How to create your first content strategy
A comprehensive guide for marketers
24/05/2024
Your first content strategy is as important as your first steps as a toddler—both mark the beginning of a journey filled with discovery, growth, and endless possibilities.
Just as those early steps shaped your path forward, your first content strategy lays the foundation for your brand’s digital presence and success.
It’s the foundation upon which you’ll build your brand identity, establish credibility, and drive growth. It’s also an opportunity to genuinely connect with your audience, address their needs, and showcase your expertise.
In this guide, we’ll explore why developing a strategic and effective content strategy is crucial for your content to achieve its full potential. We’ll also cover the essential steps to help you create one with confidence and clarity.
So, lace up your shoes, take a deep breath, and let’s take those first steps toward creating your first content strategy.
What is a content strategy?
A content strategy is a comprehensive plan that guides the creation, publication, and management of useful content intended to achieve specific business and marketing goals. It’s a critical component of any successful digital marketing initiative.
Creating high-quality, engaging content is instrumental in attracting your target audience and establishing meaningful relationships with them. But without a well-defined content strategy, you’re essentially shooting in the dark—creating content without a clear purpose or direction.
What makes a content strategy crucial
Developing an effective content strategy is an essential first step in your online marketing journey. Before we delve into the how-to’s, let’s first understand why a content strategy is important.
- Purposeful content creation: A content strategy is like a roadmap. It gives your content creation efforts a clear direction and purpose and ensures that every piece you create aligns with your business goals and resonates with your audience. This alignment helps you create more impactful and meaningful content.
- Consistency: A content strategy helps maintain consistency in your brand’s messaging and tone of voice across all content and channels. Consistency breeds familiarity and reliability and will ultimately help build stronger connections with your audience over time.
- Audience engagement: Understanding your audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points is fundamental to creating content that resonates with them. A content strategy guides you to produce content that is both relevant and engaging for your target audience.
- Improved SEO: Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in increasing your website’s visibility and attracting organic traffic. Regularly publishing high-quality, keyword-optimised content can improve your website’s organic search rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
- Lead generation: A content strategy can be a powerful tool for lead generation. By planning and offering valuable content in exchange for contact information, you can capture the interest of potential customers and lead them through the sales funnel (ultimately turning them into qualified leads).
- Credibility and authority: Consistently producing high-quality, informative content can establish your brand as an authority in your industry. Over time, your content becomes a valuable resource for your audience. This will boost your credibility and authority and position your brand as a go-to source for information and expertise.
Getting started with your first content strategy
Now that we understand the importance of a content strategy, it’s time to create one.
By following a structured approach and breaking down the process into actionable steps, developing your first content strategy becomes less overwhelming and more manageable.
So, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into it.
Step 1: Define your content goals
The first step in creating your content strategy is to define your content goals. These goals should align with your overall business objectives.
Examples of content goals could be increasing brand awareness, generating leads, supporting sales, improving SEO rankings, or creating customer loyalty. Remember, your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Step 2: Identify your target audience
Understanding your target audience is crucial in shaping your content strategy.
Create detailed buyer personas that outline your ideal customer’s demographics, interests, challenges, and behaviours. Knowing who your content is for will help you create content that resonates with them and meets their needs and interests.
Step 3: Conduct a content audit
Next, conduct a thorough content audit to assess any existing content. Identify what’s working, what’s not, and areas for improvement.
This evaluation will provide insights into successful content types, topics, and formats, which will guide your future content creation efforts.
Step 4: Analyse your competitors' content
Look at your competitors’ content. What are they doing well? Where are they falling short? Are there any content gaps you could fill?
This analysis can provide valuable insights and inspiration for your own content strategy.
Step 5: Run keyword research
Keyword research is a critical step in ensuring that your content is visible to your target audience on search engines. Identify the keywords relevant to your business and audience.
These keywords should be incorporated into your content to improve its visibility on search engines. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to help with your keyword research.
Step 6: Brainstorm content ideas
With your goals, audience demographics, and keyword research in mind, begin brainstorming content ideas that resonate with your target audience and align with your business objectives.
Consider the different types of content that would resonate with your audience and help achieve your goals. This could include blog posts, infographics, case studies, videos, podcasts, social media posts, etc.
Step 7: Create a content calendar
A content calendar is a crucial tool for organising and scheduling your content. It can help ensure a consistent flow of fresh content and prevent last-minute scrambles for content ideas.
When creating your content calendar, consider factors such as seasonal trends, industry events, and audience engagement patterns to optimise the timing and relevance of your content releases.
Step 8: Select a content management system
Choosing the right content management system (CMS) is crucial for efficiently managing your content creation, publication, and distribution processes.
Opt for a CMS that suits your needs and facilitates collaboration among your team members. This could be a simple spreadsheet or a more sophisticated system like WordPress, HubSpot, or Trello.
Step 9: Decide on content metrics
To evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy and the success of your content, define key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that align with your marketing and business objectives.
These metrics could include page views, bounce rate, time spent on the page, social shares, conversion rates, etc. By tracking them consistently, you can identify areas for improvement and drive better results over time.
Step 10: Determine content types and frequency
Delivering valuable content regularly can maintain audience engagement and strengthen your brand presence. Decide on the types of content you’ll create and how often you’ll publish. This will largely depend on your resources and audience preferences.
Tailor your content mix to meet your audience’s preferences and communication needs. Additionally, establish a publishing frequency that balances quality and consistency.
Step 11: Publish and promote your content
Once your content is ready, publish and promote it across various channels to reach your audience. This could include your website, social media platforms, email newsletters, etc.
Create compelling headlines, captions, and calls to action to entice your audience to engage with your content and share it with their networks. By amplifying your content’s reach through strategic promotion, you can extend your brand’s reach and attract new audiences to your content ecosystem.
Step 12: Monitor and adjust your content strategy
Now it’s time for content measurement. Regularly review and adjust your content strategy based on its performance. Use the metrics you’ve identified to assess what’s working and what’s not, and tweak your strategy as needed.
It’s important to evaluate how well your content is resonating with your audience, driving traffic, and achieving your business objectives. Identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement, and use these insights to refine and adjust your content strategy. Also, experiment with new content formats, distribution channels, and promotion tactics to optimise your content performance and stay responsive to evolving audience preferences and market dynamics.
Remember, a good content strategy is a living document—always be ready to learn, adapt, and grow as you better understand your audience and business needs.
How ONO Comms can help you create your first content strategy
At ONO Comms, we’ve helped so many businesses create their first content strategy. We’ve also helped them create effective content that follows the guidelines in their strategies.
So, whether you’re looking to define your brand voice, engage your audience, improve your SEO, or generate leads, we have the expertise and resources to help you achieve your goals.
To get started, all you need to do is contact us or schedule a free consultation with our founder.
