How do you build a content strategy from scratch?

In my experience, I've wholeheartedly relied on the "educate, empower, experience, and affiliation" model for crafting effective content goals. Educate: Our content must inform and provide valuable insights, becoming a trusted source for knowledge. Empower: Beyond information, it should equip our audience with actionable advice, boosting their confidence. Experience:Content should immerse, evoke emotions, and create memorable interactions. Affiliation/Altruism : Foster a sense of community and belonging among the audience, connecting them with our brand and like-minded individuals. These pillars guide our content strategy, ensuring it resonates deeply with our audience, enriching their journey and fostering lasting relationships.

First and foremost, and most unsurprisingly, everyone on the team should be clear on the WHY of the Content Strategy. If the WHY is clear, the WHERE, WHAT and HOW become inherently easier to identify and execute. The WHY is the litmus test, the guiding light of the effort as a whole. The WHYs can ofcourse can vary due to several variables. But at its core - it should answer a simple question. What do you want the reader/viewer/listener to feel and do when they get exposed to this content?

Having clarity about what you want to achieve through sharing content is fundamental to creating a strategy. Defining your goals allows you to define a strategy and a plan to implement the steps to reach your goals. Brainstorm your goals and why you are sharing content. Only when there's a purpose behind it, can you find the drive and motivation to consistently create content that allows you to move forward. And then find a way to hold yourself accountable to follow your strategy. Otherwise you will be random and won't have the impact that you are seeking.

In my experience as a Comms Director, content 'ideas' are never in short supply. There is always a boss or colleague saying "Why don't we start a podcast?" or "What if we did a blog about x?" or "I need to make a video". But resources are limited (especially in my field, the nonprofit sector). So how do you decide which ideas get up and which get shelved? For me, the north star of content strategy comes down to one word: AUDIENCE. Who is this content for? And what do you want them to do after they see/hear/read it? If the person suggesting the content can't answer these questions clearly - and in a way that's strategically aligned to your organisation's broader mission - that's a red flag.

Crafting a content strategy commences with goal delineation. SMART framework empowers this process. How to apply: Specific: Identify your content's intended impact. Is it brand awareness, lead nurturing, or market authority? Measurable: Incorporate quantifiable benchmarks. Monitor metrics like engagement rates, click-throughs, and conversions. Achievable: Strive for ambitious yet attainable milestones. Leverage available resources efficiently. Relevant: Align goals with your industry niche and target audience. Authenticity resonates. Time-bound: Introduce clear timeframes to objectives. This fosters accountability and gauges progress. Mastering the SMART framework on LinkedIn fuels your content strategy's effectiveness.

Building a content strategy from scratch can be a comprehensive process, but it's essential for creating engaging and effective content. - Define your goals and objectives; Start by identifying the primary goals (SMART) - Know the target audience; Understand the audience's demographics, interests, needs, and pain points (Conducting surveys, interviews, etc.) - Research and Competitive Analysis - Industry research and competitors to understand what content is already out there. - Content creation and workflow - Keyword research and SEO; to optimize content for search engines - Promotion and Distribution; Plan for promoting your content - Engagement and Interactions - Measuring Success - Iterate and improve

As you delve into audience comprehension, be prepared for these challenges: 1. Diverse Personas: Crafting content that resonates across various audience segments requires finesse in messaging. 2. Refined Segmentation: Accurate audience categorization necessitates robust data analysis and efficient segmentation tools. 3. Staying Agile: Adapting content strategies to evolving audience preferences is an ongoing journey. 4. Quality and Accessibility Balance: Striking the right chord between content accessibility and maintaining high-quality standards is essential. 5. Rising Above the Noise: Amidst the digital cacophony, the challenge is to create content that shines through. Solidify content impact on all channels!

Understanding your audience in depth is an ongoing process. More detail is added with every client you serve. It is important that you go beyond the superficial layers of demographics and dig into the underlying psychology of your potential clients. What are the stories that connect you? What are values, beliefs, and desires that align with you and allow you to share your narrative? What do they need to hear to progress in life and business? What are their day-to-day experiences and how can you transform them into what they are dreaming of? What are their skills, desires, aptitudes, and struggles? What do they need to learn and develop to succeed? What holds them back and what opens opportunities for them?

There is one key difference that makes highly effective content work: it's not about the brand, it's about the user. What people want more than anything else is to discover themselves and evolve. First understand what personal transformation they are seeking (whether its B2B or B2C, everyone seeks transformation), and then build your strategy on that insight.

