What is content strategy?
I’m going to bet that 20 years ago, you’d never have used the word ‘content’ when talking about marketing your business. It’s not that content marketing never happened (actually, if you look at this infographic from the Content Marketing Institute, you’ll see that it’s been around for hundreds of years), it’s just that we didn’t use the term.
The Content Marketing Institute was founded in 2010, so it makes sense that the word really began slipping into our every day language over the last few years. It’s now normal to see phrases like “content is the way to grow your business” or articles about content planning.
But what on earth IS content!
What is content?
In simple terms, content is the stuff you post on your website or social media accounts to share ideas and talk about the stories related to your business and brand.
You may hear it called marketing content or digital content and it can include a whole host of things from photos and graphics, through to videos, podcasts, blogs and websites. Which kinda makes it difficult for businesses who may struggle to know what out of the myriad of possibilities they should be creating and sharing with their audience.
If that sounds like you, a good starting point is your content strategy.
Creating a content strategy for your business
Content strategy is a way of taking your business objectives and goals and then translating them into a plan which uses ‘content’ as a way to achieve them. So the starting point is your business goals, followed by knowing how you want your content to work for you.
I’m all about taking the jargon out of things, so let’s get practical! Ask yourself questions such as:
What do I want to achieve?
Is it sharing your skills, positioning yourself as an expert, increasing your audience, putting the word out about new products or services? Whatever the answer, you can tailor your strategy to achieve that goal. It’s also important to know in advance how you’ll measure the results.
Who am I talking to?
You need to know about your target audience so that you can tailor what you post and where. For example, if your customers tend to be in the older age range, you may want to post on Facebook instead of Tik Tok or SnapChat.
How can I share my brand?
A good strategy for sharing your content is to keep it relevant, engaging, authentic and likeable (REAL). By looking at your target audience demographics, you can ensure your posting content which resonates with their interests and also reflects your brand in the way you want to be seen.
Where am I now?
By doing an audit on your existing content, you can identify what sort of things you’re currently producing and see where the gaps are. Along with your goals and audience demographics, it can give you a real helping hand into sourcing new content ideas.
What are my skills?
Some people are great at creating videos, others love to communicate via infographics and then there are those of us who love to use the written word. If you’re particularly skilled in one format, you’ll naturally lean to communicating in that way. And if your target audience crave things in a way which is not suited for you, look at bringing in an expert [hint: content writing is my area of expertise #justsaying].
So now you’ve got your strategy, read on to learn more about creating your actual content.
Practical steps to take when creating content
When it comes to creating your new content, it can be really tempting to just wade in and start posting blogs or going wild on social media. But if you’re going for a strategic approach, it’s really worth considering the following points:
Understand why someone searches online (search intent). Search engine specialists will talk about informational, navigational, transactional and commercial intent. Knowing this can help you answer people’s questions and lead them to your website.
Help people find what they’re looking for. So by solving a problem, you’re adding value and letting Google know that you’re the go-to website.
Make sure your content works on mobiles and social media. More and more people are consuming content on their mobile phones and, if you think about it, they’re likely to be standing in a supermarket queue or waiting for a train, so quick, snappy, engaging content will suit them better.
Research the words people use when looking online (keywords). This comes back to knowing your audience needs and search intent. Once you understand this, you can tailor keywords to help them find your website.
Refresh your old content. Older blog posts can really help with your findability, especially if you include updated statistics and new links or information. It’s also a great strategy to use when you’re struggling to come up with something new!
Link to other content on your website. Internal links can help with your website traffic. It also helps your readers navigate around your website more easily.
Write high quality content. Yep, I was always going to include this in the list! Your audience want content which is easy to read and well structured. They’ll also be looking for something which is thoughtful, entertains, answers questions, solves problems or offers value. Even better if you make it shareable!
There are lots more strategies which help when creating content, such as titles, meta descriptions and alt-tags but in the interests of keeping the scary techie jargon out of this blog post, I’ll save that for another day!
Final thoughts
Don’t get too hung up on the word content, or content marketing, or digital content. Basically, it’s all about creating something online which your target audience (hopefully your customers) want to see.
With the increasing popularity of the term ‘content’, has come a change in how writers for businesses are described. If you’re looking for someone to help with your written marketing, you’ll undoubtedly come across freelancers and agencies using the terms copywriter and content writer. It can be confusing as heck (and for the writers too) so head on over to my blog post Copywriter vs Content Writer: What's the difference? to find the answers.
Jacquie Budd is a content writer and strategist, helping businesses, charities and not for profits to connect with their customers.
Get in touch to chat about working together.