Creating great content strategy for your business

Content strategy is a map which helps your

business get to its destination, in terms of

increasing visibility, attracting leads and/or

goodwill. It involves all aspects of content –

written, images, videos, etc. Wikipedia defines

content strategy as the planning,

development, and management of content—

written or in other media. In fact, if you are

already posting on social media pages or

blogging you are already producing content!

The benefits of creating a great content

strategy can be summarised as follows:

- Position your business to attract prospects

– partners, investors, clients, etc.

- Position your business to attract the right

employees/talent

- Position your business to attract goodwill

To realise the benefits above, it is important

to create a content strategy strong enough to

drive your business online.

Here’s how to create a great content strategy

for your business:

Determine your objectives

Your content strategy must be driven by what

you want your business to achieve in the long

run. Your content plan is a series of activities

which will help your business achieve its

online strategy. So your content strategy is

actually a combination of content plans over

a certain period.

To determine your objectives, answer the

following questions:

 

What content strategy tactics have your

competitors used? What’s working for them

and what’s not? Would you like to increase

visibility of your business, position your

business as a lead in a certain market or

attract goodwill for your business? Is your

content strategy more of a public relations or

marketing tool? What are your values and

your end goals?

It is important to consider your type of

business and your company values when

drawing up a strategy. For example, a

company with a five year exit plan will have a

different strategy from a family owned

business.

Online marketer and entrepreneur, Neil Patel,

adds the following to help you define your

objective: Do you want to drive foot traffic to

your shop or office? Do you want to increase

sales or generate leads? Do you want to

attract prospects from outside of your local

area? Do you want to attract clients from

overseas? Do you want to educate prospects

and customers on what you do? Do you want

to update your customers on what’s going on

with your business? Do you want to build a

brand?

Research content ideas

Next, focus on each content plan. Recall that

your content plan must be time-driven else it

is no longer a plan. Before you draw up a

plan is important that you brainstorm with

your team and research possible content

ideas. Getting your team to brainstorm will

produce several ideas which can then be

expanded to workable themes, central to your

business content.

During research determine what your budget

can handle. Video-based content are usually

more expensive than text-based so if you are

a small business you may focus more on

content types that your budget can handle.

Other ideas to include are interviews, press

releases, blog posts, social media posts and

others.

Produce content

In line with the above, the next step is to

produce your content. This is based on the

content types outlined in your plan and

budget. Online productivity writer, Bryan

Collins, gives the following helpful tips for

content production:

Write about what’s new or trending; for

example, when your business develops a new

partnership or launches a new product or

service. Sometimes it’s worth interviewing

stakeholders.

Several hundred words are more than enough

to engage any reader; if it is too long it will

lose the interest of readers.

Include relevant keywords and search terms

in your articles.

Don’t forget to incorporate internal and

external links to sections on your website.

At the end of a piece, include a strong call to

action. Examples include: subscribe to my

newsletter or register your account now.

If you have a small team, let an article or clip

gestate for a day or two before publishing it.

This gives you time to run a fresh eye or ear

over the piece and edit as necessary.

Share and track

Finally, it’s time to share your content.

Beyond sharing, incorporate ways of

monitoring and tracking how and why

audience engage with your content in line

with your objectives. Tracking helps you

determine what works and what doesn’t so

you can tweak and adjust until your content

strategy is great enough to help your

business reach its destination.

Ways to help you track include monitoring

through Google Analytics and social media

reports, comments on pages, inquiries and

follow up on your contact details and so on.

Conclusion

Content strategy can help build a stronger

brand online. But with so little time, you may

be overwhelmed on where to start or be at a

loss on how to differentiate your business

from others. With the tips above you are

better equipped to draw up a solid content

strategy for your business.