8 elements of a successful content strategy

When it comes to content marketingeverything you do must be part of a broader strategy designed to achieve specific goals.

More sales, more leads, more page views – whatever it is, you need a clear, well thought out and defined plan. You need a content strategy.

Here’s a look at what it should contain.

What is a content strategy?

As you’ve probably guessed, a content strategy is a specific set of tactics used in content development and management.

Uses various forms of media, including blogs, videos, podcasts and/or social media posts, to achieve specific business goals.

This is not the same as content marketinghowever, this is your main content marketing plan.

What are the anatomical elements of a content strategy?

Like the marketing octopus, there are eight important additions to a good marketing strategy.

Let’s go over them in the order they should be created.

1. Objectives

A successful content marketing plan always starts with clearly defined goals. This is a step that many people skip to their detriment.

Different types of marketing tactics work to achieve different goals, most of which likely correspond to a step in your sales funnel.

Some of the more common goals they build brand awareness, increase traffic, grow your email list, generate new leads, convert new customers, improve customer retention and increase sales.

The objective you decide on will determine the type of content and channel for each marketing tactic.

It is perfectly acceptable to have multiple goals; however, be aware that not all content will work for every goal.

Remember that a jack of all trades is a jack of all trades. Better to have more specialized content.

2. Research

Every tactic in your content strategy should be backed by research to justify. And working here will save you a lot of headaches down the road.

Start by looking at your target audience. What are their demographics? What are their pain points? How can you help?

There are several ways to find this information, including digital data mining, sending out surveys, and surveying customers.

Then apply that knowledge to your current content and see where it hits the mark, where it could be stronger, and where it completely missed the mark.

Do some keyword research to find out which phrases you rank highly for and which ones need work. Pay attention to search intent, scope, and relevance.

Research what your competition is doing. What works?

For digital marketing purposes, find out what keywords they are ranking for, who is linking to them, and their social media presence.

3. Target topics

By this point, you should have already started making a list of possible ideas and messages you want to share.

Determine which topics are most important to each part of your strategy and how your new content will help you achieve your goal.

To evaluate a topic, determine how it will fit into your organizational goals.

For example, if you’re a camping company looking to educate consumers about your brand, a blog post about the top 5 campfire mistakes could attract curious online searchers.

This way they will become familiar with your brand, although it is unlikely that they will sell many sleeping bags. A banner ad with a discount code can be more useful for this.

Try to approach each topic from new angles.

Finding a new way to design things will help you stand out in a market full of retreads of the same idea. Be as specific as possible without limiting your creativity.

4. Editorial calendar

Now is the time to figure out when you should post each piece of content.

Some things have distinct seasons. For example, nobody buys a Christmas tree in June, but the market is big in December. Others are more loosely defined (eg people need new cars all year round).

Figure out the best time to drop each piece of content, as well as the cadence of how often you’ll release new content. This will vary based on your audience and platform, so there are no hard and fast rules.

Be aware that creating and publishing content regularly takes a lot of work. If you don’t have a content calendar to keep everyone on track, it’s easy to fall behind.

You should always work a few months in advance so you have things ready. This gives you more flexibility in case a new opportunity or emergency arises, and it also reduces the stress of content creation.

5. Editorial instructions

How does your company sound? Is it professional? Welcome? Familiarity? Funny? Find the voice of your organization.

Write down a document that explains this, and distribute it to content creators, whether in-house or freelancers. This will create a sense of consistency across all pieces of content and across all channels.

In this same document, you should describe formatting requirements, including punctuation, heading styles, and style (eg, AP style). If you include visual aspects, make sure you clearly define brand colors, fonts, and logo usage.

Even if they have completely different goals and distribution, each piece must have a clear connection to the next.

6. Distribution channels

You have goals in terms of content, topics and calendar; now it’s time to decide where to use it.

Determine the platforms you will use to tell your story and your processes and goals for each.

Where the content lives will often influence its format and cadence, but your goal is to present a consistent brand narrative across all channels.

By outlining your distribution channels, you identify the best platform for each piece of content.

Look for opportunities to cross-post. There is no reason not to share infographics from your blog on Instagram. This gives you twice the exposure with the same amount of work.

7. Analytics

Just because you have content created and distributed doesn’t mean you can sit on your laurels.

Now it’s time to evaluate it and see what works and, just as importantly, what doesn’t. It’s time to dive into analytics.

You’re not just looking at the number of shares, clicks or purchases on your site; are you looking for “why?” You try to understand why the content succeeded while other parts failed.

Did it work fine on one channel but not on another? Why did this happen? Is it a different audience or just a lack of exposure?

Google Analytics can help a lot in this step.

8. Key performance indicators

This goes hand in hand with the previous step; you should find out during your content performance analysis key performance indicators (KPI) to support it.

Again, what you measure will depend on the goal.

Some KPIs you might consider are organic web traffic, sales opportunities generated, keyword ranking changes, social shares and engagement, inbound links, and cost per lead.

Plan for success

It is said that even a bad plan is better than no plan, so imagine the great results you will generate with your powerful new content strategy.

Creating this strategy takes some work, but even the simplest of organizations with the smallest of marketing budgets will benefit from its use. And it’s an absolute must for marketing departments of all kinds of complexity.

Follow the steps outlined here and you’ll create a well-thought-out content strategy that will help you achieve your goals.

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