5 Considerations When Developing an Effective Content Strategy

Content is what keeps the social media engine burning – and it’s also one of the most challenging aspects of engaging your audience. The most successful digital presence begins with a cohesive, and well-articulated strategy.  Use yours as a structure to reach your desired target audiences, hone your voice, and focus your content creation efforts.  

Whether you’re just getting started or working to refine your strategy, it all starts with identifying and establishing clear business goals and asking yourself these questions. 

Who is your audience? 

With any content strategy, it’s important to keep your audience in mind. Not all audiences will be the same or have the same needs. That means even if you’re trying to reach a broad swath of people, chances are you shouldn’t be creating content for “everyone”.   

Look at current customers and your ideal prospects to help create buyer personas. Once you have an understanding of their demographics, needs, and barriers you’ll be better positioned to map their customer journey and, just as importantly, create content that meets those needs and answers common questions before they have to ask them. 

Why are you creating content? 

This is where those goals we talked about come into play. As you develop each content piece be sure to keep the “why” behind it in mind. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to raise awareness or increase the conversion rate for key events on your website?  

The key themes that make up your content marketing strategy should help to support your overarching brand goals. Want to position your brand as a thought leader? Maybe showcasing your newest research is the way to do so. Ready to show a little personality? Highlighting your team through a series of social media posts could help build community. Is your product or service complex? Demonstrating it in action could be a great way to help show users the benefits. 

Where will you distribute your content? 

Another key consideration is where your content will live and how you’ll share it with your audience. While more and more people are using social media as a search engine it’s not the only medium to consider when publishing your content mix.  

As you’re developing this piece of your content strategy, keep your target audience and where they consume media in mind. Should you be partnering with trusted influencers to spread the word on social media platforms? Does your audience spend more time on LinkedIn than on platforms like TikTok and Instagram? Are they avid blog readers or would they prefer to receive updates in an email newsletter? Having a strong understanding of your audience can help answer these questions and more. 

What will your publishing cadence be? 

When it comes to social media content, brands with the strongest presence will post multiple times a week. In fact, LinkedIn reports that brand pages that post daily see 2x the member engagement. While other mediums, like blog posts and email, have a bit more flexibility, it’s important to remember that consistency is key. 

Whether you’re just getting started or working on refining your strategy, it’s better to have a few high-quality posts or pieces than to have large gaps in your posting schedule, so don’t be afraid to start small and grow from there.  

Not sure where to get started? Mapping content in advance with a content calendar can be a great way to visualize your content mix and cadence. A strong content calendar helps answer questions like: “What’s happening when?” and “Are you touching on all the themes you want to highlight?”. 

Outlining a content schedule in advance can also help you identify which elements, if any, you’ll need from other teams before you can move forward (think things like photos and visuals, stats, quotes, and approval from compliance). Use your content calendar as a roadmap to outline each team’s responsibilities and keep internal stakeholders on the same page. 

How will you measure success? 

Now that you’re creating all this great content, it will be important to have a measurement plan in place to help track your success. Which content pieces are top performers, and which didn’t do quite as well as expected? If you’re not measuring, you won’t know.  

Are you looking for clicks and video content views or engagement with key buttons or forms on your site? Think about which actions you want users to take (and any micro-conversions they might complete along the way).  

Remember, what you’re able to track may vary depending on the medium and type of content you choose. Set up metrics to track success against the content goals and monitor them regularly. This will help you ensure your digital presence is effective and identify areas to improve.