5 Important Elements of ANY Content Strategy
If content is the most important piece of any online strategy, you would think that anyone with an ounce of online presence would invest in a strategic approach to maximize its impact, right? Wrong! Only 40% of marketers have a documented one and 27% never bother to create any content strategy whatsoever.
For those that do, however, establishing an actionable content strategy takes months if not years of trial and error. And, while we can’t 100% guarantee the success of your content strategy, we’ll go through the 5 most important elements of any content strategy to set you on the right path.
(By the way, these elements apply to content strategies of both large and small businesses. If you run a small niche website, don’t be afraid to dig in!)
Recap: What’s a Content Strategy?
Put simply, a content strategy is a detailed bigger picture of all your content marketing activities, from content creation, its distribution, down to its promotion on various channels. Large companies have big marketing budgets. They spend a decent chunk of the funds on content marketing, which always has to be guided by a properly documented content strategy.
Smaller businesses have to start from scratch. Building a content strategy is not a one-time operation, but a set of activities that take months or years to fully grasp. It’s a continuous process guided by the following elements:
1. Content Strategy Goals
Your content strategy is like a journey. It has a starting point. But what matters the most is its purpose. Purpose in this case could refer to:
What many people forget when creating a content marketing strategy is that the NUMBER ONE goal for your content is to solve consumer challenges. Not just demonstrate how much you know about your industry.
Let’s look at a more practical approach. Assuming that you run a small website that sells carpet cleaning services, one potential problem you'll be facing is that you may not have enough customers to fund your business, despite offering the best cleaning services in town.
Now, your website could use content that leans in more on creating awareness, bringing up your search engine rankings, and more importantly converting leads to customers later on.
In this case, the reason why you need a content strategy in the first place is to spread awareness and bring in more customers for your business. Your content strategy should clearly underscore your goal to increase traffic and convert leads to customers. Critical must-have items to include in your content strategy (in this case) may include:
Similarly, a digital services company may suffer slightly different challenges. One, the ability to reach the intended audience as their freshly baked content immediately gets buried under the weight of existing web content. To cut across the noise, your digital services company should have a content strategy that specifies how to create, publish, and manage content that addresses low traffic and poor visibility on search engines results.
2. Your Target Audience
Imagine you’re planning a surprise party for someone special. You want everything to be perfect – the decorations, the food, and the venue. But in the process, you accidentally brought in some pretty flowers that they’re allergic to.
That special someone is your target audience. To make your content truly stand out, you need to understand who your target audience is, what they love, what they hate, and every other little detail you can find. In any content strategy, the target audience refers to the group of people you’re trying to engage and connect with through your content.
They are the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. And just like planning a party, understanding your target audience means that you tie your content strategy to their specific needs and interests.
But wait a minute. Not every detail is important when it comes to understanding your content strategy.
For a content strategy to pin down the target audience’s needs, you need relevant information, starting with some demographics, such as age, gender, location, and occupation. But it goes beyond that. You also want to understand their worst nightmares, experiences, and all the uglies that your product/service can wash away.
领英推荐
This deep understanding creates an intimate bond between you and your target audience where their problems become yours and not the other way around. In your content strategy, you want to outline the steps that you will take to create content that helps your target audience fix the wrongs inflicted on them by the absence of your product/service.
3. The Editorial Calendar and Important Time Frames
The editorial calendar is like your trusty kitchen timer. It tells you when it’s time to unleash your masterpiece.
The duties of an editorial calendar spread far beyond setting important deadlines. Editors use content calendars to visualize the content creation, distribution, and management operations.
In essence, an editorial calendar keeps your content strategy organized, just like an ordinary timetable helps you manage your daily life.
The editorial calendar helps you stay organized. You can allocate resources effectively, assign tasks to team members, and ensure that you have a healthy mix of content types, such as articles, videos, or social media posts. This way, you avoid last-minute rushes and reduce the likelihood of missing important deadlines.
Think about the editorial calendar as the oil that lubricates your entire content strategy, enabling editors, writers, and marketers to work in perfect harmony.
4. Key Performance Indicators and Other Important Metrics
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other important metrics are crucial in a content strategy because they help us understand how well our content is performing and whether it’s achieving the desired goals.
These numbers provide valuable insights that allow us to measure the effectiveness and success of our content efforts.
KPIs and metrics allow us to evaluate the performance of your content in a more objective manner. By tracking metrics like website traffic, engagement, and conversion rates, we can gain insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.
For instance, if you notice that a particular blog is a traffic magnet receiving a high number of page views while generating a significant number of leads, we can infer that it resonates well with the audience and is effective in driving a desired action.
On the other hand, if you find that a video receives low engagement and fails to convert viewers into site visitors, it may indicate the need to reevaluate the content strategy.
5. The Documented Plan Itself
A documented content strategy serves as a roadmap for creating and distributing content. The document outlines the steps and processes involved in developing and managing your content marketing efforts.
While the specific format and structure may vary, here’s a general breakdown of what a typical content strategy includes:
The document itself can take various formats, from a simple, well-structured, and visually appealing Word document or PDF format.
Conclusion
Remember, the ultimate goal of a documented content strategy is to provide a clear roadmap for your team, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives.
Erick M. is a content-focused marketing services provider helping businesses turn their websites into virtual storefronts.