How can your content strategy align with your organization's goals?

Well, at the end of the day, all the content you create has to have something to do with reaching the right audience for your company. Certainly the content types are different for top of the funnel, middle of the funnel and bottom of the funnel. But at the end of the day content strategy only works and does work when it aligns with the customer journey and highlights the company’s thought leadership and differentiators.

SMART is one of the proven ways but also OKRs is a great technique for Startups and design led organisations! Objectives: it should be ambitious and aligned with the bigger objectives of the department or organization Key Results: it must be measurable and impactful! Using OKRs made my team and me more reliable throughout our activities but also with way better energy!

Whether goals are set with external or internal drivers in mind, it’s important to understand these goals and to be able to accurately track, measure, and communicate your success. Determining where to focus in order to meet said goals should be influenced by trusted data. Be sure to collect the correct data sets and also that your analysis is conducted by trusted partners with expertise in analyzing the kind(s) of data you’ll be utilizing. Create a realistic plan that makes sense relative to your overall main, secondary, and tertiary goals and which can be theoretically and actually achieved in the timeframe and budget allowed. Get consensus and buy-in from internal partners snd senior leaders. Ask for support.

If your content strategy doesn't align with your organization's goals, your content is just going to be noise. Think of it as a 3-step process. 1?? You actually need to know what your organization's short- and long-term business strategy is. What's the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal)? It seems obvious, but it's amazing how few people will be 100% clear on this. 2?? How is the marketing function going to support this BHAG? You need to make sure you're having constant 2-way conversations here. Your content strategy needs to align with broader marketing strategy ??. It's a truly symbiotic relationship. 3?? When you're clear on both of the above, you should be able to develop a content strategy that's absolutely on point! ??

When you understand your target audiences and their pain points, you need to clarify your organization's unique selling point (USP) which is the key to create impressions on your audiences. No matter how deeply you understand your audiences or how clear your goals are, if you can't recognize your organization's competitive advantages to differentiate yours with the competitors, it's difficult to build successful content strategies aligning with your organization's goals.

Using performance data is a great way to identify what works and what doesn't. If you lack digital systems to measure effectiveness, read your content with your audience's perspective in mind. Does it make sense? Is it something your audience cares about? Is the language simplified or overly technical? After answering these questions, adjust it for a fresh take. Whether digital systems are in place or not, regular content review ensures effectiveness and relevance.

All channels will not work for all organisations. You must be able to find the connection between the channel you choose and your organisation's goal. Consider these: What makes this channel unique? Does it have a large portion of your target audience? What kind of content is common place on the channel? Are your competitors on the channel? Do I have the tools and skills to succeed on this channel? How would you adjust your content to suit that channel?