What do you do if your content strategy lacks long-term strategic decision making?

It's important to ensure your content meets long-term business strategy. All content creation needs to ladder up to important business objectives so there is a clear line between corporate goals, content strategy and tactical execution. Remember: content marketing is about creating the right content for the right audience, at the right time, leveraging the right channels. To better align content with strategic directives, create a calendar and start a cadence of generating new content directed toward those goals. If the goal is brand awareness, then look to create thought leadership or global ad campaigns. If your goal is lead generation, create content that can be pushed to existing contacts and drive measurable engagement.

While working in agile and ever changing marketing environment I value detailed and easy to use documentation and version-isation of content that makes auditing a breeze. This might be the German in me (yes I can say that after living here for a decade!): 1. Pick a good tool for easy visualisation, collaboration and version-isation. The tool I like: gathercontent by Bynder. This website backend style visualisation but for content with appropriate page and heading levels and interlinking options. 2. Break down content by channel and group under long shelf-life content e.g. website content, blog, social media (anything SEO relevant) and short shelf-life content e.g. display/SEA ads, LPs. Do this to audit like a pro!

Addressing a lack of long-term strategic decision-making in your content strategy involves a methodical approach to ensure your efforts are both effective and sustainable. Conducting an audit of your content helps you understand what you’ve produced, how it performs, and where gaps or opportunities lie. ???♂? Analyze existing content for quality, relevance, engagement, and alignment with your goals. ? Use insights from this audit to identify trends and areas for improvement, setting a foundation for strategic planning.

If you lacks of long term strategy, then we need to analyze it first. what we have done with the short term. and what kind of result that we got on the current one. because its not the end of your plan. long term is very flexible and it can be changed during the short term. And after got the all answer, now its time to put on funneling methods which one can be improved through content and align with your business goals/objective. and yes keep monitoring everyday.

Marketing and digital trends evolve regularly and so should the content strategy to tackle the needs and wants that are aligned. It is not only important to access what the current strategy is but also implement a seamless transition to a new one so that the audience also follows along.

Defining clear objectives for your content strategy is crucial for long-term success. These should align with your overall business goals. ?? Establish SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) objectives that guide your content creation and distribution efforts. ?? Objectives might include increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or positioning your company as a thought leader in your industry.

I completely agree! A real-world example of this is a blog strategy I set up for my current company, but with one caveat. Instead of setting up multiple long-term goals for the blog I set up 3 overarching themes. Each with a different strategic business goal and hence different KPIs & content needs. The outcome: A blog that is easier to maintain and optimise depending on the business goals for the month/quarter. My themes: - New lead generation - article type SEO heavy based on KW research and suggested titles - Trust building - UGC posts created by, for and featuring people (staff & customers) - Conversation optimised - long form posts about specific products, often comparing products with internal links to PDPs

What results do you want to see for your business after a year or two years - you need to define that clearly to craft a long-term strategy. This objective should be aligned with your business goals. It can be anything like generating 'n' number of leads, launching an offer, launching a membership, increasing sales, etc.

Clear objectives are the backbone of any successful content strategy. These should align with broader business goals, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or establishing thought leadership. Objectives should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Defining your goals is essential for any strategic endeavor, acting as the compass that guides your team's efforts. By setting clear, measurable, and achievable objectives, you create a framework that aligns tasks, focuses resources, and tracks progress. This clarity not only ensures that every action contributes towards the overarching objectives but also helps maintain momentum and coherence throughout your project or organization.

Have you ever felt like your content is yesterday's news before it even hits publish? To create evergreen content you need to understand the entire structure – your audience's challenges, preferences, and behaviours – to build something that lasts. Why is audience insight so crucial? - Targeted Content = Timeless Content - Develop detailed audience personas that paint a vivid picture of your ideal client. - Demographics are a starting point, but they don't tell the whole story. Conduct surveys, host focus groups, or engage with your audience on social media to truly understand their pain points and aspirations.

Understanding your audience deeply informs the creation of content that resonates and drives engagement. ?????? Develop detailed audience personas based on demographic data, online behavior, and feedback. ?? This understanding enables you to tailor your content strategy to meet your audience's needs, preferences, and pain points.

A deep understanding of your audience is essential. Create detailed buyer personas to capture the interests, needs, and behaviors of your target audience. Use data from social media analytics, customer feedback, and market research to inform your personas.

Understanding your audience is akin to being a savvy party host who knows exactly how to cater to the eclectic tastes of their guests. It’s about digging into who they are, what they crave, and how they engage, using tools and data rather than crystal balls and guesswork. This insight allows you to tailor your content, products, or services to fit like a glove, ensuring that each interaction feels personally crafted and genuinely engaging. By getting to know your audience inside and out, you’re not just broadcasting messages into the void—you’re striking up a lively, meaningful conversation.

