Content Strategy
Content strategy is where contention creation, distribution, and business goals come together.
Content strategy is complimented by content marketing, which is the more detailed plan to create, publish, and distribute any tangible media under your brand.
Think of content strategy as the overall grand scheme blueprint, whereas content marketing is the individual journey towards driving that brand success.
Think of content strategy as the overall grand scheme blueprint, whereas content marketing is the individual journey towards driving that brand success.
A well-thought-out content strategy
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Prioritizes content that attracts, engages, and intentionally converts readers into the next phase of your funnel.
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Distills your audience’s actual pain points.
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Is defensive. Your content needs to be benchmarked against your competition.
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Is competitive. It looks at the content gap and primary differentiators between your brand and its competitors.
There are several key considerations to keep in mind when developing a content strategy
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Who is your target audience? How many different audiences are you creating content for?
For instance, you’re a time-tracking SaaS product. You find your target audience is owners or managers of firms with remote workers, freelancers, or people typically looking to optimize their time. Spoiler alert: this company actually exists.
For instance, you’re a time-tracking SaaS product. You find your target audience is owners or managers of firms with remote workers, freelancers, or people typically looking to optimize their time. Spoiler alert: this company actually exists.
Who are you making content for?
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What problems are you solving for that audience?
Every article should quickly comment on some problems your target audience has, which ideally ties in well to your brand’s value proposition.
This implies studying content trends in your industry, testing hypotheses, and most importantly, talking to your ideal client and figuring out what makes them work.
Moving on with our example, we find that the better part of our target audience feels like their big daring problem is their productivity. Overall, every individual of our audience feels like to be more productive, so we write articles for hacks and tips on how to achieve this productivity, such as "How Powerlifting Made Me A More Productive Professional"
This implies studying content trends in your industry, testing hypotheses, and most importantly, talking to your ideal client and figuring out what makes them work.
Moving on with our example, we find that the better part of our target audience feels like their big daring problem is their productivity. Overall, every individual of our audience feels like to be more productive, so we write articles for hacks and tips on how to achieve this productivity, such as "How Powerlifting Made Me A More Productive Professional"
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Next, we focus on what makes us stand out.
The reality of modern entrepreneurship is that there is no such thing as an entirely unique product. Every product comes with at least a bunch of competitors, and business is going after its fair piece of pie.
Your future customers need to know why your product is different or better. Your content strategy achieves two big things here.
Firstly, it refines the audiences you want to attract. For example, your strategy can target audiences based on their price sensitivity. An article such as "8 Best Productivity Hacks Under $ 8 or Free" is probably going to attract consumers that are more price sensitive. This would be a solid article if we got a freemium or ad-based SaaS product, but not so great if we were a higher-ticket subscription-only service.
Secondly, your content can actually help you stand out. If you’re in an industry where there are a lot of close substitutes, your voice can create a significant difference. Content is an amazing tool to build rapport at scale- customers are more ready to buy something from someone they like and trust.
Content is your opportunity to build a rapport and trust machine. And content strategy is your programming.
Your future customers need to know why your product is different or better. Your content strategy achieves two big things here.
Firstly, it refines the audiences you want to attract. For example, your strategy can target audiences based on their price sensitivity. An article such as "8 Best Productivity Hacks Under $ 8 or Free" is probably going to attract consumers that are more price sensitive. This would be a solid article if we got a freemium or ad-based SaaS product, but not so great if we were a higher-ticket subscription-only service.
Secondly, your content can actually help you stand out. If you’re in an industry where there are a lot of close substitutes, your voice can create a significant difference. Content is an amazing tool to build rapport at scale- customers are more ready to buy something from someone they like and trust.
Content is your opportunity to build a rapport and trust machine. And content strategy is your programming.
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What content format will you concentrate on?
How your customers take in your content is arguably more important than the substance itself. In particular, a feel-good 30-second video and article embed of 10 cute dogs making messes once got 100x the views of an in-depth article that took our Head of Content 30 hours to write. But she’s not mad about it. Not at all. Oh, it’s fine. Let’s not bring it up.
Your content can take many different formats, ranging from infographics, blog posts, and videos. Once you find which topics you want to focus on, determine the best format for your content within the scope of your budget.
Your content can take many different formats, ranging from infographics, blog posts, and videos. Once you find which topics you want to focus on, determine the best format for your content within the scope of your budget.
