Content creation is the process of researching, writing, editing and publishing content for your target audience. Having a solid content creation strategy is key to producing high-quality, valuable content that attracts and retains an audience. Here we’ll explore some of the most important elements to consider when developing a content creation strategy.
Know your audience
The first and most critical step in developing a content strategy is getting to know your target audience. You need to understand who they are, what they care about, their pain points and goals. Some key questions to ask:
- Who is your ideal customer or audience? Be as specific as possible in defining them.
- What content formats do they prefer – written, audio, video, imagery?
- Where are they most active online?
- What are their interests, pains, and goals?
- What language and terminology do they use?
- What questions would they have that your content can address?
Conduct user research through surveys, interviews, and reviewing analytics to build your audience profile. This will allow you to create content tailored to their needs.
Set content goals
Set specific, measurable goals for what you want to achieve with your content. Common content goals include:
- Generate leads
- Increase website traffic
- Boost brand awareness
- Increase sales revenue
- Improve lead conversion rates
- Reduce customer support questions
- Build loyalty and retention
Align your goals to broader business objectives. Having clear goals will help inform the best topics and formats to invest in.
Audit existing content
Conduct an audit of your existing content across all platforms – website, blog, social media, videos etc. Analyze:
- What content already exists?
- How does it align to your goals and audience needs?
- What topics have strong performing content?
- What content gaps need to be filled?
- What content needs updating?
- Which formats and topics resonate best?
Use the audit findings to shape your content plan, identifying strengths to build on and weaknesses to improve.
Create an editorial calendar
An editorial calendar helps you plan and organize your content over time. Essential elements include:
- Content topics and angles
- Formats – written, video, audio, imagery
- Length and depth of content
- Publication dates and frequency
- Person responsible for creating the content
- Promotional plans
Take into account seasonality, upcoming events, product launches, holidays and other real-world happenings that present content opportunities. Schedule both recurring evergreen content and time-sensitive pieces.
Tools for editorial calendars
There are many software tools available to help plan and manage editorial calendars, such as:
- Asana
- Trello
- CoSchedule
- Monday.com
- Google Calendar
- Airtable
Define your content pillars and themes
Identify the main content pillars and themes that align to your goals, audience needs and business focus. For example:
- Industry specific topics
- Audience pain points and needs
- Product/service features
- Company news and culture
- Thought leadership and expertise
Drill down into subtopics under each pillar. Content pillars provide a framework for planning various pieces that support broader themes and objectives.
Diversify content formats
Vary your content formats to appeal to different audience preferences and learning styles. Types of content to consider include:
- Blog articles
- eBooks and whitepapers
- Videos – explainer, how-to, interviews etc.
- Podcasts
- Webinars and virtual events
- Research reports and surveys
- Infographics
- Social media – visual, video, Stories
- Email newsletters
Experiment to see which formats best fit your goals, resources and audience. Measure engagement to identify what resonates.
Optimize content for SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) should be a core component of your content strategy. Tactics include:
- Conduct keyword research to identify terms and topics to target.
- Optimize content with strategic keyword placement.
- Craft compelling title tags and meta descriptions.
- Include alt text for images and videos.
- Structure content with SEO-friendly headings and lists.
- Format content for readability – spacing, fonts, subheads.
- Interlink relevant content across your site.
- Produce long-form in-depth content when appropriate.
SEO-optimized content will help you rank higher in search and reach people searching for your products, services and subjects.
Leverage data and insights
Leverage data and analytics to make informed decisions about your content. Key metrics to track include:
- Traffic sources – where visitors come from and how they arrive at your content.
- Top landing pages – most popular content.
- Engagement metrics – time on page, bounce rates, scroll depth.
- Conversions – leads, sales, sign-ups.
- Backlinks – monitor links to your content.
- Social shares and clicks.
- Search rankings and keywords.
Continuously optimize based on performance data to produce more of what works and refine what doesn’t.
Promote and amplify content
Dedicate time and resources to promoting your content across channels. Promotion tactics include:
- Social media posts – share your own content across networks.
- Paid social ads – amplify top performing pieces.
- Email newsletters – share with email subscribers.
- Website highlights – showcase important content.
- Outreach and PR – pitch relevant content to media.
- Influencer marketing – work with industry experts.
- Organic social engagement – interact and share others’ content.
Promotion expands your reach and helps build authority. Coordinate a complete distribution plan for each piece of content.
Foster content collaboration
Enable collaboration and unity across teams involved in content creation, such as writers, designers, sales, executives and subject experts. Strategies include:
- Centralize content in one publishing platform.
- Use project management tools to assign and track content tasks.
- Conduct brainstorming sessions to spark ideas.
- Gather input from other teams to shape content approach.
- Keep stakeholders informed on content performance.
Smooth collaboration results in more aligned, high-quality content.
Maintain consistent branding
Content should consistently align with and reinforce your desired brand image. Ways to achieve this include:
- Establish a style guide with brand guidelines, voice, tone and terminology.
- Use branded visual assets – logos, colors, fonts, imagery.
- Showcase your unique value proposition and differentiators.
- Highlight company culture and personality.
- Review content for messaging alignment.
A steady branded presence across all content will strengthen your brand identity in the marketplace.
Provide value to your audience
Ultimately your content needs to provide value to your audience to keep them engaged over time. Useful types of value include:
- Informative – educate and answer questions.
- Entertaining – provide enjoyable, interesting content.
- Inspirational – motivate and uplift.
- Actionable – share how-tos and advice.
- Community – foster connections and belonging.
Know what your audience cares about and create content that enrich their lives in some way.
Conclusion
Developing a robust content creation strategy takes research, planning and optimization. But the investment pays dividends through increased brand awareness, engagement, leads and revenue over the long-term. Keep your audience needs and business goals at the heart of your approach. And consistently experiment, measure data and refine your efforts to maximize content effectiveness.