Whether it’s annually or quarterly, a good content strategy guides you through a range of marketing activities that actively engage with your audience. Your strategy contributes to an overall marketing plan with coordinated messaging for each activity to stay on brand and drive more conversions.
Content Strategy Goals
The main goal of your content strategy is to increase the number of quality interactions with your brand. Each touchpoint should have its own goals:
• Build Awareness
• More Engagement
• Conversions
All of this requires some trial and error. Fortunately, many aspects of a good strategy have been tested, so you don’t need to waste your time and money.
Do’s and Don’ts for Your Content Strategy
• Do: Define your target audience through their buyer persona.
Your messaging can reach out to different customer segments. Targeting their interests engages with them because personalization is 6X better than generic messaging.
• Don’t: Spam your audience.
Generic or general messaging is less effective and can be detrimental to your brand identity. It’s better not to send a message than it is to send one that looks like spam.
• Do: Determine the types of content you want to create.
Your strategy should bring together as many forms of content as possible: video, infographics, text, podcasts, social media, email, print, traditional media, and more. Each one will work for you in different ways. You will need to determine which ones you need to use and the resources to create them.
• Don’t: Create content for new platforms without researching and testing them first.
Want to build a Tik Tok page? Do some research first because these 30-second videos are not like commercials for TV. There’s always something new on the horizon, but it could become a drain on your resources for little to no return on your investment.
• Do: Create a home for your content.
No matter what business type, content management systems keep all of your work in one place. These allow you to plan, produce, publish and analyze your results. Nothing gets lost, and everyone has 24/7 access to it. Coordinating when and where your content goes will get the most of your messaging and cover a wider swath of customers.
• Don’t: Use Word or Excel for content management.
Manual systems, such as entering data in an Excel worksheet, leaves room for errors. It also is less functional for today’s high-demand content needs. There are other cost-effective ways to house your content.
Perform SEO and Gap Analysis
Finally, an effective content strategy has a lot of analytics to guide it. For example, SEO requires gathering keyword data, such as search volume, difficulty, and CTR. This will give you a greater understanding of what to say and how to say it. A gap analysis (not accounting) will indicate how competing brands deliver their messaging—their approach to content. You want to stand out from them, not blend in. This can make your messaging unique and create more opportunities to be seen.
At Pinstripe, we always want our clients to think strategically before creating a series of videos or a new website. We help by utilizing our years of marketing experience and understanding of what works. Your success begins with a strong content strategy, so contact us to find out how we can tailor-fit one for you today.