Most nights when I read to my kids before bed, I let them choose their books. The book I read to my 3-year-old is not likely to keep the interest of my 12-year-old. What does that have to do with understanding your audience? Your content strategy is about your story and how you are going to communicate it over time. Different segments of your audience (in my case, a 12, 9, 7 and 3-year-old) are going to have different needs, motivations, levels of understanding, etc. Understand them so you can cater to them accordingly.

There's lots of generalized advice out there, like sticking to your content pillars and solving pain points. But that's all baseline at this point. In order to take your content to the next level, remember that your message needs to make people *feel* something. Smart brands insert themselves into the important life moments of their users, specifically those life moments that echo the brand’s guiding beliefs and the values they’re working to explore. They are imbued with emotion and relatable meaning. Ask yourself, what message will help me create an emotional connection with my audience at the right time?

The core tenets of messaging in Content Strategy, should be CONSISTENCY, CUSTOMISATION and CLARITY. Basis the audience and medium at hand. To be honest, this is simple to say but very hard to do well. The same consumer may access content on different platforms, devices, times of day...and this will define their need state, expectations and action orientation. The messaging must anticipate this and build for it. Data analytics can be the starting point of getting smarter with messaging. What is working with Consumers? How do we know it is working? Where and When? What are common themes and what is an outlier? How are context and tone varying?

Crafting an exceptional content strategy is like composing a symphony for your audience. Craft high-quality, engaging content and optimize it for search engines (that's the hygiene part). Share it across platforms, interact with your audience, and adapt based on performance data. But don't stop there. Incorporate the concept of Hygiene, Hub, and Hero content. Hygiene content keeps your digital presence clean and maintained. Hub content is your regular, scheduled content that keeps your audience engaged. Hero content, like a blockbuster, grabs attention and makes you unforgettable. Remember, this isn't a sprint; it's a long-term relationship. Be the rock star they keep coming back to, and your audience will be your biggest fans.

Remember to tell a story. Who doesn't love a good story? If well crafted throughout, your content should send your readers on a never-ending journey, whether it's about company values, successes, lessons learned, accomplishments, or life experiences as a leader, entrepreneur, business owner, or mentor in your industry. A well-told story is at the foundation of some of the most engaging, influential, and inspiring content, regardless of which platforms you use, the frequency of posts, or the size of your organization. So, as you build your content strategy, don't forget the element of storytelling.

Diversification is key! 3 proven categories of converting content: 1. Educational Content: Offering valuable insights and expertise in your industry positions you as a thought leader. Create how-to guides, tutorials, and informative articles that address your audience's pain points and questions. 2. Case Studies and Success Stories: Showcase real-world examples of how your product or service solved challenges for clients. Concrete success stories build credibility and demonstrate your value proposition effectively. 3. Thought Leadership Content: Share your unique perspective on industry trends, challenges, and innovations. This positions your brand as an authority and encourages engagement from a knowledgeable audience.

To develop a successful content strategy, it's vital to understand the specific channel you're targeting. Each channel has its audience preferences; what resonates on LinkedIn may not on Instagram. Choosing the right content format for each platform is crucial for effective content distribution.

Determining B2B content impact relies on these four efficient methods: 1. Conversion Tracking: Trace content's role in driving leads through the sales funnel. 2. Engagement Metrics: Gauge audience engagement via likes, shares, comments, and time spent. 3. Traffic Analysis: Evaluate page views and traffic sources to identify impactful content. 4. Lead Quality Assessment: Analyze generated leads for alignment with target profiles. Combine and weigh them according to your goals.

Consistent content creation needs to be sustainable. That also means that you need processes, systems, and tools that make consistent and relevant content creation simple and sustainable. The foundation for that is a system that covers everything from ideation through to repurposing. When you have a functional system, you can also consider outsourcing some of the parts that don't strictly need to be done by you. And yes, SEO is important, but in the first instance, you are writing for humans. Once people find you, you want them to read and return. Tracking your performance is important to tweak and optimise. But I recommend to get your processes and systems set up first. Then you have something to optimise and tweak and less variables.

Before you start creating content, ask yourself: - Who is my target audience? - What problems do they need solving? - What format do they prefer? Once you have the answers, it's time to create your content and distribute it. Here are some channels to consider: - Social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook - Email marketing: newsletters, drip campaigns, etc. - SEO: Make sure your content is optimized for search engines - Paid advertising: PPC, sponsored social media posts, etc. Don't forget to measure the success of your content too. How many people are engaging with it? Are they sharing it? Is it leading to conversions? Use analytics tools to track the success of your content, and adjust accordingly.

