However, don’t despair. Turn that traffic into true fans who subscribe and buy from you. (If you’re in business and are surviving, you should already know these. A good content strategist will balance the two (business needs and consumer needs), informed by what users want. these three words individually because those combinations can get pretty crazy. Robert Rose wrote in a Content Marketing Institute (CMI) post on the subject that “Content marketers draw on the walls with magic markers and content strategists use fine pens.” Content marketing is a broader approach that should include a content strategy. Content strategy concerns itself with the vision—the ins and outs of how and why your content will be created, managed, and eventually archived or updated. You’ll see content marketing strategy used to refer to the whole process of applying content strategy to content marketing. Although strategy is a noun, content strategy is best It’s the backbone of your content creation and the marketing Content that aligns with a centralized content strategy is also important for sales teams, as strong, relevant content helps to keep prospects moving forward through the funnel. Content strategy guides the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest definitions online It’s how you elevate your content creation from an amateurish Content strategy refers to the planning, development, and management of content—written or in other media. What action (or reaction) do I want from my steps of a solid framework, and it’s 1000x more effective than simply Those resources may be in written, visual, or audio formats. To be effective at content marketing, it is essential to have a documented content marketing strategy. Content strategy is a relatively new niche discipline in the digital space. and driving the use of content to achieve your business goals. It: ✅ Connects your content and business goals. ✅ Is linked to #contentmarketing. Here’s where most people (particularly non-marketing people, Do you need a content marketing strategy? messy because they’re so closely linked, but hopefully, I’ve illuminated the Alone, they seem pretty straightforward. At the highest level, it’s the process of planning, All Rights Reserved. Content strategy is an integrated set of user-centered, goal-driven choices about content throughout its lifecycle. In 2020, at least 55% of marketers identify blog content as their top inbound marketing tool. differences enough and shown how they work together. output and turn it into a strategic part of your business plan. Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. part of your overall marketing strategy. What are you doing to create a more valuable and Content strategy is the tool Identify a user need that aligns with a business goal. Blogs have been the main driver of content since the beginning. A content marketing strategy is a plan for building an audience by publishing, maintaining, and spreading frequent and consistent content that educates, entertains, or inspires to turn strangers into fans and fans into customers. that takes content’s creation and its uses to the next level, putting it to The #contentstrategy ensures that each piece of content has a purpose 🎯, aligns with your needs or goals 📈, and exists to provide value to your users ♥. planning, foresight, and getting those creative juices flowing. And it shows…. Find out here ➡, US Government’s User Interface and Usability Office. Content marketing is easily one of the most powerful tools Just look at these results from a January 2020 survey by Heinz Marketing. 3) Plan and develop the content. You’re spinning your wheels in the mud and wasting time creating content that may or may not further your business goals. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Conversations also enable people to develop “stories,” which lead to understanding and helpful mental pictures. You decide to create a set of guides on how users can take their own measurements This is where a content strategy workflow comes into play. The other half is what you do with it, how you apply it as What’s the best voice, style, and formatting to developing, and managing content – but that’s a very abstract way to talk about You notice that they sell similar products as you and that you’ve had a few 4) Publish and distribute. It … frequently represents a missing link for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and even Keep sight of what your competitors are doing so that you can figure out how to do something better. It’s really important to define (As of TODAY, these numbers are climbing — from the COVID-19 pandemic with stay-at-home orders happening around the globe, an inflation of Google searches has happened; today, the numbers are rising upwards of 5.5 billion searches per day, up from 3.5 billion/day.). (Sheesh. You also a need content strategy. Content marketing, which is the result of a content strategy, focuses on offering the high-level engagement consumers demand. As the owner of a company that sells athletic gear, you notice that a However, they all have a few A fifth of all social media posts link back to a blog on a site. The purpose of content strategy is to create meaningful, cohesive, engaging, and sustainable content that attracts the company’s target customers. to which we’re referring? A sound content strategy and targeted content creation make up only the first part of the equation. comprehensive piece of content than what your competitors provide? of content has a purpose, aligns with your needs or goals, and There’s a catch here, though. What is content strategy? A well-developed content strategy helps you to: Plan a content calendar based on opportunities that you have identified. Content not only includes the words on the page but also the images and multimedia that are used. It’s important to understand that you need a content marketing strategy BEFORE you build your content plan. very simple, and I actually already covered it above: “The strategy of creating all the content for your content marketing is specifically content marketing strategy” (Practical Content Strategy & Marketing). A content strategy (also known as “content marketing strategy”) is an organization’s high-level approach for creating and marketing content. use to meet an audience? Support the content to keep it valuable and relevant. “As a content strategist, I use data, research and my understanding of psychology to shape my client’s narrative and create content experiences tailored to the company’s target audience.” There are many different ways to define the term, but I like this one via Distilled: “A content strategy is the high-level vision that guides future content development to deliver against a specific business objective.” What does content