How can a Content Strategist help a company achieve its goals?

A Content Strategist helps a company achieve its goals by developing and implementing a targeted content plan that aligns with business objectives. They identify and understand the target audience, creating relevant and engaging content to attract and retain customers. By optimizing content for SEO, they enhance online visibility. They analyze content performance, refining strategies for improved results. Their expertise ensures consistent, effective messaging across all platforms, strengthening brand identity and driving business growth.

A content strategist drives a company's success by evaluating its current state, pinpointing gaps, and developing a customized content strategy. This includes creating a strategic blueprint, implementing rinse-and-repeat systems, and using tailored frameworks. Through detailed research and competitor analysis, the strategist clarifies the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and ideal client. The focus is on creating content that not only attracts the target audience but also resonates with them, fostering engagement and aligning with broader business objectives.

Here’s my perspective: - Understanding the Audience: It's vital to research and understand the audience’s preferences and pain points. Creating user personas and stories helps in tailoring content that resonates. - Avoiding Content Bias: One key lesson I've learned is not to become too enamored with a topic. Always focus on what the audience seeks and the value you can provide. - SEO Optimization: Using keyword research and SEO best practices is essential. This ensures content is not just created but seen and appreciated. - Continuous Content Refinement: A strategist should always look for ways to optimize and recycle content for SEO, keeping it relevant and authoritative over time.

Remember, clarity on objectives and outcomes is necessary in order to have appropriate metrics and KPIs against which to measure. Traffic, conversions, followers and other measurement can end up being vanity metrics if you're not careful.

? Beyond Just Metrics: While metrics like SEO rankings, traffic quality, and MQLs are important, I also focus on thought leadership and brand authority. Content isn't just about numbers; it's about influence and reputation. ? Leveraging Classic Metrics: I still rely on traditional KPIs—SEO positions, site traffic, downloads. These provide tangible proof of content performance. ? Navigating Martech Limitations: Often, the content team doesn't control the entire martech stack, making it challenging to capture all metrics. In these cases, I prioritize available data and align with other teams for a comprehensive view. Balancing both quantitative and qualitative aspects helps in painting a complete picture of content strategy effectiveness.

A content strategist can help you achieve your business goals by creating and optimising the content that leads users to conversion.

The goal of content strategy is to create content that supports business goals. So the priority is in clarifying what those business goals are and then determining the types of content and the quantity that's going to be necessary to support those goals. Then you need to match that against available resources. Get this sorted out first as it impacts everything that follows. Audience research should be next. It may have already been done, in which case you'll want to at least validate those assumptions. Only then would I consider moving on, once these two preliminary steps are complete.