What’s the point of a Content Strategy? Let me tell you.

(Alternate title: ‘5 reasons why you need a content strategy.’ Before we get into the meat of this post, I need to share with you that I fought off a burning desire to give it a click-baity headline. But I'm committed to trying something. I want to see if headlines that show their value on LinkedIn get more reads/comments/shares than a 'listicle' headline. Test and learn, friends. It’s all about the test and learn.)

It struck me a couple of weeks ago that while we’re all surrounded by stories and great content, not everyone is familiar with a content strategy, and why the most successful brands and organizations have thought carefully about everything they create.?

Now that you're sitting comfortably and settling into this post, I'd like to provide a gentle reminder that content is not just external blog posts. Content should be viewed as anything created by your company/organization/non-profit/brand, including social media posts/interactions, video, podcasts, corporate comms including press releases, employee/internal comms… oh man, the list goes on. Content is anything/any way you are communicating that furthers your brand.

So here it is, the main reasons why I think you should be thinking strategically about content:

Audience is everything

Let’s start here, shall we? It’s so important to begin with the audience you’re trying to reach. Is your primary goal potential customers? Donors? Your employees? Narrowing down your target audience (and yes, there may be more than one audience) will help you develop a clear voice and tone and how you approach creating your content.?

Don’t know your target audience? You probably do, you just haven’t thought about it from a content perspective. Most businesses know the customers that buy their product and where they’ve seen success. Even when brand building, a solid content strategy is aligned to a business or corporate objective.

Key to remember is that your content must speak to, and be relatable to, your audience and their needs.

This is not about you trying to sound smart.

Clear objectives

Now you know who you want to reach, you should ask yourself, what do you want them to do? I recall assisting in a website redesign at a charity, and everyone wanted a piece of the home page.?

Early mock ups were starting to look at a patchwork quilt. I asked everyone to pause and think about what the main priority of the website was. Asking “who do we want to reach?” (audience) and “what do we want them to do?” (objective) allowed us to make tough but strategic decisions. Yes, we had a board of directors that reached deep, deep into the community - with some high-profile names - but really what we wanted was a site that attracted donors so they would, well, give us money.?

Side note: This is also a great example of how a solid Content Strategy drives more than an editorial calendar. It drove all decisions around the website redesign, and led to measurable success.?In the first six months we were able to track online donations through various pieces of content.

Targeting ROI/resources

I haaaate wasting time and energy on content that really doesn’t fit into a strategy, and doesn't meet business and content objectives. If you’re a small content shop (or paying for an external resource to fill your content needs) - heck even if you’re a giant content shop - why waste time, effort and ultimately dollars on content that doesn’t fit into your strategy?

If it doesn’t answer adequately the ‘who do we want to reach,’ ‘what do we want them to do after they consume this content’ questions, why are you working on it?

If you’re creating a podcast or video that doesn’t align with your objectives, you’re just creating noise and diluting your brand’s purpose.

How many organizations are finding themselves under fire this month for ‘rainbow washing’ their content this month? They haven’t spoken about DEI or Pride all year and suddenly pop up with a rainbow logo because it’s Pride month. Your audience is smart, they notice this. (There’s a future blog post on the limitations of content when you aren’t walking the walk, but let’s leave that for now - you don’t have an hour to read this).

Channels/Platforms for communications

Understanding audience and objectives helps us consider more carefully the channels we use to reach them. I’m not going to create content on Pinterest if I’m trying to reach my target audience of antique McLaren AMC auto parts buyers (hello niche). But… I might take advantage of SEO and post a video on YouTube about the latest care I have available. I’m not saying there aren’t any McLaren fans on Pinterest, but knowing the channel is predominantly home and lifestyle content and the audience is more dominantly women, I’m pretty sure there are more fish to catch on YouTube.

A solid content strategy will identify the channels and platforms to communicate to your target audience(s), and will help you again focus your efforts.?

Clear measures of success

I love this one. Once you have a content strategy that identifies what you’re trying to achieve (online donations up by 30%!!) you can assess how hard your content is working for you. It’s true, you can’t always draw a direct line from an organic Instagram post to new customer, but all content should be examined, at various levels of scrutiny of course, to see how it is performing over time.?

I’m a big fan of the review phase in agile development. Take a look at everything you’ve produced in a certain time frame, and determine if the effort was a positive return.?

Test and learn friends, test and learn.

Make it good

Okay, I know, not your typical point in a content strategy but if you’re going to all this effort to create something, you may as well make it enjoyable/relatable to consume for your audience.?

I remember editing a columnist's piece for The Globe and Mail. I said to another editor that the column's point was a bit weak and it was not really a great read. His response: “And you were paid to read that.” Boom. He was right.?

Never forget you’re competing for your audience’s precious time. There are millions of other things they can be doing right now and they chose to listen/read/watch what you created. Don’t squander that moment. Make sure it’s valuable to them.

And this is where I thank you for your time, and for reading to the bottom.?

Let me know if you’re interested in a 1980’s McLaren - if not, I’ll be going to Pinterest. :)