If your industry peers need more content strategies or are consistent content creators, seek inspiration from other industries to create your content strategy. After the advent of digital marketing, industries that relied on conventional marketing tools found themselves out of sync with email, social media, and the web. Even as digital marketing tools have evolved, the non-digital natives who didn’t switch from physical to digital media are overwhelmed by the plethora of digital marketing options. First-time digital marketers can start with simple tools like Google Business Profiles, which establish them online. They can then add a website to their digital assets, including LinkedIn-type online platforms for content marketing.

Implementing your strategy depends on you and your business. As a solopreneur, you need to block time, schedule your tasks, and take action. In an organisation, you need to manage your processes differently. However, you need to be clear on processes and systems as well as assigning ownership and responsibilities.

The most important thing about the implementation is that your content has to reach your intended target audience. There’s only one way to make sure that happens ‘shareability’ (the more shareable your content the higher chances of it going viral.) Ask your target audience what would they love to share and produce more of that content.

Executing a content strategy involves these core corporate roles. The 4th is often forgotton, but equally important: 1. Content Strategist: Crafting the overarching strategy, harmonizing content with business objectives. 2. Editorial Lead: Upholding quality, coherence, and brand congruence within content. 3. Project Manager: Directing tasks, timelines, resources, and project progression. 4. Stakeholder Coordinator: Engaging stakeholders, aligning objectives, and ensuring communication flow. Synchronized efforts among these roles actualize content strategy success.

Regularly assess your content's performance. Google Analytics can provide insights into which pieces drive the most traffic or engagement. Practical Tip: Monthly or quarterly reviews can help adjust strategy based on performance metrics. KPI Increase: ROI, content efficiency

Yes. You do want brand awareness, likes, and expressive numbers, but the ultimate reason to create content is increasing your organization's revenue. If your strategy is not bringing leads in, then it's time to change until it does.

Where would we be in a world without feedback? No reviews. No ratings. No comments. No critiques. We'd be lost, confused, and directionless. In the age of content marketing, feedback is paramount. Every piece of feedback helps uncover insights into what's working & and what's not. - Content metrics tell us which pages are popular - Content audits help identify gaps in our strategy - Content reviews pave the way for improvement - Content experiments test our hypothesis. Embracing feedback is a part of growth. It's a sign that your strategy is improving and evolving. So, listen to feedback. Act on it. And keep improving.

Stay updated with industry shifts. For instance, voice search optimization is gaining traction, with predictions suggesting a significant rise in voice searches by 2023. Additionally, the HubSpot State of Marketing report emphasized the importance of videos, blogs, and images in 2022. Practical Tip: Regularly attend webinars and workshops to stay ahead. KPI Increase: Future-proofing content, staying competitive.

Other considerations include: Content Governance and Content Repurposing. Content governance involves setting guidelines and standards to maintain consistency across your content. For example; establish content guidelines that dictate the use of a specific color palette, a formal tone in all written content, and a focus on high-quality visuals to maintain a cohesive and recognizable brand identity. Content repurposing means taking existing content and adapting it for different formats or platforms. For example, repurpose a popular written recipe into a tutorial video for socials. By doing so, you'll reach a wider audience by making use of content you've already invested time and effort into creating, extending its value.

I want to add to what my colleagues have said with three quick points: 1. Don't just think about your audience during content, service, or product moments. Look at the bigger picture to create a more humanized message. This will lead to a more user-centric, less product-centric content journey. 2. In today's noisy world, you don't have to do all the storytelling alone. Get others involved to craft your narrative. Current customers, content creators, and specialists, would be happy to help and make your message stand out. 3. THIS ONE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LIFESAVER FOR ME: Before planning your content, figure out what you won't talk about and who you don't want to reach. It'll help you stay focused.

Focus on WIIFT: What's in it for them? In other words, why does youraudience need to hear this and what can they do to leverage what they're learning from you? One of the biggest mistakes I see is content creators speaking from their own perspective. When you can make the shift to the perspective of the audience, you will connect in powerful ways that will help them absorb and use the information you are sharing.

Don't overthink it. Keep your audience front and center. Then, consider your own goals. Where do your audience and your goals collide? Start there. Implement, improve, and repeat. We live in a digital world. You can constantly iterate, edit, and re-do.