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How to Develop a Powerful Content Strategy?

If you want to build a house, would you just head over to an empty plot and start hammering things? Probably not. It would be too risky – just like publishing content without a content strategy in place.

Your content strategy is your brand’s game plan for getting leads, engagement, sales, awareness, conversions, traffic, and other business outcomes – through content.

With a content strategy in place, you can get the business results you want. In addition, it ensures that your content marketing efforts are taking you in the right direction.

Still not convinced? Well, 70% of marketers are investing in content marketing. So, if you want to stand out and compete in your industry, you need to create a solid content strategy.

Considering the importance of content strategy, in this blog, we will walk you through everything you need to know about this concept. Let’s begin!

What’s a Content Strategy?

Content strategy is a strategy that helps you achieve your business goals through content creation and distribution. It answers the ultimate question: “What should we create, and why?“

Basically, content strategy is all about planning, executing, promoting, and managing the content lifecycle to reach your business goals. It’s the roadmap that guides your entire content marketing.

Let’s suppose that your goal is to increase conversions by 10% in the next 6 months. To achieve this goal, you can implement a content strategy that focuses on visibility on the SERPs and drive traffic to your product!

In a nutshell, a content strategy defines what you’re trying to accomplish, who you’re trying to reach, the type of content you’ll publish, how your content will support your goals, and the metrics that will define success.

Now that you know what on earth is a content strategy, it is time to find out how you can create the perfect one. Ready? Let’s roll!

Read more: Reasons Why Content Marketing is Effective for B2B Companies

4 Reasons Why You Should Have a Content Strategy

A lot of new business owners think, “I don’t think I need to create a content strategy right now. I just started my business. So it’s not really my priority right now.”

However, the thing is, if you produce high-quality content from the very beginning, you can build trust with your new audience and succeed over the long haul.

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See, a content strategy is very much like a road map. Yes, you can most definitely travel without one, but you’ll probably get lost along the way. 🙂

So, instead of putting yourself in a position where you’ve to ask for directions OR circle back and start over, you can use your content strategy to guide you.

It isn’t just hotshot companies that need a content strategy; every single business can benefit from one. Let’s check out some strong reasons why you should start working on a content strategy right now.

1. Gives Your Content a Purpose

By creating a content strategy, you can get a crystal clear idea of what you want the achieve after publishing the content. Without a strategy in place, you might end up creating content that doesn’t resonate with your business goals.

2. Makes it Easy to Create Content

It can be hard to figure out what to publish if you have no clue about what your purpose is. But with a content strategy and apt keyword research, you can create content and publish it in a way that fits your long-term business goals.

3. Helps You Grow Organic Traffic

If you want your organic traffic to grow, you’ve to publish high-quality content regularly on Google or other search engines. That’s where having a content strategy helps! With a content strategy, you can find out the keywords your audience is searching for and create content around it.

4. Builds Connections With Your Prospects

Good content can solve your prospects’ questions and problems. So, if you publish useful and informative content with the audiences’ needs in mind, you can gain their trust and build a rapport with them. This will make them more likely to buy your product or service.

There are literally SO many perks of having a content strategy, and there’s no reason why you should not create one. Now let’s head over to the next section and learn how to create an awesome content strategy.

Read more: Content Development Guide for 2022- A Must-Read!

How to Build a Powerful Content Strategy in 5 Steps?

1. Define Your Goals

First and foremost, you need to set clear and precise goals. Honestly speaking, without establishing your goals, you can’t develop a powerful content strategy or measure its success. Your goals could be:

  • Publish 30 blog posts each month
  • Create 4 informative Youtube videos every month.
  • Get at least 20 backlinks every month.

Whatever your goals are, just make sure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (have a clear deadline). In short, set SMART goals!

2. Research Your Audience

If you develop a content strategy that targets the wrong set of audiences – you would end up wasting your time, effort, and money. What a nightmare.

So, before brainstorming content ideas, take a deep dive into your target audience. Because the more targeted your content strategies are, the more likely they are to work.

Think about your audience and what they’re looking for. Identify what kind of sites they visit, which content they engage the most with, which social media platforms they use, etc.

You can also create buyer personas, which is basically a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer. These personas include pain points, needs, wants, interests, and other information about your audience.

3. Examine Your Competitors

Now that you’re aware of the nitty-gritty of your organization as well as your audience, it’s time to take a quick peek at your competitors. (Not in a creepy, stalker way, of course!)

Why? Because your competitors are probably selling the same product/service as you, hence you all might have a similar content strategy. 💁🏻‍♀️

So, if you want your strategy to outshine the rest, you need to know what your competitors are up to. You need to understand your competitors’ weaknesses and turn them into your strengths.

Figure out what is working well for them and where they are lacking. Try to find out strategies that would resonate with your audience but no one else is using them.

4. Brainstorm Content Ideas

You know what you want to accomplish. You know what your short-term and long-term goals are. Now, it’s time to envision what kind of content will help you achieve that goal.

There are a plethora of choices out there for content you can create. Pick the ones that tug at the heartstrings, engage the reader, and motivate them to use your product/service.

Take a look at the top-performing content for each keyword and try to create something 10x better. In short, look for new ways to approach topics and strive to create something unique every time.

5. Publish The Content & Measure Your Results

Once you’ve put your content in front of the audience, see how your audience is interacting with it. Check out the google rankings of your posts, the traffic, engagement, conversions, etc.

As soon as you learn what is working and what isn’t, start modifying your content accordingly. Keep learning, iterating, and delivering the best possible content – all the time.

Here’s a tip for you: try to publish long-form content because when it comes to Google rankings and organic search traffic, long-form content always wins.

In fact, according to a study by Semrush, long-form content generates 3X more traffic, 4X more shares, and 3.5X more backlinks.

Wrapping Up

From establishing goals to measuring the metrics, we’ve walked you through all the steps you need to take in order to create a content strategy.

Make sure that your content strategy has a defined purpose and reflects the style or tone of your business. Not to forget, it should match the needs of the audience and the business.

When implemented well, content strategy is one of the most essential components of your marketing strategy. Remember to keep the audience at the center of your strategy, and it will turn out to be fabulous!

Got any queries or suggestions? Tweet to us @elink.io and let us know. We’d be happy to hear from you.

Further reads:

What is a Content Creator: The Complete Guide

How to Automate Content (And Why You Should)

Social Sharing: Definition, Tools, and Tips!

How does Content Curation help with Marketing?

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