How to Nail Your Content Strategy

Several years ago, I was visiting with some friends when one made a passing comment about becoming a minister online in about a minute.

“Wait…what do you mean?” asked my friend Ellen, who’s really an ordained minister.

“There’s a website where you just put in your information, click a box and you can be ordained as a minister,” our friend replied.

“Well, then why did I spend all those years in ministerial school?” asked Ellen, completely bewildered, and somewhat saddened, by this news of instant ordination.

I imagine for some writers it’s a similar feeling. Create a blog, input some words and everyone’s a writer, right? A journalist by training, I have to admit that, like Ellen, I’ve had more than one bewildered moment wondering what in the world has happened to the craft of writing?

Once relegated as a necessary component of newsletters and magazine articles with strict style guides, content is now the darling of marketing. Sure, content has always been essential, but organizations are now focused on acting more as in-house publishers of social, video and packaged content products shared across multiple platforms than ever before.

In fact, a report by IBM and the CMO Club indicated that chief marketing officers now estimate they’ll spend more on content development than any other component in their marketing arsenal. While spending on content is up (and even this old reporter-turned-marketer thinks that’s a great thing), the key is how you allocate your resources to ensure content is delivering in the right ways.

More Content Doesn’t Yield More Results

Far too often, I see clients who take the more-is-better approach to their content. That means believing they need to be on more channels pumping out more branded messages. Yet, there is a point of diminishing returns, accord to a report by TrackMaven, “The Content Marketing Paradox: Is More Content Really Better?”

Over a two-year span, TrackMaven analyzed 13 million pieces of content from more than 8,800 brands. Interestingly, what the Washington, D.C.-based research firm discovered was more content distributed through more platforms doesn’t lead to more engagement or sales. It’s a similar paradox Nielsen discovered in their market research from 2008-2013: adding more channels in the TV lineup doesn’t yield greater consumption—as viewers reported watching only 17 channels consistently.

In the same vein, the TrackMaven report contends the goal of marketers shouldn’t be to pump content through every possible channel. Yet, based on their findings from 2013 and 2014, that’s exactly what most brands did. According to the report, which evaluated some 13.8 million pieces of content, brands increased content production by 78 percent during those two years, and engagement fell by 60 percent.

So, what’s an organization to do? The short answer: reconnect with the purpose your content serves.

Why Are You “Doing” Content?

These days content becomes the knee-jerk response to fill a social channel, rather than a proactive strategy to truly engage or connect. That's why taking a step back to ask yourself, “why are we ‘doing’ content?” is perhaps one of the simplest, most insightful questions you can ask. 

Like a curious child learning about the world, asking ‘why’ brings you back to a basic level. It refocuses you on the purpose your content serves. Put even more simply, “be authentic,” says Content Marketing Institute's Joe Pulizzi. Be true to your brand by focusing on what matters, Pulizzi explains, and ultimately that should be solving a problem or filling a need your stakeholders have.

Because at the end of the day, that’s really the answer to my friend’s question about why she spent years studying to be a minister. And similarly, it's what I've come to observe over two decades of wrangling words for every type of media channel. Through the arduous process of soul searching to discern your ‘why,’ you arrive at the heart of what matters. And it’s from this space of clarity that we can then create purposeful content that engages, educates and moves others to action.

An award-winning writer, Lara Zuehlke is Director of Content at Pierpont Communications, an integrated public relations and marketing firm.