Planning your content – from start-up to scale-up

The first step when defining a content strategy should be aligning your brand’s message with your business development goals. But what if there are multiple approaches you could take? If your service doesn’t have a clearly defined target customer, or there are several possible applications for your product, then it can be difficult to know where to focus your efforts.

The?‘challenge first’ mindset

When creating thought-leadership content or sharing your vision, it is often tempting to tackle a diverse set of themes. However, bouncing around between different topics without a clear plan often does more harm than good. There’s usually only a small window available to attract attention and get your point across, so building consistency into your plan is crucial. Consistency doesn’t mean making the same point over and over, but it is important to help potential customers draw some parallels.?

Whether you are focusing on a specific area or casting a wider net, try to approach your content planning with a ‘challenge first’ mindset. An international broadcaster and a post-production studio might have very different business models, but there could be a surprising amount of crossover in how your service resolves their challenges. Or it could be, that while your product is used by a diverse set of media professionals, there's a common thread in the features that deliver faster content processing.

Authenticity and authority

Whether you need to target one key customer profile or highlight many different use cases, it’s the commonalities that will help declutter your messaging. There might be a host of exciting product features that you want to share new insights on. But talking about them all simultaneously results in a lack of clarity, and prospects will be less likely to retain key information.?

A wish-list of features can also create a ‘too good to be true’ effect, where potential customers start to doubt the authenticity of your offering. It is much better to pick an industry insight or a shift in consumer behaviour, and then leverage that to showcase your solution. If you can talk with authority on emerging technology trends and share useful insights, you’ll secure the trust of potential customers and create value.

With this in mind, what’s the best way to plan your content schedule? I propose a two-tier approach, that evolves throughout your marketing communications lifecycle.

Stage 1: Divide and conquer?

It’s important to remember, that while you might not consider yourself a ‘start-up’ within the context of your business model, you’re at the beginning of a content creation journey. That’s ok – the great thing about this phase of planning is that you get to experiment with ideas and see what works. But as I mentioned previously,?you only have a limited number of opportunities to convey information before a potential customer switches off. So even though you are trialling different ideas and implementing a ‘test and learn’ approach, you need to build some structure around it.?

Start by identifying a series of key topics that you feel will resonate with your target audience. That could include anything from, hybrid cloud workflows, to security and authentication, to the use of metadata in media. Then outline a schedule that explores different aspects of these topics in relation to industry trends.?

The frequency you produce content, will be largely dictated by the resources you can allocate to it. So, you might decide to cover a different topic every month or change things up every quarter. But by sticking to a consistent theme for an extended period, you can put out a cohesive message in multiple formats. This might range from video explainers and informative blogs, to case studies and thought-leadership articles.

Stage 2: Find your niche

This is the scale-up stage of your content planning. It’s time to take what you’ve learnt in stage one and leverage the information to build a content series. Focus on your key differentiators and define your company values, then scale-up your content output in these areas.?

After completing stage one, you should have some tangible data on where to focus your energy. This information can come from a variety of sources. You might have tracked the impressions and click-throughs on a social media campaign. Or perhaps your website analytics indicate that certain pages are performing significantly better than others. But don’t underestimate the anecdotal insights that come from your team, as these can also reveal where to concentrate your efforts. The sales team provide a direct line into your target customer’s requirements. The product team can share questions they’ve been asked during demos and help identify gaps in technical understanding.

Once you have gathered all the relevant information, you can factor this into content planning and map out specialist areas to focus on. Then your content series can really take shape. Be sure to incorporate member events from industry associations such as, DPP, IABM, Rise, The Circle Society, HPA and SVG into your plan. As well as relevant tradeshows like, CES, NAB, MPTS, IBC, Sportel, Broadcast Asia, ANGA COM, and SATIS. Aside from proving how much our industry loves an acronym – these events are key markers in the calendar to build a content strategy around.?

A cohesive approach

The whole?media?supply chain has seen dramatic changes in recent years, with a renewed focus on a pick-and-mix approach to technology and services. There are now more media and broadcast business opportunities than ever. But the market that B2B customers are shopping in, has become increasingly crowded and confused. Therefore, it’s essential to avoid a scattered communication style that confuses prospects with too many details.?

A cohesive approach to marketing communications, means your customers will understand both your solutions and your ethos from the outset. By identifying industry trends, collating insights on how prospects respond to your offering, and clearly defining your values and USPs, you can deliver the right content mix. This will result in a meaningful connection with new customers, from their first interaction with your brand, right through to securing their business in the long-term.