How To Create A Successful Content Strategy

In today’s era of digital explosion, we are bombarded with information coming from a multitude of platforms. Being exposed to the constant barrage, audiences have learned the art of carefully segregating useful information from that which holds zilch relevance. Hence, growing demand for impactful content has urged marketers to upgrade their strategies, in- order to rapidly and effectively engage with the audience. They say content is the king, but no king comes to power without prior groundwork. Similarly, content strategy is the king-maker and without innovative framework/ techniques, the king would render useless to his kingdom.  

Content strategy basics

Content strategy is the process that ensures the content is published, edited, republished, repurposed, and archived at the right time. It also consists of planning ahead for content that needs to appear on multiple platforms, a great aid to content marketing, in ways through which information can be personalized, targeting the audience. A successful content strategy needs a lot of thought and efforts put into it, as hasty planning may lead to it backfiring on the content marketing plan. A smart strategy is formed from 2 parts- “people component” and “content component”. People component consists of the workflow (collating the processes and the tools that a content team needs to use to build and target the content to the correct audience) and governance (dealing with the communication structure within the team and work allocation). Whereas, the content component consists of substance (the message, the voice, and the types of content) and structure (building a plan of action, through research and development). The correct balance of these two ensure the build-up of effective, impactful content.  

How important is content strategy for blog/ website

Before planning on how to write successful content for blog and website, a question often crops up in any strategist’s mind- “why do we need a content strategy for our website?”. As our parents often warned us about the perils of working without a plan, we need to understand the importance of strategizing before going ahead. Building content is akin to building a house, which always needs a blueprint. Here, let’s think of the content strategy as a blueprint. If you skip planning your strategy and head straight to the content delivery phase, your content could get way-laid, failing to reach your intended audience or confuse them with unnecessary information. Hence, to progress on how to create valuable content, strategizing is a must.  

Best practices for creating meaningful content

We implicitly stress on building the framework of a successful content strategy, which would enhance the campaign to cover larger bases, while exerting nominal efforts. Here are a few tips that have guided us in creating successful content for our digital campaigns-

1. Define your content goals, outlining the requirements and the focal points that the content needs to cover
2. Have a dedicated content manager/editor, who would ensure that the planning of strategies remain streamlined.
3. Research extensively, to build a base and gather customer insights on which the team can proceed further.
4. Create an editorial calendar, setting up a framework to deliver the content and disseminate it accordingly.
5. Set some metrics, against which you can measure your content marketing’s success to check whether the strategy is moving in the right direction.
6. Plan content for various channels and formats, to ensure that the message is put across in the most optimal level.

Tags :  Content Marketing, Social Media Management, Digital PR