You know you need content to nurture and educate your audience. Plus, that’s where your search engine optimization comes from. But without a strategy, there’s really no reason to create the content in the first place. Do you know the essential elements in your content strategy?
Developing quality content is so much more than just having an epiphany and creating a blog post, YouTube video or podcast episode. There’s a lot of back-end work that needs to happen before you decide on a topic and create the content.
Know what your goals are
Content for the sake of content isn’t a strategy. It’s noise. Make sure you know what your business goals are so you can create the content that helps to drive traffic to (and raise awareness about) the think you want to spotlight or sell. Without goals in mind, you’re wasting a lot of time and confusing your audience.
“Content for the sake of publishing content isn’t a strategy.”
Know who you’re talking to
You need to have an audience who you’re creating content for so you know what to actually create and how to create it. If you don’t have a good handle on who your audience is, you can poll who is currently on your email list–or ask some folks who are your ideal audience members (the people you’re already working with or would love to work with).
Consistent, sharable content
There’s no strategy if you don’t have content in the first place, right? You need to have consistent content shared across your online platforms on a consistent basis. That doesn’t mean you need new content every day or every week, but it does mean that you need to have a schedule for creating and sharing content–and then stick to it. Not only that, but you need share buttons on any marketing content you post on your website (think blog posts, embedded YouTube videos and podcast show notes) so your followers can easily share it when they find it valuable.
Use a client journey map
You have business goals. Is your content driving the right traffic to the right places so you can meet those business goals? A customer journey map outlines exactly what content you need, at what stage of your audience’s journey with your brand. And knowing what content you need will help you walk them through each step and on to the next one.
Want more about the client journey? Grab the free ebook!
Know where to publish the content
Hitting “publish” on your primary content (your blog, YouTube videos or podcast) isn’t enough. You also need to share that content so your audience knows it’s there. While the customer journey map can help you decide where to share, you should always share it on your primary social media channels and in your email marketing. Especially your email marketing–one of the most important elements of your content strategy!
Know how you’re going to tie the content pieces into one another
No single piece of content should ever stand alone. There are so many ways to tie different pieces of content together, from including links of older content in new content, embedding videos into your blog posts and sharing it in emails. But even more importantly, theme your content so you’re talking about similar topics across all your platforms in any given week, month or quarter. This is how you become known for a particular skill or in a specific industry.
Pay attention to your analytics
You have a solid strategy and you’re creating consistent content, but no one seems to be paying attention. If you haven’t looked at your analytics lately, that’s the first place to go. You need to know what content people are paying attention to and what they’re not seeing. It could be that what you’re publishing just isn’t resonating with your people, or it could be that your publishing in the wrong places for where your audience is in their journey with you. Whatever it is, you need to pay attention to which content is getting seen so you know what to type of content to create!
“No matter who your audience is or where you’re sharing your content, email marketing needs to be part of your overall content strategy.”
Email marketing needs to be part of it
No matter who your audience is or where you’re sharing your content, email marketing absolutely must be part of your overall content strategy. Think of it as THE essential element in your content strategy. Regular nurturing emails are your ticket directly into your audience’s inbox–something that can’t be taken away by a free social media platform. You’re much more likely to reach your audience in their inbox because email doesn’t have crazy algorithm changes that you need to keep tabs on. Not only that, but regular nurturing emails actually nurture your audience by sharing valuable information that they can’t get anywhere else.
If you’re not sure where to start with your email marketing, it’s time to get on track! Learn how to use emails to nurture and grow your list consistently so your people are there and primed when it’s time to sell to them. Check out Easy Peasy Email Marketing.