Aligning your strategy with broader business goals ensures that your content efforts contribute to your company’s long-term success. ?? Ensure every piece of content serves a strategic purpose, whether it’s to educate, inform, persuade, or entertain your audience. ?? Regularly revisit your strategy to ensure it remains aligned with evolving business objectives and market conditions.

If your content strategy is missing long-term strategy, revisit your core business objectives and audience needs to ensure your content goals are properly aligned. Create a clear, forward-looking plan that anticipates future trends and changes in your industry, keeping in mind key dates and events, including internal business initiatives.

If your content strategy lacks long-term vision, start by defining clear, measurable goals that align with your business objectives. Conduct a thorough audience analysis to understand their needs and preferences. Use these insights to create a content roadmap with themes and topics that resonate over time. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on performance metrics and feedback to ensure it remains relevant and impactful. Incorporate industry trends and technological advancements to keep your strategy forward-looking and competitive.

Look at your goals, target audience, content types, channels, and performance metrics. Determine your long-term business objectives and how your content strategy can support them. Conduct a thorough analysis of your target audience's needs, preferences, and behaviors.

Your content strategy should be a roadmap that aligns with your objectives and speaks to your audience. It should detail the types of content you’ll create, the channels you’ll use, and the messages you’ll convey. Consistency in tone, style, and delivery is key to building trust and engagement.

Measuring metrics is important for long-term growth, by measuring you can get insight into what’s working and what is not working. And then you can plan your content strategy.

Measuring success through clear, relevant metrics allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy. ?? Track performance against your objectives using KPIs like website traffic, engagement rates, lead generation, and conversion rates. ?? Use analytics to inform decisions and demonstrate the ROI of your content strategy to stakeholders.

Good matrices to measure content success alone are hard to define. This is because content never exists in vacuum it's a cog in a larger wheel. Hence content performance is often linked with the performance of various teams such as website (CMS and UX/UI), performace marketing and SEO, CRO, CRM (email marketing), sales to make some of the more important ones. To measure content effectiveness and success alone for a website I look at a mix of GA KPIs e.g. new & returning users, time spent on page and bounce rates BUT I always combine this with more qualitative matrices such as heatmaps, attractiveness rate or frustration rate and funnel analysis on and off the website. My recommended tool for this: Contentsquare.

Iterating continuously on your strategy based on performance data and feedback ensures your content remains relevant and impactful. ?? Adopt an agile approach, allowing for flexibility in your content strategy to adapt to changes in audience behavior, market trends, and business objectives. ?? Encourage feedback from your audience and team to discover areas for innovation and improvement.

My favorite phrase is “Social is an Always on Testing Ground”. Use it! Regularly reviewing and refining your content strategy is crucial to adapt to changing market dynamics, improve performance, align with business goals, stay ahead of competition, enhance audience engagement, optimize resource allocation, and foster continuous improvement. Regularly reviewing content performance allows you to identify what’s working and what can be improved. By analyzing the right data, you gain actionable insights to help make better data-driven decisions to optimize strategy and improve overall marketing effectiveness beyond social. Keeping your brand aligned with the evolving needs of your target audience and the broader goals of your organization.

It sounds obvious, but investing in high quality content is critical. So many organisations churn out sub par content and then wonder why they’re struggling to meet their objectives. A great content strategy really is pointless without great content!

Ignoring short term planning and only focussing on a long term perspective is not advisable. People should focus on the short term wins or failures in order to work on long term planning. As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. Content marketing, brand building and brand salience are all part of brand strategy which improves brand conderation, recall and positioning. A team of mixed strengths, optimum tool, analytical observations, observing market trends and picking out things which might work or not work for you is very important for a long term planning.

- Reach out to your content peers for feedback—they might offer valuable insights. - Engage your SEO team if you have one; their analytical skills might reveal great strategic opportunities. - Consult industry experts and keep tabs on industry conversations. Who knows, you may walk away with some great tips. Remember to remain honest about your challenges. If you find yourself struggling, don't hesitate to discuss them with your manager and seek assistance.

I wouldn’t limit the strategic thinking to performance and optimization. Being able to think long-term in a creative environment implies staying up-to-date with the cultural and sociological context in which you’re operating. A content strategy aiming at long-term effectiveness should be based on solid cultural bases in order to stay relevant after a couple of months (or even weeks).

To address a lack of long-term strategic decision making in your content strategy: -Assess current strategy for short-term tactics. -Define clear long-term goals for brand identity, engagement, and growth. -Develop a strategic framework with audience personas, content pillars, and distribution channels. -Invest in thorough research and planning efforts for informed decisions. -Implement iterative processes for planning, creation, and measurement. -Foster cross-functional collaboration to align strategy with broader business objectives. -Invest in talent and resources with expertise in content strategy and analytics. -Evaluate the KPIs and tweak the strategy for changing market scenarios.