First, a word about the word content. Content is actually an English term. The general definition: the ideas represented through a medium. This medium can be a text, but also speech or something else created, such as photography, video or a graphic.
A content strategy is a developed plan that outlines your content marketing goals and helps you identify the stories and ideas that will help you achieve those goals.
Why is a content strategy necessary?
That's pretty simple. Without a content strategy, you are basically shooting hail in the dark, creating loose, fragmented content that is not as effective as it could be, and working with hunches rather than solid data. At the end of the campaign, quarterly and annual cycles, you can't evaluate success, all because you didn't have a strategy in the beginning.
How do you build a content strategy?
So now you know what a content strategy is and why it is needed. But then, of course, comes the question: how do you build a content strategy? This process takes time, focus and energy, but don't let this deter you! Granted, it is quite an effort, but the reward that follows is well worth it. The content strategy process can be divided into three phases: Discovery, Planning and Creation. The result: no blanks, but engaging storytelling.
Phase 1: Discover
Before you start planning for the future, hit the pause button, take a step back and revisit what you are currently doing and why.
Step 1: Business objectives
Look at the business goals to make sure you develop a content strategy that will also help you achieve them.
When a content strategy does not work, it is usually because it is not aligned with a company's larger goals. So step one is going back to basics: think about your Why, What and your How, how you compete with others and what you are trying to achieve. It's always good to revisit this information with fresh eyes.
Step 2: Current content ecosystem
Identify what your content ecosystem currently looks like, what is missing and how to improve it.
A good content strategy is comprehensive, coherent and deliberate. That means each piece of content is created for a specific reason and linked to a specific purpose.
Step 3: Review your software
Take a snapshot of the software and resources you use now. Do you have enough here? Or is there unnecessary software among them?
Implementing your content marketing can be complex and requires knowledge of software and tools. This software can be very useful for measuring results or to measure interactions with your target audiences, for example. For several reasons, it's important to take stock again (and possibly revitalize) the software you've always used for this purpose before implementing a new strategy.
Phase 2: Planning
In this phase, you describe the who, what, when and how of the content strategy. This ensures that you are well prepared when you start implementing the content strategy. This work will not only make your content more successful, but it will also make it easier to collaborate with content creators outside your organization.
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Step 4: Set objectives
The entire content strategy is there to help achieve your goals. Of course, it should clearly articulate what those goals are. This is to ensure that everyone on your team understands them as well. This is especially important because every decision your team makes about content, from copywriting to design to distribution, is influenced by these goals. Last but not least, are the goals easily measurable?
Step 5: Personas
Understand who your audience is, what they are interested in and how you can meet their needs. By identifying the demographic/ psychographic characteristics of your audience and transforming them into unique personas, you can better understand the unique needs of each group and come up with content ideas that will really resonate with them.
Read more about personas in the blog: Personas bring your customer to life.
Step 6: Customer journey
Customer journey literally means customer journey. A customer journey is a strategic model and is used to visually represent each customer experience with your business.
With a content strategy, you want to convey the right message, in the right place, at the right time, so that you can direct customers at the point in their customer journey. So it's important to map out the customer journey from start to finish.
Step 7: Measurement approach
A content strategy is worthless without a way to measure success. The better you measure, the more you can test, adjust and tweak the approach. So it's crucial to know your success metrics for each stage of the customer journey.
Step 8: Determine the right channel mix
The content strategy can only work if it reaches the right people. There are many channels through which you can reach your target audience. Consider social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok. With so many options, it's hard to know what will help make the most impact. There is a lot involved in the decisions here, which is why it is so important to have very clear goals.
Step 9: Determine content
Now that you know what you're trying to do, who you're trying to reach and how you're going to reach them, it's time to bring your strategy to life. However, before you plan what exact content you will create, identify the key goals, milestones and events needed to create content. This helps to plan ahead, anticipate needs, allocate resources and work more effectively.
Step 10: Divide the workflow
If you work with a big budget, you might have a department full of people who can help you execute your content strategy. If you work for a startup, you might work with a few freelancers. The good news is that the size of your team doesn't matter.
Creating good content only requires a team that is aligned, organized and focused on the same goal. Everyone needs to understand the workflow and know who is responsible for what. As long as everyone fulfills the right content marketing role, you'll be surprised how much you can get done with a little coordination.
Step 11: Know your tools
Content marketing takes work, but it can be a lot easier if you have the right tools. If you've done some thorough discovery, you probably already have an idea of which tools you want to ditch or experiment with. Keep in mind that different types of content may require different types of tools.
Phase 3: Creation
At this point in the process, you should have a clear picture of your goals and schedule. Now it's time to bring the strategy to life.
Step 12: Brainstorm about campaigns
During this step, you'll create campaigns that are aligned with the content plan you've established so far. While you may prefer one type of content category over another (e.g., educational content versus entertaining content), it's good to stay open minded. Brainstorm about campaigns and discover new content.
Step 13: Content calendar
Consistency in publishing is one of the keys to a successful content strategy. So it's important to keep your team on track with an organized content calendar.
The editorial calendar is a detailed view of content. Whether you publish daily, weekly or monthly, using a calendar ensures that deadlines can be met within the appropriate time frame.
Deploying a content strategy
With this information you can start working on your content strategy! With such a thorough approach, anchored in a good planning and the focus on the long term, you can be sure that you will get interaction with your target groups and you can learn from your mistakes in the meantime.
If you don't have the resources, patience or energy to take on content strategy yourself, we'd love to talk about how we can help you dig deeper, discover your most interesting stories and turn them into a smart content strategy that works.
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