Are you a struggling small business owner trying to figure out the best ways to expand your audience?
Are you an online marketer searching to build a strategy that can take your marketing campaigns to the next level?
No matter what stage of growth your business is in, having a comprehensive, well-thought-out content strategy can be an invaluable asset.
This guide will review what goes into creating and executing high-quality content strategies so that you can unlock the potential of even the most challenged businesses.
Ready to dive in? Let’s get started!
What is a Content Strategy?
A content strategy is the systematic planning, development, and management of content to achieve specific goals.
It involves researching the target audience’s needs and preferences in order to create content that resonates with them.
In other words, content strategy is a specific blueprint for crafting, publishing, and managing all of your content.
It provides comprehensive guidance throughout the entire process, such as:
- Writing. The aim of creating content (be it articles, blog posts, or social media messages and comments – or outsourcing the job to someone else), is to captivate your readership and give them relevant information.
- Curating. With the right mix of your own content and credible material from other trustworthy sources, you can keep your audience engaged while nurturing beneficial relationships within the industry.
- Posting multimedia. To capture and captivate your audience, the multimedia components of your content must be in sync with your business objectives while still providing engaging information and entertainment.
- Delivering content. A critical part of a good marketing strategy lies in making sure you are consistently and frequently delivering quality content to your audience, keeping them engaged with your brand.
- Being Consistent. When your content is finally published, it’s not the end of your work. Some pieces will remain active indefinitely and need to be regularly updated, while others are only applicable for a specific period before being taken down. Thus, keep track of all the material you post in order to ensure that your readers don’t miss out on important information!
- Building connections with your audience. What’s more, it’s essential to not only accept but also actively participate in conversations with your audience by responding to their feedback.
Content Strategy Benefits
Creating a content strategy can be incredibly beneficial for your business in various ways.
In particular, it can help you:
• Expand your reach and visibility
• Improve organic search engine rankings
• Increase engagement with customers and prospects
• Generate more sales leads
• Build trust and credibility with your audience
• Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry
Expand Your Reach and Visibility
Content is a great way to get your brand out there and help people find you.
Through content, you can reach both existing and new customers quickly as well as increase the visibility of your offers and services.
By creating interesting, relevant content for specific topics or audiences, you can open up channels for new leads and conversions to enter the sales funnel.
Improve Organic Search Engine Rankings
Having a content strategy also helps your business website rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This is because content creation and optimization can help improve your website’s relevancy, authority, and trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines.
Google and other major search engines are consistently scanning websites for content that’s relevant to their users’ queries.
Increase Engagement With Customers and Prospects
Content is a great way to engage prospects and customers.
By providing helpful resources, such as blog posts, videos, or social media updates, you can foster engagement and encourage your audience to take action.
This can help you build brand loyalty and create opportunities for further engagement in the future.
Generate More Sales Leads
Creating content that’s optimised for search engine visibility can result in more organic leads entering your sales funnel.
When prospects search for products or services related to yours, they’ll be exposed to your content and can then be prompted to inquire about your offerings.
Build Trust and Credibility With Your Audience
Your content should be authoritative, accurate, and trustworthy so that people know they can rely on it for advice.
By clearly stating facts and statistics in a credible manner, you can build trust with your audience and gain their confidence.
Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader in Your Industry
Finally, content creation can help you establish yourself as a thought leader and expert in your industry.
By sharing useful information, such as tutorials, case studies, and best practices, you can position yourself as an authority in the space and help build your brand’s reputation.
How To Create A Content Strategy
Now that you understand the benefits of content strategy, let’s look at the steps for building one for your business.
- Set Goals
- Research Your Target Audience
- Do a Content Audit
- Choose Your Type of Content
- Research Topic Ideas
- Manage Your Editorial Calendar
- Create a Promotion Plan
1. Set Goals
The first step in creating a content strategy is to set clear goals for your business.
These could include increasing website traffic, improving ranking on search engines, or engaging more prospects and customers.
