Having a documented content strategy was big news in 2016. That being said, I am surprised when I meet with a company and find they haven’t put pen to paper and documented their content marketing strategy. 
If you’ve been scraping by without a content strategy until now, consider this your wake up call. But fear not it’s time to put a strategy to paper and this blog will help you in the process.

Still think you don’t need one? Let me change your mind.

Any written content from your company should be useful, engaging, and effective. By implementing this, you will crush your competitors with your content marketing. Back in 2010, all it took to stand out, was a regularly updated blog, but those days are long gone. To stand out in today’s cluttered content marketplace, you need to be producing content that adds serious value. A blog is always a good place to start, but this is only the beginning, there’s so much more to consider.

When creating a blog you must ensure you stay current and relevant, the quality of the content you produce needs to be improving all the time. It’s a serious challenge!

If you’re ready to get serious about content marketing and all you’ve been doing to date are blog posts and newsletters, then 2017 is going to see you churning out content like there’s no tomorrow.

An editorial calendar is fundamental part of your content marketing strategy. This will allow you to keep track on what content you are going to create, when this is going to be distributed and which marketing channel to use. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience, nor leave them wondering if you’ll ever publish something else again. Therefore, make sure you are distributing your content regularly.

With content being consumed in a variety of ways, the onus is on you to determine which avenues are best suited to your business. It’s crazy to think you can do it all, so being strategic about where you focus your time and effort is of paramount importance. A content strategy will help you identify the best platforms for your content and what type of content you should be creating for each channel. Organisation is key. A good plan in place will allow you to stay on top of all the moving pieces.

Accountable content
In the early days of content marketing, companies often thought the key to success was to create a lot of content. The goal for those companies starting out was to get quality content created and ensure it was seen. However, our ability to measure and track is getting more sophisticated all the time and we’re demanding more accountability for our marketing initiatives. A content strategy forces you to go through the exercise of creating goals and establishing metrics by which to measure them.

I am hoping I have done enough to convince you to invest in the future success of your content. 2017 is going to be (another) big year for content marketing in general, but the brands that will come out ahead will be the ones who’ve been strategic in their approach.

If you would like to discuss how I could enhance and bring value to your content marketing, or you need further guidance on compiling your content marketing strategy, get in touch to find out how I can help. Alternatively, if you are based in or around Portsmouth and looking for content marketing advice, give me a call to arrange a meeting over a cuppa!