How to Create a Content Strategy

If you’re in marketing, you’re already well aware that the web is now the premier channel to generate new leads for business. So you also know that in order to catch those people online, you need killer content. Content marketing is the name of the game, and doing it well requires a great content strategy.

Whereas “content marketing” is the process of using the content you create to build and engage your audience, a content strategy is figuring out why and what content should exist in the first place! A content strategy is your high-level blueprint that will dictate the future content development of your business objective.

But nailing all of that down will require some research. Luckily, that research can be broken down into three categories

1.Company research

Your content will be a window into your culture for your audience, so you’ll need to do some self-evaluating in order to determine how you’ll characterize your content in terms of what ideas and messages you want to communicate, how those messages differ from the competition, and how you see the landscape evolving once you have shared them with your audience.

2.Customer research

This is where you discover the specific audiences for whom you will create content, what their needs are, and what their content engagement cycle might look like. From this you can also map out content you can deliver throughout their buyer’s journey in order to move them closer to the goal.

3.Competitor research

Beating out competitors is probably the main reason behind your content push. Seeing what kind of content your competition is producing is huge for determining what types they lack (where you can gain an advantage!) and what types they excel at (what you need to do better!). An assessment of your competitions content will often include things like an SEO, navigation, social, and archive evaluation.

After you’ve done this research you’ll be armed with all the information you need to create a focused and a cohesive strategy. All in all your strategy will include: your criteria, personas, processes, the platforms you will use to tell your story, and how you will connect them so that they create a cohesive brand conversation.

Before you know it you’ll be ready to start your content marketing campaign with a strategy that will cover the goals you have for your content program, and the unique value you are looking to provide. Good luck!