8 key steps to building a content strategy

So you’ve got a new business up and running and it kicks ass. You’re excited, and your team (if you have one) is amped on caffeine and poised for action.

Now you just need to bash out a few blog posts telling potential customers all about your product, right? 

Well, that’s a start, but churning out a random blog post every day, week, month will get old fast - without real direction you’re likely to run out of steam. Not only that, your audience will become confused and unengaged.

You know there are benefits in creating content, but what content, for whom, and why?

A decent content strategy will help you reach marketing goals, establish your brand as an expert and call out to the people you want to reach.

Read below for some step-by-step tips.

What are your goals?

First things first - getting your goals out on the table. There is probably a ton of reasons you want to get content out there, but it could be helpful to have one main goal for your first strategic push.

Check out your sales funnel and define where you could see the most benefit. Are you trying to boost brand awareness, increase subscription sign-ups, attract repeat customers, perhaps?

The content you produce will shift and change with both the needs of your business and your customers, so before you do anything else, identify what it is exactly that you’re trying to solve.

Who is your customer?

If you don’t have buyer personas, now’s the time to create some. If you don’t like that term (I don’t either), then how about ideal clients? Though personas are very much a marketing tool, writers in all kinds of industries envision a specific person to give their work focus and drive. Content marketing isn’t much different.

Who is your specific person? They need to achieve a specific goal - and you are giving them the means to do so. Be sure you have all the details around exactly who they are, how they live and what they believe - and keep them in your head when making all of your content decisions. 

Generate ideas, then bundle them

Yay, it’s the fun bit. You’ve got your content goals and you’ve honed your ideal people - now it’s time to generate the goods.

There are endless ways you can use data, your expert knowledge and trusty imagination to come up with scintillating content ideas for your customers. Think not just about blog posts (though that’s a great place to start) but various media and distribution channels, too. Would your audience appreciate some video tutorials, e-books or guides, an informative podcast?

Even if your budget is small, don’t limit yourself at this stage - every idea counts and should be noted down. Dump all of your ideas onto a page or vision board as they come to you and then group them according to marketing goals and themes. These are the foundations of decent content campaigns, so get excited to begin. 

Use a content calendar

Now you’re neck-deep in content ideas, avoid overwhelm with this essential step. A content calendar allows you to allot each campaign, assigned channels and who is involved in a timelined, methodical fashion for stress-free reference. It will really save you time and energy further down the line. This is when you can pull in some outside contributors such as freelance writers, photographers or influencers and liaise with them on deadlines too.

There are many versions of content calendars; it’s really about finding one that works for you. They can get pretty technical but they’re worth it. 

Produce 

Production line! Get out the PVA and glitter sticks, it’s time to make.

Whether you’re creating video, online guides, blog posts or social media collateral, always try to strike that fine balance between your business goals and keeping your customers engaged. I have so many tips for injecting readability into your written pieces, or you know you could hire a freelancer (?) or rally a network of influencers to help.

Have fun with it, too. If you get some joy out of what you’re putting together, the likelihood is it will translate to your customers.

Assess 

Once you’ve released your wares to the masses and accumulated some data, time to analyse. How is your content being received? There are plenty of indicators for this - views, comments, shares, click-throughs, time spent on page, subscriptions etc. Most importantly, is your main objective for this content being met, or at least getting there? Use these results to inform your next steps. 

Test 

Perhaps a certain topic performed particularly well - could you try this again? If there were other pieces that didn’t resonate as you’d expected, why could this be? Could you tweak and re-release? The results of content can often surprise you and surface some intriguing trends in what gets the attention of your audience. 

Use your findings to get to know your audience

Over time your content machine will become a growing, transient creature with many moving arms, each of which can teach you more and more about your customers and clients.

You’ll learn what your customers respond to and what they’re not bothered about, which topics might incite debate, which stories have gone unexpectedly viral and what kind of content is shared or saved over and over again.

Use your data constantly in accordance with your next company goals to keep momentum going, and you’ll be on your way to cracking that golden content code. 

Need some help coming up with new content ideas? Don’t have any time to write all this stuff? Drop me a line and tell me aaaall about your business. I love to chat.