So what is content strategy?

The science behind storytelling, content strategy brings together data, research and some soul to achieve business objectives.

Photo by Hassan Pasha on Unsplash

Content strategy is the process of planning and executing content to achieve business objectives and goals.

The who, the what and the how: 3 applications of content strategy

I like to break content strategy into three:

1. Identity — brand and product narrative, sometimes called “storytelling.”
   The application for identity-related content strategy spans messaging, language and tone of voice. Typical examples for identity-crafting content are a corporate homepage and tone of voice guidelines.
   In many organizations, identity work is traditionally owned by brand marketing specialists.
2. Product and service — content to amplify and enrich user experience.
   Content strategy for product and service focuses on two:
   How and where to use content to enrich the product.
   Topics and messages covered.
   Typical examples for product and service amplifying content are a corporate blog or a section for how-tos on the app. Non-textual content, such as video tutorials or infographics, can also fit the bill.
   These issues are traditionally in the purview of the product or product marketing teams.
3. Content marketing — the use of content to attract an audience.
   Content marketing strategy -

• Pinpoints the topics and messages to cover through content.
• Decides on distribution channels — social media, SEO, native content, influencer marketing, and others.
  In many companies, content marketing is run by the marketing or growth teams.

This Venn diagram illustrates that content strategy applications overlap and differentiate

When executed well, the three areas overlap: your brand’s identity will shine through your product and service-amplifying content, which in turn may end up in social media or hit high rankings on Google. The crossover between identity, product and service, and content marketing-related efforts is a good thing: it creates a holistic feel to the messaging, translating into consistency and credibility. No less critical, the crossover serves for cost-effective, budget-sensitive operation.

That said, not all content is created equal. Content assets differ in:

1. Goals — what do I hope to achieve with this article/blog post/Instagram story/slideshow

2. User behavior — whether and to what extent people read or engage with this article/blog post/Instagram story/slideshow, etc.).

The 5 pillars of a solid content strategy

So how to begin setting up your content strategy? Let’s walk through this step by step.

A successful content strategy is based on 5 pillars that may change over time

1. The company’s reason for being
   Every content strategy begins with a no-nonsense answer to this question:
   what problem does the company’s product or service fix, or what need does it fill?
2. The audience’s reason for wanting
   Defining your target audience is crucial for a content strategy that successfully forges relationships with your audience— and delivers profitability in the long run. There are so many identifiers for the target audience ranging from gender and geography to income level and familial status. Marketing professionals love to dig into these details with relish, as they should.
   These attributes, while important, are not primary: to truly understand your audience, the first question to answer is why your customer needs the problem fixed or the need filled. The reason can be practical or emotional, or both.
   For example, suppose you have an app for smart, automated appointment scheduling. Why would your customers need or want this solution? Possible reasons: they hate dealing with phone calls, or their schedule is too volatile to deal with the hassle manually. Therefore, your target audience is small business owners who dislike phone conversations or have much too erratic schedules. These are much stronger messaging gems than a brush-stroke copy that aims to appeal to all small business owners, or even female small business owners in Raleigh, North Carolina.
   The process of identifying your audience is one of the hardest for many companies. Choosing who belongs to your audience also means excluding cohorts that don’t, and no company wants to give up on the potential for more leads, expanded audience and increased revenues. If an all-too-inclusive strategy tempts you, remember:
   a content strategy that aims to capture everyone will likely attract no one.
3. Goals
   Many companies set to the task of creating content without knowing what they want to achieve. Inspired by rumors that content can do wonders to business, they hire someone to blitz-write a dozen blog posts, each rehashing the same story. Clickbait headline, some bla bla bla in the middle, call-to-action button leading to the company’s homepage at the end, share on social media, and… nothing happens. No click, no leads, no rankings, no downloads. Nada.
   This is often because no goals were defined — for the body of work in general and each content asset in particular.
   Your content goals must serve your business objectives. Some ideas — by no means a conclusive list:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Getting more leads
• Increasing usage by existing customers
• Rankings higher search
• Generating more traffic to the website
• Attracting media attention

4. KPIs

Quantitative KPIs are valuable but tricky. They’re useful because they unify the discourse about the content’s results with unambiguous data, defining what success looks like and what it does not. They’re tricky because numbers can only tell you so much, inevitably leaving some of the juicy bits out of the story.
Many content creators dislike quantitative KPIs, believing the race for more leads, more likes, more volume and higher search rankings devalues their efforts. They lament that the data wrongheadedly gives unmerited credit to lesser work, while better or more creative ideas are pushed to the sidelines in the competitive attention economy.
As a writer, I get this frustration completely.
As a content strategist, I think tough luck. If you want to get more bang for your content buck, you have to measure, track and optimize.

Your KPIs will align with your content goals. Some ideas — again, by no means a conclusive list:

• CTR (on social, website or email)
• Traffic volume (to website)
• Revenue generated through a specific asset (everywhere)
• Time on site/time on page (on website)
• Impressions (on social media)
• Likes, shares (on social media)
• Open rates (for emails)

5. Budget

The more content, the better quality, the more formats, the more channels and the higher production frequency — the costlier it’ll be. The sky’s the limit, and unless you’re Nike or Coca-Cola, your content budget is likely a tad lower than sky-high. Fret not: there’s much you can do with modest budgets.
A solid content strategy will be planned with attention to your budget constraints and budget spread over time.

Armed with clear definitions for all five criteria, you can start rolling. This is not a rigid, one-time process but an evolving introspection: goals and KPIs change, and even the company’s reason for being may pivot. Revisit from time to set the tone for a results-driven content strategy.