How to create a content strategy – 7 steps

Gone are the days of push marketing. Who ever bought something because of those annoying in your face ads? Now, it’s all about creating valuable content that has people coming back again and again to you.

Content strategy is NOT selling your products and services. It’s selling your knowledge and developing trust with your customers. Once they view you as someone who is very knowledgeable and helpful about their problems. they will come to you.

Here are 7 tips for creating a content strategy.

1. Determine your goals.
As the old saying goes, “if you don’t know where you’re going then any road will take you there.” What are you trying to accomplish with your content? More customers? More sales? More awareness.

Your content marketing goals should be closely tied in with your overall business goals. For example if one of your business goals is to produce products more efficiently, then one of your content goals might be to solicit customer ideas on how best to do that.

2. Identify who you want to reach.
The marketing lingo for this is “buyer personas.” Be as detailed as you can about this. This goes beyond statistics and demographics. Dig deep to find out behaviors, motivations, likes/dislikes. It helps to put a name to these folks too, say “joe IT nerd.” You want to address their problems with your content. You are not specifically selling your products or services, but rather you are providing interesting and valuable information to your target audience.

3. Identify what problem you are trying to solve.
Craft clear, easily understood messages.

4. Create various types of content.
Do blog posts, create short videos, write white papers, hold webinars. Variety is key.

5. Create an editorial calendar.
This shows what you will publish and when you will publish it.
The fact of writing things down is very powerful.

6. Publish your content on mulitple platforms.
The point is not to overwhelm your audience, but to let them know you’ve published an interesting piece. Let your Facebook fans, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections know you’ve published new content.

7. Measure your results against your goals.
Is it working? If not, change it up. Change when you publish, change what you publish.

Do you have a content strategy? If so, how is it working for you?

Photo is courtesy of jrhode’s Flickr Photostream, under Creative Commons Licensing.