Content is still a big topic for marketers and is constantly being developed. Victoria Perera, Senior Digital Consultant at Archetype, explains how she deals with the content strategy from day one.
A content strategy is an integral part of your marketing plan and serves both as a guide to the content you want to create and as a benchmark for measuring its success.
Put simply, a content strategy is how to make sure your content is right in line with your business goals and the needs of your customers. It’s an essential part of any marketing campaign.
Here are five key steps you need to take as you develop your content strategy.
1. DefineYour goals
Great content needs to have a purpose and that purpose needs to be defined by clear goals. First, identify: the specific mission, your business and / or marketing goals and your KPIs.
This is where you wonder if content, and therefore a content strategy, is the best way to meet your current business goals. If the answer is yes, go to step 2.
2. Know your audience
The success of your content strategy depends on two elements, your unique selling proposition and, equally important, your audience. That is why it is important to research your existing and desired audience.
There are many readily available tools to accomplish this, such as Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. Don’t forget that research can be your friend too.
Once you have defined your target audience, develop your customer personality (s). That way, you can determine exactly what content your audience is engaging with.
3. Review your content
You have determined who to talk to and what types of content they are engaging with. Now is the time to better understand what your current content is saying and where the gaps are.
Next, analyze what your competition is up to. You can learn as much from what your competitors say as you can from what they don’t. This also helps you identify the niche in the market.
4. Develop content topics
It’s time to turn your audience’s passions, as well as your brand’s strengths and priorities, into the foundations or “themes” of your content strategy.
Use what you know about your audience and leverage your research and content review to answer the following questions:
- What content have you identified that your audience is consuming?
- What do you have the right to speak about as a brand? Are you answering this truthfully as it helps your brand to be more authentic?
- What can you bring as a brand that is new to the conversation?
- On which platforms can you best deliver this content?
5. Match your content to your marketing funnel
First, plan your customer journey using the phases of Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Use, and Advocacy. That way, you can identify the different needs of your customers at different points in the marketing funnel and find out what content is appropriate for each of those needs.
Then, develop your messaging matrix that will help you identify your most important messages and points of evidence. This matrix serves as the backbone of all future communication.
Last but not least, start by mapping your content under the titles hero, hub and hygiene.
- Hero content are important campaign moments that appeal to a large, broad audience.
- Hub content are the regular support stories that continue your narration.
- And Hygiene content is essentially your “Help” content, answering the top questions your customers ask on a regular basis.
By following these five steps you can develop the basics of a content strategy and should be well on your way to producing great material that will resonate with your customers and set you apart from your competitors.
Victoria Perera is a Senior Digital Consultant at Archetype.