Top five tips to creating a content strategy that gets results

Top five tips to creating a content strategy that gets results 

Creating content without a strategy or plan is a bit like trying to build a house without knowing how many bedrooms you need or what you want it to look like. You might produce four walls, but the house layout might not work for you and before you know it you’ve outgrown the space. 

When you’re creating content, you don’t want your brand to outgrow it - you want your brand to grow with it. Creating a clear plan and strategy will not only give you a focus for today, but will make sure you’re building towards your long-term goals and objectives. But it can be overwhelming. Here are five tips on how you could get started with a content strategy today:

Set your goals

Before you do anything, be clear and intentional about what you’re trying to achieve. Write down your goals and objectives - are you trying to build brand awareness? Drive traffic to a certain channel? Generate leads? Establish authority? Think about your goals as it will determine the type of content you create and how you measure success.

Understand your audience

Once you’ve defined your own goals and objectives and your brand voice and personality, it’s time to look at your audience. Content strategies work best when they’re clearly built around an audience, based on stats not assumptions. Consider using audience analysis software and platforms to dig a little deeper into your ideal consumer - what are their habits? How do they like to consume content? What’s important to them? What problem are you trying to solve for them? The better you understand who you’re talking to, the more value you can add to their lifestyle. As a creative marketing agency based in Bournemouth, many of our clients are looking for insights on coastal living. But geo-data is just one way you can analyse your audience; we also work with clients all over the country who have a global audience so often take a more holistic approach to consumer behaviour and habits. Either way, make data your friend! 

Discover your value proposition

Working with your brand tone of voice and audience data, can you find the white space? What does your brand do differently to everyone else? Why choose you over other brands? Try looking at your competition to understand what others are saying about their offer - is there a way you can differentiate yours to stand out? Defining your core proposition and key messages will give you the framework you need to create a clear, compelling and consistent narrative - essential for brand building.

Create a channel plan

Once you have the foundation of what you’re saying and who it’s for, you can start to look at the best channels to reach your audience. Consider the different channels and which ones will best support your goals and objectives. Once you’ve got this, you can start to build a content plan - looking at how you can flex content (blogs, social posts, podcasts, video) for the best results.

Test and learn

A strong content strategy is one that’s always evolving. Content is always changing, and consumer habits are ever-evolving and so should you. Make a conscious effort to check in monthly on your content strategy and assess what’s working. Collate statistics across various channels, look at the metrics that support your goals and define how you could improve on them. Creating a content strategy is all about testing what works and tweaking it as you go. 

Ready to create your content strategy? Get in touch.