Creating a Content Strategy

A content strategy is a plan for how you will create, publish, and manage your content. It includes:

• Your overall goals for your content.

• Who will create it (if you work with a team).

• What kind of content you will create.

• When and where you will publish it. 

A content strategy ensures that all of your content is created with a purpose in mind.

It helps you be consistent with your messaging and branding and keeps you from wasting time and resources on creating content that doesn't serve a purpose. I've been known to do that every now and then, haha.

Creating a content strategy doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming.

This, and the following posts will focus on 6 steps to help you focus on a strategy and grow your business.

For today, let's start with step 1!!

Step 1: Define Your Goals

What do you want the content you publish to achieve? For example, do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate new leads, or make affiliate commissions, etc?

All those things are important, but I find that narrowing my focusing per article is more powerful than trying to achieve everything. (And you'll probably achieve more than you hoped anyway...)

So be detailed about the goals of your content, and work toward achieving that goal.

1. If it's branding you're working towards, then introduce your brand early on and explain to your audience how you're going to help them. This is usually your "about me" page, so make it a good one! Be honest, transparent, and let your audience know more about you! They trust the person more than the brand!
2. If you want to drive more traffic to your website (if you're using social media, let's say), be sure to create curiosity, excitement, benefit-driven language to entice them to click on your link.
3. If you're trying to generate new leads, be sure to offer a lead-magnet that gives them a solution to their problem that they can perform quickly (in the next 30 minutes).
4. If it's to make affiliate commissions, your content needs to be emotionally written. List all the benefits they'll get when they purchase through your link, and write to their emotions. Emotion sells!!

These are just some examples of what you can do. Use your own creativity to make your content a "must-read" (or must-watch if using video - that needs a great thumbnail).

My next post will be about Step 2, so watch for it!!

Cheers,

Suzanne