Your Content Strategy Might Not Be a Content Strategy
Dana Herra ??
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Hard truths, folks. This is a bad content strategy:
Here's what's bad about it: it's not a strategy at all.
It's like my teenage son saying his career strategy is to join a study group and read some textbooks. Those are just means to an end.
His real career strategy is to obtain a college degree that will position him to work in the field he wants.
To execute that strategy, he plans to take specific classes and network with specific people. Books and study methods are tactics that carry out that plan.
The tactics advance a plan that ladders up to a strategy that's intended to achieve a goal - in this case, the goal being a profession.
Now let's apply it to content.
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Step 1: Choose your destination
The first thing your content strategy needs is a goal. What is your content supposed to do? Some possible goals could be
Step 2: Plan your route
Once you know where you're going, you can figure out how to get there. Your content plan includes audiences, messages, formats, KPIs, and timelines.
Step 3: Plan your itinerary
Now you're ready to decide how often you're going to post to LinkedIn or send your newsletter. Choose tactics that align with your plan, advance your strategy, and that you have the resources to execute well.
There's a difference between "content" and "content marketing." That difference is a strategy.
Marketing with content requires deliberate movements to advance a goal. Without a plan or strategy in place, people often fall into creating content for its own sake. And while that can be great for self-expression, forming relationships, even personal branding, it's a slow and uncertain path to making a measurable marketing impact.
What's the most challenging thing about planning your content?