re posting often enough to achieve your goals.
Related reading: Top 5 Marketing Metrics Your Brand Should Be Measuring
Keep It Flexible
Although your content strategy will determine your content calendar and therefore what content you’re going to be publishing, it’s important to stay flexible. Being able to change things up in accordance with what’s working and what’s not, will give you a competitive edge. Additionally, oversights can occur in your strategy such as forgetting an important occasion etc.
Keep It Outstanding
Create content that is optimised with platform and industry best practices in mind. This will give you the best possible likelihood of successful outcomes. It’s important to keep track of marketing trends and to keep adapting and updating content in line with them.
Further reading: Digital Marketing: Everything You Need to Know
In Summary
Purpose-driven content can only result from a great content strategy. We trust that this blog has given you the insight needed to create a well-thought-out content strategy that will help set your company in the right direction.