strategy mean to … Actually, you’d get several answers that seem to conflict with each other on the surface. Depending on who you are or what you need to do, content strategy can prioritize a few different things: Content strategy defines how you’re going to use content to meet your business (or project) goals and satisfy your users’ needs. and desires around that content and marries it with the business needs. Attend Confab or join the community! It is a subspecialty within content strategy that, in many cases, lives on a different team and has its own goals. If you’re just getting started, here’s a great primer.). Ensuring that you have useful and usable content, that is well structured, and easily found is vital to improving the user experience of a website. With a solid content strategy in place, content creation and Julia, you’re stellar at devising concise, spot-on definitions. ✅ Involves the content's entire lifecycle. slightly different aspects of content strategy. Research by the Content Marketing Institute shows that content marketing generates three times more qualified leads than traditional forms of advertising. When you can answer these questions completely, you’re well on your way to becoming a content strategist. Once you have that context, the following questions take on Why all this emphasis on blogs and content? Content marketing strategy is really through the biggest Gordian knot of terms in digital marketing. It’s not the endless creation of editorial calendars or More concretely, content strategy looks like this: You discover a user problem that your product solves. its marketing become MUCH easier. editorial calendar? a social media campaign specifically targeting users who have trouble ✅📋, Life as a Content Marketing Manager: 6 Skills to Have and Job Outlook, How to Launch Your Career as a Freelance Content Strategist, Get The Content Strategist’s Skills Cheat Sheet, The process that helps you get the right content in front of the right people, at the right times, for the right reasons (, The management of content that you create and own done so in a way that demonstrates your brand and its authority on a topic (, The glue that connects your company’s content with your business goals, and the needs of your customers or audience (, The strategic planning, creation, delivery, and governance of your content (, The fulfillment of business requirements or goals through content creation and distribution (, The guidelines involving how and why you create and manage the content your customers will encounter (. Content strategy is the science behind storytelling, added content strategist Chantel McGee, who works with various tech startups. There’s another term that can bewilder: content marketing figure out where you’re most likely to encounter users with this problem, and Source: Content Marketing Institute. How is the piece of content tracked and what Most digital marketers claim content strategy is The Big Thing in 2020, but until very recently, the term has been rife with misinterpretation and misunderstanding. The final part is amplification of the content. metrics do you use to measure success? That’s what we’re A unified content strategy is a business plan for content. Who is my intended audience and how does it meet Every other facet of content strategy starts here. One catch ☝: You need a content strategy to make it work. Content strategy refers to the overarching plan you have for every piece of content related to your business. Content Strategy is the development, planning, creation, delivery and management of content. Content strategy guides decisions about content throughout its lifecycle, from discovery to deletion. Content strategy defines how you’re going to use content to meet your business (or project) goals and satisfy your users’ needs. I screenshotted and saved so much in this post. B. competitor has a lot of reviews where users are complaining that it’s hard to you create content tailored to reaching them there. They’re tools for enacting a strategy. content strategy can prioritize a few different things. 🚫 Instead, content strategy *guides* these activities. Content strategy deals with the planning aspects of managing content throughout its lifecycle, and includes aligning content to business goals, analysis, and modeling, and influences the development, production, presentation, evaluation, measurement, and sunsetting of content, including governance. SEO, content creation, content promotion, editing, developing audience personas, social media, etc.) You consider running Content strategy is the tool that takes content’s creation and its uses to the next level, putting it to work for your brand. According to Moz , “Content strategy concerns itself with the vision—the ins and outs of how and why your content will be created, managed, and eventually archived or updated.” This definition was adapted from Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach. What are creation, publishing, and distribution activities You determine your content exists to provide value to your users. fresh. in under 45 days. Want to learn more about content strategy? Which brings us to the next important question. content strategy … because there’s no One Business Model or One Road to Enroll in the Content Strategy & Marketing Course and learn these skills (plus more!) you might do these things during the content creation phase). publishing informative articles on the different athletic gear carried in your hosting brainstorming sessions on Hangouts with your blogging BFFs (although Ready for it? #Contentstrategy is NOT brainstorming sessions, editorial calendars, or social media auto-posts. Any of these definitions are correct. According to these definitions, content strategy: In other words, content strategy isn’t simply blogging for blogging’s sake, or posting on social media daily to keep the account looking active – you know, internet business best practices from a decade or more ago. Content strategy takes a look at the user’s needs (what content does the user want to read?) session? To amplify your content, determine the places your audience is frequenting online, and then publish on those channels to reach them. Where am I publishing this content (and why)? It can be a minefield of tools, poor practices and data-packed theories.To me, Content Strategy is a framework for understanding meaning.As a copywriter, I’d like to believe I bat for both teams. That’s a digital content strategy using the six Content Strategy Is About Deciding What Kind of Content You’ll Publish There’s a ton of different kinds of content you can publish online. What happens to the content once it’s no longer looking at next. Content strategy involves much more than mere tactics (or what you do to support the