They should also be specific and measurable—for example, you might aim to increase website traffic by 25% in the next three months.
The goal you set is the critical factor for deciding the kind of content and channels to utilise for each marketing activity.
To help you out, think of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based).
And whatever goal you choose, make sure that it’s achievable and relevant to your business:
- Brand Awareness
- Traffic Increase
- Lead Generation
- Customer Conversion
- Customer Loyalty
- Upselling
Brand Awareness
It means raising awareness about your product or service among the target audience.
To achieve this, content could include visuals such as videos and infographics; blog posts discussing topics related to the product; and social media campaigns.
Traffic Increase
Content strategies aimed at increasing website traffic involve creating and distributing content that appeals to the target audience.
This could include producing instructional videos, how-tos, tutorials, and ebooks.
Lead Generation
This goal revolves around gathering leads in order to convert them into long-term customers.
Content should be directed towards educating the reader—including helpful tips and tutorials—and should contain effective calls to action throughout.
Online forms and landing pages should be used to capture contact information from visitors, such as email addresses or phone numbers.
Customer Conversion
Content aimed at customer conversion focuses on nurturing leads and converting them into paying customers.
Content here should be tailored to each step of the purchase process, from initial awareness to post-purchase.
Blog posts, case studies, and product reviews can all help increase customer conversion rates.
Customer Loyalty
Once customers have purchased a product or service, it’s important to keep them interested and engaged.
Content should be focused on delivering value, such as loyalty programs and exclusive offers.
This kind of content often makes use of stories to showcase customers’ successes, or advice from industry experts to answer their questions.
Upselling
Finally, upselling involves selling more products or services to existing customers.
Content here should focus on the benefits of the product or service, such as increased functionality or more cost-saving options.
Businesses can use email campaigns to educate customers on related products and services and use visuals to create attractive offers.
2. Research Your Target Audience
Once you’ve set your goals, the next step is to research your target audience.
Knowing who your customers are and what they’re looking for will help you create content that resonates with them.
You should consider factors such as demographics, interests, needs, and pain points when crafting content strategies.
You can use surveys, market research, and analytics tools to better understand the needs of your target audience.
This will help you tailor content to certain segments within the population, such as age groups or gender.
It’s also important to stay up-to-date on industry trends in order to create content strategies that remain relevant and effective.
Here are some practical tips to take to research your target audience:
- Use Google Analytics
- Study Social Media Analytics
- Create a Buyer Persona
Use Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides valuable insights into your website visitors, such as their location, age, device type, and interests.
This data can be used to better understand your target audience and create content accordingly.
Study Social Media Analytics
Social media analytics are also helpful in understanding who is engaging with your website and what kind of content resonates best with them.
Tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social provide insights such as post impressions, reach, engagement rates, and more.
Create a Buyer Persona
Creating a buyer persona can help you gain an even deeper understanding of your target audience’s needs and interests.
A buyer persona is an in-depth profile of a potential customer. It includes their goals, pain points, and other demographic information.
This can help you create content that is specifically designed to address the needs of your target audience.
For example, if your buyer persona is a small business owner looking for ways to increase website traffic, then creating instructional videos or blog posts about SEO would be a great strategy.
By understanding your customers’ needs and interests, you can create content that resonates with them and drives conversions.
3. Do a Content Audit
Once you have a better understanding of your target audience, it’s time to run a content audit.
This involves going through all of the content on your website and assessing its quality and effectiveness.
For example, you should look for any outdated or irrelevant articles that need to be updated or removed.
You should also be looking for content gaps, such as topics that have not been covered in depth or areas where more information is needed.
Doing a content audit will help you identify any weak points in your current marketing strategy and determine which areas need improvement.
It can also help you see what kind of content has resonated with your audience in the past and inform your future strategies.
The practical steps to run a content audit are:
- Collect Your URLs
- Categorise Your Content
- Analyse Your Content
Collect Your URLs
The first step is to collect all of the URLs of your existing content.
