How to make your content strategy work for your business

Most of us pick up our phones first thing every morning to browse through streams of interesting content that appeal to us online. We also follow dedicated channels that provide some form of gratification such as humour, smart tips, and so on. In fact, many of us are addicted to such channels and would like to recreate the same content strategy magic with our brand’s presence online. The truth is: a great content strategy can ensure your brand remains visible to your clients.

Great content doesn’t just happen. Like every other successful strategy in business communication and marketing, great content requires a lot of research, strategy and effective platforms to push it.Content marketing is at the core of many modern marketing strategies. Simply put, it is the calculated marketing approach of connecting and engaging with an audience through highly relevant and targeted content. It has been dubbed on of the most effective marketing strategies for businesses (especially small businesses), because of its approachability and affordability.

However, creating a good content marketing strategy can be an intensive and overwhelming process. However, these four steps can help you create a winning content strategy:

·        Research &Analyse – Target Audience, Competition and Trends:  The first step to creating a winning content strategy is gathering information about your audience, your competitors, trends within and outside your industry.

You must know your target demographics, how they behave, influencers they admire/like, and be as objective as possible by conducting market research. What type of content do they like & share? What are their needs? Where do they go to find new information? This will help you planning how best to target them in your choice of topics and platforms.

Assess what your competitors are doing regarding content marketing campaigns. Are they doing nothing? This could be a key advantage for you. Are they failing in some ways? What can you do to improve on them? What are they doing right? Learn a thing or two from them.

Your research should also throw some light on what’s popular at the moment. For example, video continues to be a hot trend in content marketing.

•  Choose the Right Platform:

I am a big advocate of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but of what use is it if your audience isn’t there?

Examine what channels areprominent, particularly with regards to your intended target group. Are there any blogs or social media platforms that stand out to you as notable opportunities? Take note of them, and be sure to include them in your content strategy.

Go where your audience is. It’s really that simple. If the bulk of your audience use LinkedIn to find new information, then, tailor a major part of your content for LinkedIn. You could also explore a media partnership with popular blogs or platforms; the right partnership could in turn accelerate your content marketing.

• Answer this: How should your content strategy lead back to your brand objectives?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step; the same is true for content strategy. However, if you know what success looks like, you will be able to better manage your brand online.

To start with, you need to know what your actual goals are, as content marketing can be used for dozens of different purposes. Next, assign timelines for your content, when do you need to start seeing results and what do you need to get there?

KPIs for content marketing range from – a percentage of qualified leads –number of social shares, reach & engagement – conversion – percentage of returning readers, brand awareness etc. Therefore, evaluate each content by reviewing how it stacks up against the bigger goals.

•  Execute your content strategy:

Execution is the hardest part of getting popular online. It takes a lot of work and most importantly, consistency.

Start from breaking down your tactics intothe following units: topics that support your goals; content form (article, video, images, infographics); who’s responsible (internal team or agency)?; initial publish point; distribution points; proposed date of publication, KPI’s – measurement & tracking and budget.

For many companies or individuals who want to achieve visibility online but are too busy to execute their content strategy, outsourcing is a credible option. Services such as Copyshop host a network of writers and digital marketing experts who ghost write and manage online pages remotely, allowing for productivity of their clients.

In conclusion, content is an essential part of marketing success. Fortunately, when you take these 4 tips to heart, you can quickly build a content strategy that allows you to emerge from the swarm and succeed in business content marketing.

Soyem Osakwe

Soyem Osakwe is the Director, Strategy at Copyshop, a premium content writing service for busy individuals and companies.