When it comes to your content strategy, it’s great to have fun with creativity — but you also need to know how to take it forward. Without a plan, it’s just a daydream.
And hopes and dreams don’t pay the bills.
It all boils down to how you document your processes to simplify implementation and optimisation. A solid content strategy needs a coherent plan with a roadmap outlining what’s needed for implementation.
We’ll look at the key steps needed for your content marketing to hit the mark with your target audience — from coming up with ideas to creating content, getting it out there, optimising it, and measuring success.
Getting off on the right foot
Creating a successful content strategy involves lots of moving parts, but it all starts with figuring out what kind of content will resonate with your audience.
To begin, gather a group of colleagues or online buddies and brainstorm topic ideas based on your brand’s goals and values, what your target audiences are interested in, and how you can deliver value to them. From there, you can work out the content formats that best get your message and style across, like blog posts, social media content, videos, podcasts, and so on.
Remember, your content strategy isn’t just about creating interesting content — it’s also about how you distribute that content through channels where your audiences are. This may involve trying out new content marketing tactics or revising those that aren’t working as well as they should.
Once you’ve got a strong understanding of your content plan, it’s easier to outsource your content writing. That makes it easier to keep the quality high at all stages of the plan.
Staying on track
To keep your team on track, putting together a content calendar with realistic deadlines is a must.
A content calendar helps you map out your content in advance, and stay organised and accountable for deadlines. It also allows you to plan out your resources and budget, especially if you’re outsourcing parts of your content writing to a team of freelance writers.
Once you’ve mapped out your content, it’s time to review it. A content audit is an in-depth review of your existing content. It’s a great way to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where your content gaps are. For example, you might find that most of your content focuses on one topic, and would benefit from some variety.
Optimising your content
This involves making sure your content is search engine optimised (SEO) and shareable on social media platforms. Find the right keywords to target in your content — that’s one of the most important steps in SEO, and it’s essential to the success of your content.
You can also repurpose your content in different formats to reach a wider audience. For example, turning a blog post into a video or podcast episode.
Measuring and adjusting your content strategy
Use analytics tools to track metrics like website traffic, engagement rates, and conversion rates to understand what’s working (or not) with your content. This data will help you make informed decisions about how to adjust your strategy for better results.
As we all know, content strategy is an ever-changing process, and sometimes the plan you create doesn’t end up yielding the results you want. And that’s okay! You just have to be willing to pivot and adjust as needed to get the best possible outcomes.
That might mean adjusting your target audience, refining your messaging, or even changing up the types of content you’re creating. And, of course, you can always enlist the help of a specialist writing service if you need to outsource some of your writing tasks to stay on top of everything.
Over to you
Crafting a successful content strategy is an ongoing process that requires some planning, creativity, and the ability to be flexible. It all starts with figuring out who your audience is and making content they’ll find valuable.
With the right tools and resources, you can design a winning strategy that captivates your audience and delivers results.
