The conventional definition of a content strategy (courtesy of Usability.gov) is that it’s centered on the “planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content.”
That’s a good start, but it’s not enough – because it’s critical to remember that this festive combination of planning, creating, delivering and governing isn’t an end unto itself (or meant to keep content marketers busy!). Rather, the goal of every content strategy is to help achieve specific business objectives, which can include increased brand recognition, leads, customers, revenues and profits.
With this in mind, here are 5 best practices for a winning content strategy:
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Ditch the One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Templates can be wonderful things, and we use them often here for our clients when building things like landing pages or establishing content workflows. However, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all content strategy. Rather, as noted by the Content Marketing Institute, a content strategy has to be created based on each business’s unique brand and marketplace profile.
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Target Buyer Personas
A content strategy should target buyer personas and, specifically, their pain points, goals, needs and aspirations. It should also focus on where they are on their respective nurture tracks. For example, a single buyer persona group can be further broken down into intention tracks (e.g. high intention, mid-level intention, and low intention). A content strategy must reflect this reality in order to ensure that prospects are being engaged with relevant information.
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Write it Down
It’s extremely important to document a content strategy, both so it can serve as a point of reference for all team members, but also so that any gaps can be clearly and proactively identified. For example, laying out the strategy can reveal that buyer personas need to be further developed, that timelines aren’t realistic, that ebooks and other assets need to be created, that SEO is being overlooked, and so on. (By the way, an article by Neil Patel over on Kissmetrics does a great job of highlighting why SEO must be part of a content strategy).
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Share the Strategy
We recommend that you publish the strategy to the cloud or a shared drive, so that team members can access it to help them steer and calibrate their work. However, to ensure version control, don’t allow team members to make changes to the official content strategy. It’s better to have them share their thoughts in a meeting, conference call, or other suitable manner.
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Don’t “Set it and Forget It”
A content strategy is a dynamic document that iterates over time. In other words: as it unfolds, you’ll glean insights and gather data that will help you refine certain aspects – and perhaps reduce or eliminate others. This is not the sign of a flawed content strategy. On the contrary, it’s necessary to ensure that it’s on-track and aligned with what’s really happening in the business and marketplace.
Learn More
Here at Leap Clixx we build customized – and of course, winning – content strategies for each of our customers. To learn more, contact us today and schedule your free, no-obligation consultation.
Your content strategy plays one part of a broader inbound marketing strategy. For more information on inbound marketing as a whole and the best practices, download our FREE eBook:
Topics: Inbound Marketing