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What channels will you use to propagate your content?
Content may be king, but it always bows down to its queen: distribution.
Content is basically useless when your audiences don’t have the means to find your content. Channels can include properties you own such as your social media accounts and website, as well as channels you "rent" such as sending traffic to your content via Facebook Ads.
Content is basically useless when your audiences don’t have the means to find your content. Channels can include properties you own such as your social media accounts and website, as well as channels you "rent" such as sending traffic to your content via Facebook Ads.
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How will you create the content?
Once you have most of your content strategy ready, it’s time to build out the process of creating your content.
Put together a thorough roadmap of items such as: who is responsible for creating a particular piece of content, where it’s going to be published, when it’s going to go live.
In addition, it’s good to establish an internal process of how you go about hiring (and firing) writers and editors, and how to ensure your content goes from idea to live product with as few (ideally zero) issues as possible.
Put together a thorough roadmap of items such as: who is responsible for creating a particular piece of content, where it’s going to be published, when it’s going to go live.
In addition, it’s good to establish an internal process of how you go about hiring (and firing) writers and editors, and how to ensure your content goes from idea to live product with as few (ideally zero) issues as possible.
Begin with a Clear Business Goal
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Content strategy starts as soon as you have a clear and real business purpose in mind. Most content strategy agencies aim to hone in on exactly what their clients want to achieve, and then come up with a series of strategies to get there.
If you're in doubt whether the business goal of your content strategy is clear, just figure it out: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-based.
Examples of clear SMART content objectives:
Examples of clear SMART content objectives:
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We want to enhance the organic traffic to our landing pages by 200% by March 2022.
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We want to be one of the first three results in SERPs for the terms “best LA marketing agency,” “eCommerce PPC strategy” by December 2022.
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We want to increase revenue by 50% by January 2023.
Many business owners misunderstand content because they set vague and ineffective business objectives, making it almost impossible to extract any sort of meaningful or actionable business data.
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We want 100 new articles on our blog.
← Too many business owners create content with an "if you build it, they will come" mentality. There are over 4 million blog posts published every day, and many of them will never see the light of day because they lack the content strategies to drive traffic.
← Too many business owners create content with an "if you build it, they will come" mentality. There are over 4 million blog posts published every day, and many of them will never see the light of day because they lack the content strategies to drive traffic.
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We want to write about topics in our niche for the sake of being in the conversation.
← Being "in the conversation" is only your ticket to the game. A good content strategy puts purpose behind your content, allowing it to directly drive business goals. Good content not only grabs new audiences, but it also converts them into warmer buckets of users.
← Being "in the conversation" is only your ticket to the game. A good content strategy puts purpose behind your content, allowing it to directly drive business goals. Good content not only grabs new audiences, but it also converts them into warmer buckets of users.
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We want to write to one general audience.
← A good content strategy takes into account the different steps your buyers are on during their buyer’s journey and creates a sequence of content that appeals to them at the best possible time.
← A good content strategy takes into account the different steps your buyers are on during their buyer’s journey and creates a sequence of content that appeals to them at the best possible time.
In Conclusion
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For most businesses, content is just a means to an end, or a mechanism to achieve your business goals. Content creation is what determines whether your mechanism is in pristine condition or a junk that doesn’t even start.
Try looking at content as a critical puzzle piece: it can plug into virtually any digital marketing strategy, but it’s only useful when the business goal and strategy work together. Fortunately, we’re in the digital world where almost everything is measurable with precise insights from Google Analytics, Facebook Ad Manager, Semrush and so on.
We’ll remind you again because it’s that crucial: content strategy is the intersection of contention creation, business goals and distribution. A strategy needs all three of these critical components to do well, and it must be paired with accurate measurement and ruthless iteration.
We’re always ready to talk about your brand.
Try looking at content as a critical puzzle piece: it can plug into virtually any digital marketing strategy, but it’s only useful when the business goal and strategy work together. Fortunately, we’re in the digital world where almost everything is measurable with precise insights from Google Analytics, Facebook Ad Manager, Semrush and so on.
We’ll remind you again because it’s that crucial: content strategy is the intersection of contention creation, business goals and distribution. A strategy needs all three of these critical components to do well, and it must be paired with accurate measurement and ruthless iteration.
We’re always ready to talk about your brand.
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