strategy). What’s described above follows a content lifecycle model, and it’s one way that you can plan your content strategy. success. According to experts on the internet, content strategy is…. That’s why there’s no one Right Answer when it comes to Depending on who you are or what you need to do, content strategy can prioritize a few different things: Content strategy works by connecting the content you are trying to create and manage to the people who are doing the creating. It’s a map that will give you a sense of It’s how you elevate your content creation from an amateurish output and turn it into a strategic part of your business plan. Separating content strategy and content marketing can get All of these definitions are right, and they all touch on “A content strategist is an inbound marketer with a broad set of content marketing skills (i.e. To do that you need a content distribution flywheel (not a funnel). Determine the content that can address that need. Content strategy refers to the management of pretty much any tangible media that you create and own: written, visual, downloadable — you name it. and see if we can piece together what it is. If you were to ask a room full of marketers, writers, and The term has been particularly common in web development since the late 1990s. Requires that all content serves a purpose. reviews from your own customers indicating that they’ve needed to return items, identifying what size gear they need. Success. When the content strategy lacks, confidence in the ability of content to drive revenue plummets. 5) Support the content. How does my content meet business and user found together in a multitude of combinations. What is content strategy? When is the best time to publish this content? However, content © 2020 Content Strategy Course Inc, USA. Think of it as a marketing plan that specifically relates to content; thus, it should include details such as the key topic areas you … Content strategy decides: In other words, the content strategy ensures that each piece and help them identify the best sizes to order for gear. Publish and market the content. Defining CS in Relation to Your Business, B. CMS: How CS & CM Work Together In Your Business. needs? two that you’d get more than one answer. A strategy for creating content includes topic selection, content formats, writing style, design and promotion. What is #contentstrategy? To make sure your audience finds it, you take care to optimize the content with message. that uses those skills to build, manage, execute, and grow a brand’s content strategy.” Before you can develop a content strategy, you must identify your business goals, requirements, or needs. Content marketing goes beyond giving the customers what they want. As of January 2020, there are 4.5 billion internet users out there – 3/4 of them say they read blogs regularly. A great content distribution strategy will: Get targeted traffic to your content. That’s why content marketing, without a solid content strategy behind it, accomplishes exactly nothing. Plan and develop the content. In contrast to the other two, a content plan is very tactical. They look like a strategy because they involve and neat social media auto-posting features that many marketing platforms now Ready to learn to become a content strategy mastermind and unlock the previously imaginable potential of your business (or your clients)? them where they are? The content strategy should be part of that, but content marketing is broader. When we put those What subjects (topic circles) guide the brainstorming 2) Decide if content can/should address the need. sizing material in blog posts on different types of gear. strategy guides the use of those tools. Content strategy lays out the goals you want your content to achieve, what type of content is best suited to achieve those goals, and how you’re going to create, distribute, and measure the performance of it. it. It … SEO. some businesses. Content strategy: Content strategy is part of most content marketing strategies. The #contentstrategy process, in 5 steps: 1) Identify business/user needs that align with goals. Of course, there are a lot of people out there writing, designing, creating content. is published on your site (YOUR turf), and you follow up by linking relevant Put into a real-life example, it looks like this: 1. Content Manager – the person who takes the content strategy built by the content strategist and pulls it into a content calendar (also known as an editorial calendar) and directs content production with the writing team and editor. Where and when content is posted or cross-posted? too. In a nutshell, content strategy is the masterplan defining The content strategy helps you identify what content you need, what content you don’t need, and where to put your resources for the most ROI. They’re just different ways of setting the stage for content as a product of integrated, strategic choices (vs. something that’s cranked out for SEO purposes then left to die a slow, painful death on your website). However, you can apply a framework to content strategy from many other fields to create your content marketing strategy. A good starting point for your content strategy plan is to set out a content marketing mission statement. Content, marketing, and strategy are three words frequently This is a brief statement that makes it easier to focus on what’s important – and what’s not – in creating your content so your content marketing strategy stays on track. As manufacturers release new versions of gear, you update your sizing guides What is content strategy? It’s a little bit of both. Content strategy is the ongoing process of translating business objectives and goals into a plan that uses content as a primary means of achieving those goals. Content strategy guides the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. Some of the common ones include: Marketers and content creators use a lot of different approaches in their content strategies. For entrepreneurs, freelancers, and other professionals not initiated into the jargon of marketing, that’s a problem. Firmly connects your content and your business goals or needs. Even with great content, content a lot more nuances: Remember: knowledge without action is worthless. When you do, just remember that content marketing strategy refers to the overlapping area of content strategy and content marketing. Thanks for sharing. Marketing Institute shows that organizations continue to lack 5. It starts a “conversation” with users and stakeholders inside and outside an organization. It shares common ground with user experience (UX), interface design, web development, SEO, content marketing, public relations and traditional “offline” marketing. 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