You can do this manually by going through your website, or you can use a tool like Screaming Frog to generate an SEO audit report with all of your URLs.
Categorise Your Content
Once you’ve collected your URLs, the next step is to categorise them.
This means grouping content into different topics or categories in order to make it easier to identify content gaps.
Analyse Your Content
The last step is to analyse your content.
You should assess the quality, relevance, and effectiveness of each piece.
Note which content has had high engagement rates and which ones haven’t been as successful.
By completing this process, you can gain valuable insights into your target audience and create strategies that will drive success for your business.
4. Choose Your Type of Content
Now that you’ve done your research and content audit, it’s time to decide what type of content you want to create.
Do you want to focus on blog posts, videos, podcasts, or something else?
The best way to determine which type of content is most effective for your business is by testing different types and seeing which ones drive the most engagement.
For example, if you want to see how videos perform compared to blog posts, create both and track their performance over time.
By experimenting with different content types, you can get a better understanding of what resonates best with your audience.
Once you’ve identified which type of content works best, you can focus your efforts on that and create a powerful marketing strategy.
No matter what type of content you decide to create, remember to keep it interesting, engaging, and relevant to your target audience.
To help you out, choose among these types of content:
- Blog Posts
- Videos
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- eBooks
- Case Studies
Blog Posts
These are the most common types of content and are a great way to provide valuable information to your audience.
You can write about topics related to your industry or create helpful tutorials on how to use your product or service.
Blog posts should be easy-to-read and well-written, so be sure to invest in quality copywriting services if needed.
Videos
Videos are one of the most effective ways to engage your audience and build brand awareness.
From explainer videos to product demonstrations, there’s no shortage of possibilities when it comes to video content.
Just be sure that your videos are high-quality and well-edited so as not to turn off potential customers.And don’t forget to optimise your videos for SEO!
Infographics
Infographics are a great way to present complex information in an easily digestible format.
You can use them to explain complicated topics or share data-driven insights that help you stand out from your competition.
Just remember to make sure your infographics are visually appealing and informative at the same time.
Podcasts
Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular and can be a great way to add audio content to your content strategy.
You can use them to share industry insights or have interesting conversations with thought leaders in your field.
eBooks
Creating an eBook is another great way to provide valuable, in-depth information to your audience.
You can use it to provide comprehensive tutorials or provide detailed explanations of complex topics related to your business.
Case Studies
Case studies are a great way to show the effectiveness of your product or service in real-world scenarios.
This type of content is especially effective for B2B businesses as it helps show potential customers the value of your offering.
5. Research Topic Ideas
Now it’s time to come up with ideas for content that you can create.
Start by researching topics related to your industry or product and look for ideas that will be of interest to your target audience.
You should also make sure the subjects are relevant and timely so that they’ll be of more value to readers.
You can also use keyword research tools to help you identify topics that will draw more attention from search engines.
Try one of these ways to come up with content ideas:
- Monitor industry trends and news
- Ask questions to your customers
- Look for inspiration from competitors
- Use keyword research tools
Monitor Industry Trends and News
Keeping up with the latest news and trends in your industry can help you come up with content ideas that will be relevant and helpful to your audience (think of Google Trends, for example).
You can also use a news monitoring tool or create industry-specific Google Alerts to stay on top of the latest happenings in your field.
Ask Questions to Your Customers
Asking questions to your customers is another great way to brainstorm ideas.
You can ask them about their needs, challenges, and pain points that you can address in your content.
Look for Inspiration from Competitors
Taking a look at what your competitors are doing can give you some insight into topics to write about and content formats to use.
Just be sure not to copy their ideas directly, but rather use them as a springboard for creating your own unique content.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Using keyword research tools can help you identify topics that are more likely to attract search engine traffic.
These tools will provide you with insight into topics that people are searching for and provide you with a list of keywords related to those topics.
You can then use these terms to create content that is more likely to show up in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Some of the most popular ones are Google Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, and Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
6. Manage Your Editorial Calendar
Once you have identified the topics to write about, it’s time to organise your content and create an editorial calendar.
