As a business owner, having a strong content strategy in place is imperative for me and to successfully run my business. It involves the deliberate creation and supervision of content for the purpose of driving traffic to a specific platform in the form of a greater number of visitors, brand awareness, or clients. This includes copywriting, audio, and video content as well as deciding on a clear, unified story line and – not least – which platforms to use, specific days to post, and post frequency. Without a purposeful strategy, business goals may be hard to achieve, if not impossible. Think of this type of plan as a ladder, aiding you in scaling your goals for the next year. By having an actionable plan, you can dedicate less overall time to creating content, as the time invested becomes focused and productive.  You’ll experience a reduction in the stress that sometimes comes with anticipating content creation. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Set goals for your business

Your business goals (your target) will define what kind of content you need to reach them (the arrow). Some business goals you may want to consider are:

• Improving brand awareness
• Increasing revenue
• Increasing number of likes/follows/interactions
• Learning more about your audience

Define audience & needs

Who are you reaching with your content? Aiming for the correct audience will lead to greater success. Your audience includes more people than those who purchase your services or products. They will include anyone interested in your topic of conversation – followers, buyers, and content organizers. These people may or may not buy what you sell, but they will spread the word about your brand, giving you more brand recognition (hello, referrals!). Try to define your audiences’ basic demographics: age, gender, income, education, hobbies, interests, social network preferences, and problems they are trying to solve. 

Look at your competition and identify what works for them

Not identifying your target audience and how your competition markets to them is like shooting arrows in the dark and hoping they hit the target. Set aside time to look at what your competitors are doing and mark how they are reaching your audience. What are their keywords? What is successful about their content strategy, or what isn’t working? Having answers to those questions will guide you as you create your content strategy plan. 

Have more questions about content strategy and how it benefits you? Contact me to discuss.