Wait, what even is a content strategy?...
In this article we have a chat with Angie Morgan, our visiting in-house content strategist about why you need to stop winging your content strategy and make your online marketing processes so much easier with a content schedule.
What is a content strategy?
Ok, we aren’t gonna beat about the bush here.
Content is the backbone of your business and brand (minus the visual brand identity).
A marriage of words and visuals, every business is going to need content in some format or other.
Problem is, consistently delivering content people are going to want to consume is incredibly challenging, not to mention time consuming.
Having a content strategy removes the guess work and helps you to monitor reach, engagement and conversions, however that may look within your business model.
So a content strategy is the consideration, intention, mapping out and predicted purpose of creating and delivering content to your people.
You research what your audience are looking for, meet these requirements and deliver, to put it simply.
They seek, you supply.
That's about it!
Well, the start...
Let’s cut to the chase, why does my business need a content strategy?
As above, having a content schedule meets your audiences requirements.
They are already looking for what you can provide via answers to questions, solutions to their problems and it saves you time by cutting out the guess work.
As opposed to winging content sporadically which will waste your time.
Yet it is so much more than that.
From industry relevant information, to frequently searched keyword phrases, your duty in your business is to raise awareness, give value and answer questions.
Forget like, know, trust.
This builds reliability when it comes to long term brand association, leading to long term brand loyalty.
Time, energy, long term profits are predictably easier to achieve when a content strategy is devised and implemented.
Can I just wing it, bootstrap and hope for the best?
To answer fairly, this does seem to in fact work for some, especially personal brands that rely on a persona to sell services and offers.
People absolutely buy people and there is plenty of space for spontaneity.
There will come a time however, for example when it comes to scale, and one person cannot physically sustain the amount of content, energy input and engagement required to drive a content strategy that converts to the masses.
Also, content that does not convert is pointless, you would be surprised the amount of content put out there with no particular purpose.
The key objective when mapping out a content strategy is to meet key expectations of consumer actions, so user experience and design also comes into play.
For example, opt ins or buying a product post consuming a piece of your content, do your target market do what you think they will do after content exposure. A test group can always give you user action insights here.
What if I only use social media to find leads, share content and close clients?
Well congratulations, good for you!
If it ain’t broke as they say… but platforms change.
Having no control or say in changes to social platforms can impact your processes.
I like to see social media activity as the short-term gains, but long term… nothing is certain, you gotta consider the long game hence build out your web content.
What about SEO (search engine optimisation)?
My favourite subject!
If you are producing content for anywhere then why on earth would you not optimise it for search engines?
I come across amazing content often, the type that could go viral and yet it is a whisper in a sea of mediocre content creation, typically blog posts.
Everyone should blog they tell us!
Or you post daily onto social media but don’t transition it onto your website and utilise a simple marketing plan, such as web to social, and drive back to web/landing page.
In fact create, optimise, then post excerpts onto social and drive back to your website to aid traffic and hits to your website (particularly if you have a large social following).
What types of content would you advise to focus on for those on a budget or time strapped?
It depends on your objectives.
To gain clients and contracts, getting quality data backed case studies up never fails.
It’s a case of show not tell.
Most of the population has a camera phone, so vlogging is a wise choice.
As much as we love professional results, consistency can beat quality, so if you are money tight but time rich, video video video, what have you got to lose?
YouTube is after all; the second most popular search engine so get uploading.
Existing content, we offer a SEO re-edit service, it just makes sense to optimise existing usable content! Most businesses have content sitting around on various platforms ready to be upgraded and put to work!
Lastly, I would say whatever works for you, I love writing, not everyone loves reading BUT if you know you will stick to it, better than force something for 3-6 months and fall off the strategy because you hated the creation process!
What content management system do you use?
Being embarrassingly old school and predominantly self-taught I still grab a piece of paper when the ideas strike and scribble away in my kids felt tip pens, I am a very visual person and designate certain colours to certain clients.
I am also a fan of the whiteboard and constantly harass the team with screenshots of my latest scribbles for them to translate and make into real world pieces of content such as infographics.
Various clients use different workflows, Asana is an obvious choice.
For my own work AND life lists, such as book lists, I use Trello.
I guess I am just a simple person, I don’t enjoy bells and whistles, but I love lists.
Numbers too, sets of 3 or making even plans, I guess that’s what makes me a decent strategist, I enjoy patterns, trains of thought, processes.
Creating content is in my blood, ever since I can remember I was a writer, I just didn’t know it.
Applying content to search engine optimisation only came recently, a lightbulb moment, but as I say… it’s a no brainer.
Have content?
Why would you not SEO it?