An editorial calendar will help you plan out the topics and formats of your content, as well as set deadlines for when each piece needs to be published.
It can also help you stay organised and make sure that you are consistently creating content.
There are a number of tools available to help you with that, such as Trello, Asana, and CoSchedule.
To create your editorial calendar, be sure to consider these tips:
- Plan in Advance
- Think Evergreen
- Make It Flexible
- Consider Your Audience
Plan in Advance
Planning your content in advance will help you stay on track and ensure that all deadlines are met.
Think Evergreen
Creating evergreen content is also an important part of your content strategy.
This is content that remains relevant for a long time and can be used as a base for other pieces.
Make It Flexible
Your content calendar should also be flexible enough to accommodate changes and new ideas.
Consider Your Audience
Finally, when creating content, always consider your audience first.
- What topics are they interested in?
- What types of formats do they prefer?
Answering these questions will help you create content that is more likely to resonate with your users.
7. Create a Promotion Plan
Once you have created your content, it’s time to spread the word about it.
Creating a promotion plan will help you ensure that your content reaches the right people and encourages them to engage with it.
There are a number of ways you can promote your content, such as:
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Forums and discussion boards
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
Social Media
Social media is a great way to promote your content and engage with your audience.
You can use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, or Instagram to share your content and interact with your followers.
Email Marketing
You can also use email marketing campaigns to reach out to potential customers or those who have already expressed an interest in your products or services.
Influencer Marketing
Working with influencers can also be an effective way to promote your content.
Forums and Discussion Boards
Another great way to spread the word about your content is to join forums or discussion boards related to your industry and share valuable insights and advice (think of Quora, for example).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using SEO techniques can help you optimise your content for search engines, making it easier to find.
How to Measure the Success Of Content Strategy
Once you have implemented your content strategy, it’s important to measure its success.
This can help you identify areas that need improvement and adjust your strategy as needed.
Some metrics you can use to measure the performance of your content include:
- Engagement rate
- Bounce rate
- Traffic
- Conversion rate
- Time on page
- Social media shares
Engagement Rate
The engagement rate is a metric that measures the level of engagement with your content.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a measure of how many people leave your website after viewing only one page.
Traffic
Measuring the amount of traffic to your website can help you track the success of your content.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate measures the number of people who take a desired action (e.g. signing up for an email list, making a purchase, etc.) after viewing your content.
Time on Page
Time on page is a measure of how long people spend on your website or blog post.
Social Media Shares
The number of social media shares can be a good indicator of how well your content is resonating with your audience.
By tracking these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t. This will help you refine your content to ensure that it is effective in driving results.
Most of these KPIs can be easily tracked using analytics tools.
The most popular (and free) way to monitor those key performance indicators is Google Analytics.
GA gives you detailed insights into how your content is performing and whether or not it is achieving the desired outcomes.
From real-time activities to acquisition reports, you can use Google Analytics to measure the success of your content strategy.
Content Strategy FAQ
Q: What is the difference between content strategy and content marketing?
A: Content strategy is the process of developing a content plan that aligns with the goals of your business. Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing content that will engage and convert your audience.
Q: How often should I post content?
A: It depends on the type of content you’re creating and the goals of your content strategy. Generally, it’s recommended to post content on a regular basis in order to keep your audience engaged.
Q: What are examples of content strategy?
A: Content strategy can include things like developing a content calendar, creating content for various channels (e.g. website, social media, etc.), and using SEO techniques to optimise your content for search engines.
Q: Is there a content strategy framework?
A: Yes, there are a number of content strategy frameworks that can be used as a starting point for developing your content plan.
Final Words
Content strategy is an essential component of any successful business and can be the difference between success and failure.
By understanding what goes into creating and executing content strategies, you can set yourself up for success and unlock the potential of even the most challenged businesses.
From developing a content calendar to measuring KPIs, following these steps will help ensure that your content strategy is effective and achieving the desired outcomes.
Good luck with expanding your business!