How can you develop a unified content plan for multiple channels and formats?

Pretty much anything starts with defining the goals for that task. In case of unified content, you do need to know that a one size fits all just doesn't work anymore. While designing goals and objectives, ensure you look at how a common thread ties the varied executional elements across different platforms.

First thing one needs to understand before defining the content is the goal of the brand, short and long term both. Once that is determined, it becomes relatively easy for a brand to define a content for this as well as defining the medium for promotion. There isn't any rule or correct format for doing this and it depends a lot on what a brand wants its consumers to see and relate too.

It’s important to have a central repository that makes cross checking everything easy and part of the content strategy. Consistency, cohesion, and actual strategy is all imperative. It’s very helpful to have a brand guide with a social media section that is known and can be referenced.

In my experience defining goals is important along with measure of success, but the definition itself is very important to help you translate it into next steps. You may want to increase your lead generation by 10% as a business goal, but that is not your content goal. One most go deeper and speak with your consumers - it’s not only product that requires user research, content is leads to intent. The content goal in this case could be - Add more validation based testimonials to growth channels OR create more education led content if your offering is a bit more nuanced.

Yes, always start with goals! It's great if they're "SMART," but even a few simple bullet points would be a fine place to start.

Successful campaigns require deep audience understanding. Through personas and journey mapping, we identify consumers' preferences and pain points and connect through effective messaging. Analytics, interviews and focus groups provide nuanced behaviour insights and surface implicit biases. Enriching audience profiles shapes each project. With customer knowledge, problems truly solve rather than fill creative spaces. Research merges business goals and audience needs, driving success and growing our reputation. Audience insights ensure campaigns change minds and motivate the results clients desire.

Speaking of personal preference, I have always been more inclined towards web analytics, and customer relationship management (CRM) data-driven insights. I find them to be of immense value for varied reasons. One can pave their way into the most miniscule preferences of their customers and then begin to identify what the current trends are as well as the behavior patterns of any given customer. I believe it helps any brand tailor their offerings (products, services, etc.) better.

I always suggest my clients talk to their clients as much as possible to best understand what content will resonate. Another option is to get the sales team's input, since they talk to our target audience all day.

Yeah, sure. An Ideal customer profile can help your cover all that. Instead, of copying the competitors, one should spend more time educating their marketers to think like their customers. I would hop on Reddit to write FAQs for my blogs. And, recently one of them got indexed for 100+ keywords. Reason: I actually talked about what was actually bothering my audience at that time.

Taking audience insights one step further, once you deeply understand your audience, you're in a prime position to draw parallels between their pain points/goals and the lead generation resources and products you provide. Let's say one of the major pain points of your audience is lack of time but you don't currently have any content or products that help with this problem, you have found an opportunity to address this concern within your content strategy. You can create a series of 5 minute videos with practical tips to organize a schedule for maximum productivity, for example. Another angle would be to create some daily planning sheets that they can download for free or by submitting their email.

When you're creating content for a particular channel, it's worth considering how you can repurpose that content across other platforms. I'd always suggest creating content with a clear idea of where and when you'd post it –?rather than creating content randomly and figuring that out afterwards.

Channel selection is key to finding the right audience. Most people look for virality - it’s great for reach however translating it into conversion (sales) requires consistency. To maintain a brands-tone of voice is super important across channels. Start small don’t jump on all channels on day-1 it’s hard to maintain and master. Hone your brands tone of voice first for a high reach, high quality channel and then move from there to more specific channels.

Although I believe in formatting the content for each channel, I do believe the content must be curated to appeal the audience of each platform. Perhaps a video on a topic has a clip that may work in one platform, but may be irrelevant for others. Attract by how each audience consumes content.

Really like the insights shared by authors below. I would also spend more time in knowing the behavior of my audience on multiple platforms. Heatmaps are good to analyze click behavior.

I'd argue that this should be step #1. Gather feedback from all teams (not just sales and marketing) to decide what you want your brand voice/tone to be. Develop key messaging points around that. And then start creating content with all that in mind.

Agree with Riley here. This has to be the first step. For brand voice, you need to maintain an ideal balance. Formal is good when you've stats and need to educate. Emotive language may work well for friendly posts on socials.

3 ways to optimize your content for LinkedIn. 1. Follow an influencer in your niche. Interested in copywriting? Follow Jasmin Alic, Matt Barker or John Harrison. Interested in AI? Follow Ruben Hassid, Martin Crowley, or Dirk Zee. Interested in a personal brand? Follow Tasleem ahmad Fateh or Lara Acosta You get the idea. 2. Look for what gets great engagement. Right now that means: 1. Carousels 2. Infographics 3. Professional Photos 4. Well written text posts 3. Post a lot and learn from it. The best way to to learn is to post a lot. Take your at-bats. Post different formats. Really test yourself and be bold. The only way to get better it to get lots of practice.

Here are some metrics to consider other than just reach, CTR, VTR that most advertisers track. Accomplished Rate : have a clear accomplished defined either it could be purchase or add to cart or Save or Call or any other that makes sense for your business and translated in the content. Accomplished rate: Accomplished/Impressions When using social media especially Instagram /w influencers. I like to measure Intent Ratio: I define it was Save/Reach(unique users) : views are easily purchased but Saves showcase intent. Value creation ratio: Shares/Reach (unique users) Shares define collective value either your content helped add value or is bragworthy or is simply worth sharing. Hope it helps.

Audience feedback seems more plausible for social posts and even emails to some extent. Most blogs don't have a comment section. So, traffic and sign-ups is all we can eye for.

I've found that crafting a successful multi-channel content strategy boils down to a few key practices too. First, a robust CMS keeps everything organized. Team collaboration is crucial; working with writers, designers, and editors ensures high-quality content. Analytics tools are your best friend for tracking results and optimizing content. Consistency is key – your brand's message should sing harmoniously across all channels. And don't be afraid to explore different formats and channels; experimentation is how you discover what truly resonates with your audience. These strategies have been pivotal in my journey, driving multi-channel success.