Content strategy

As a nearly graduate of the Content Strategy master’s program, I took the time to reflect on what I’ve learned. It is also a great article to show your friends and family if they are still asking you what your studies involve!

Why you need it

The benefits of having a content strategy are vast. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 53% of companies that have a documented content marketing strategy report higher conversion rates than those that don’t. Similarly, 78% of marketers say that better customer experiences are a direct result of their content strategies.

Content strategies also help with:

• Search engine optimization: Google’s search engine algorithm takes into account many factors when ranking your website, including page speed, text-to-HTML ratio, user experience and usability, and quality of the content (with keywords). Additionally, having relevant and consistent information can help you achieve higher rankings on search engines.
• Brand awareness: By providing helpful and engaging content to your audience (e.g., “how-to” or “behind the scenes” articles), you’re showing them how much you care about them — and about sharing useful knowledge with them for free! The more that customers learn about your product or service through your website’s blog posts or articles section and how it can help them achieve their goals in life, the more likely they’ll be to trust your brand as one that cares and continues to provide value even after they’ve purchased from you.

Where to start

You can start by improving the content you already have. This may include fixing broken links, updating dated content, and making sure that your content is written in plain English — information that is clear, concise, and easy to understand.

Before you start creating new content, it’s always a good idea to assess what you already have. Use these steps to help guide your assessment:

• Review online analytics for your website and social media pages. Reviewing the data will help determine what kind of feedback users are giving on a particular topic or product. You can also use the data to measure overall satisfaction with existing content across your channels. Once you’ve determined what type of feedback users are giving, make sure that feedback is used to update existing content or create new content based on those needs.
• Review existing customer service records and other internal documents (e.g., policies, procedures) which provide insight into frequently asked questions or common concerns related to products/services or topics of interest for customers/users

What to focus on

As a content strategist, you’re probably used to mapping out the full experience for your customers — and that should include what content your team creates.

When you create a content strategy, it’s important to understand how your audience finds you on the web and what search terms they use. To help guide their journey from discovery to purchase, you want to make sure there is content available when they need it. It pays to do keyword research before starting so that you understand:

• What keywords you’re currently ranking for — and where your website falls short
• The types of customers visiting your site and what they are looking for on each page
• What kind of content is already available on your site — are there gaps? Are there opportunities?

How to create it

• Create a list of content you want to create. For each piece, describe the goal of the content, what format it will take, and the target audience and persona for each piece. If you have content that already exists on your site, you’ll also want to include an analysis of what’s working with it and why. This can be done by looking at analytics or just based on intuition from your experience with the site so far.
• Create a calendar that lists when you want to publish each piece of content. You may need to use different time frames for different pieces (weekly vs quarterly). Be sure to leave some flexibility in here for unexpected topics that come along between now and then. It’s important that these timelines are realistic and realistic together as well — you don’t want too many pieces coming out at once. At a larger company, this is where team roles become important — who is responsible for creating which piece?
• Create a document that lists who is responsible for creating each piece of content. Who writes? Who edits? Who decides? What quality controls are needed?

Who to hire

A content strategist is a specialist who will investigate and analyze your company’s needs, opportunities, and problems. A good strategist will get to know your business objectives and work with you to develop a strategy that achieves them.

For example, they might help you:

• identify knowledge gaps or inconsistencies in the information you’re currently providing
• determine where there are opportunities for content creation (e.g., white papers) that can drive revenue
• develop go-to-market strategies for new products

A content strategy makes your business more visible.

A content strategy is only one part of what makes your business visible online. It’s a crucial part, however, because a well-planned, well-executed content strategy ensures that the content you’re making is aligned with your business goals and helps you achieve them. When the right people see your content at the right time and it’s exactly what they need, that’s when things really click into place.

Additionally, having a content strategy allows you to be more efficient with your content. You’ll have a plan for what to create and when to publish it, so you won’t find yourself scrambling at the last minute to come up with something new (and possibly off-brand).

Finally, having a documented content strategy helps in terms of measuring whether or not your efforts are working. Using analytics tools such as Google Analytics can help you track results over time and make adjustments where needed.

More information about Content Strategy master’s program can be found here

Please feel free to contact me on LinkedIn if you have any questions :)