A Quick & Dirty Guide to Creating a Marketing Content Strategy

In business, you know that you need to do your marketing - that is the part where you tell your customers who you are, what you do, and how you work. The terms ‘content strategy’ & ‘content plan’ are often used interchangeably as the same thing, though they are very different.? Want to know how to create a content strategy? Then read on.?

What is Content?

There are different types of content with differing jobs.? You have to give each piece of content you share a job - whether to educate, nurture or sell something to your audience, it is the bridge that connects your customers to what you do.?

Marketing content can take many forms - social media posts, reels (short-form videos), blogs, emails, web copy, landing pages, mini-courses… the list goes on.?

Your content strategy is not in the details of what you’re going to be saying or where you’re going to be saying it. It is the bits that feed your content plan. It is what drives all the efforts of content within your business.

It’s working out who you are, what you’re for, and where you’re taking your business.?

Having a strategy helps you create better-focused, useful & relevant marketing content in the right places.? A bit like having a map when you’re going on a journey.? In other words, you need to have a strategy so that you know what content you’re going to be sharing to achieve your business goals.

Where Do I Start with a Content Strategy?

The first port of call is deciding what your business goals are.? Defining your why. Why you’re in business & where you envision your business heading. Make them S.M.A.R.T.

Broader goals are better here. For example:

• Acquire 10 new customers within 6 months
• Rank higher on SERP pages
• Establish my business as an industry expert within 2 years
• Increase revenue to ￡5,000 monthly income by the end of 2024

It’s also useful to have done the work around your business brand voice, and your brand vision as well as worked out who your Ideal Client is. (Just as an FYI, your ideal client can change as the business evolves.? If you’re not sure who your ideal client is, this is something I can help with).

Answer the following questions:

• What would I like to see in my business in a year? In two years? In five years? Ten?
• What are my business values? What do I want to be known for?
• What does my target audience need to know about me, about who I am, and about how I can help them?
• What content is going to tell them about this information?
• What are my competitors doing?
• Do I want my content to be on trend or am I best putting out evergreen content?
• How will my business brand fit into the content?

Knowing who you’re for & what you want to achieve in business, sets the foundations for your content strategy.?

Do your market research.? Look at your competitors & their business practices.? Note down the bits you like - and why you like them.? Perhaps they align with your values.? Perhaps it holds a ring of truth for you.??

Note down the bits of what they do that you would never do - and why this is the case.?

Building on Your Content Strategy Basics

How long should a content strategy be?

Well, it can be as long as you want.? I like to work in 90-day blocks, working out what I want to achieve in the next 3 months.? I know business owners who work in 30-day blocks of content strategy.? The beauty of running your own business is that you can bend the rules to suit how you work.?

Then think about your target audience - which is business speak for your ideal client.? That is, exactly who you’re for in business.? The person who will look at your product or service and know that it is the answer to all of their problems in one go.?

Having a deeper understanding of who your ideal client is - and there can be more than one persona - will make it easier for you to create relevant & specific content for your audience.?

KPI’s - Key Performance Indicators are the analytics that show you where your content is working after you’ve posted. What are the indicators that are going to help you work out what’s working?? I’m not talking about the amount of ‘likes’ or reactions you get when you share a post on a social media platform, because very often those aren’t indicative that people are reading your content or not.? Very often, my clients have never interacted with anything I’ve ever posted, but there will be something I’ve shared that has set off a lightbulb in their head, that makes them think ‘I need that’. You can use the business tools on social media platforms that will show you impressions & views.? I also use Google Site Kit which helps me work out what’s working on my blog.??

Of course, the best KPI to track is how much money you’re making.? If people are responding to what you’re sharing, if you’re making sales, then you know you’re on the right track.? It’s then a case of working out what’s working - and doing more of it.?

Keyword research can help boost traffic to your website & blogs - by including things that people are typing into a search bar without shoehorning them into place.?

Which Leads Us to the Beginnings of a Content Plan…

You would then move towards looking into content types: what you’re going to be sharing, how that is going to look, and where you’re going to be sharing that information.

You would then look at how often you share your content.? Are you going to share a new blog post weekly or monthly?? How can you make sure that you’re putting out your marketing content consistently?

But that’s a blog for next time.?

Creating a Content Strategy & Plan

It is obvious to see why these terms can become mixed up.? It’s important to have a strategy so that you’re not sharing content in a firefighting fashion - it’s untidy and means that you’ll be treading water, stuck for what to say & how to say it.? Setting goals & making a plan is vital for business growth. Having both a strategy & a plan for the content that you’re putting out means that you are working smarter, not harder. After all, as a business owner, you can make more money but you can’t make more time.??

Use your time wisely.?

Now What?

If you’ve read this & you are now thinking: yes, I get what I need to do but I am still none the wiser on what to do....

Drop me a line as this is something that I can help you with.?

Drop me an email at [email protected]?