Have you ever heard your agency use the phrase “content strategy”? If you answered no, you should probably be asking yourself why right about now. Creating an efficient, fluid content strategy is arguably one of the most important phases of defining and designing your website.
This is by far more important the look and feel or the technology used to make the site…because content is what users are coming for at the end of the day. If you don’t have high quality content that informs and helps users, the fancy flashy things and innovative technological implementations don’t mean a thing. Users demand content. That being said, what’s involved in developing a content strategy?
Content Strategy Process
- Define Your Site Objectives: Are you looking to educate people, provide product support, or what?
- Define Your Target Audience: Establish WHO you anticipate and expect will be coming to the site. What are the Personas you have established?
- Research Your Targets: Use listening techniques, seo research, Web analytics research, competitor analysis and surveys. All of these things can help educate your content strategy development.
- Create a content matrix: A content matrix essentially outlines they information you want to have content about on your website or other platforms. Within this content matrix, you can also start to define HOW you want this content to be presented – i.e., textual content, video content, infographic, etc…The content matrix will change regularly.
- Develop a content schedule: To me, the content schedule lays out in general detail how frequently new content will be generated. This content schedule will be created and updated in conjunction with the content matrix.
- Develop Distribution Channels: Website, Blog, Youtube, Slideshare, facebook, twitter, Flickr, Bookmark sites like Stumbleupon and Digg, article websites, email marketing and so on, the list is endless. All of these places will contain your content. This content positions you as an expert (or not), educates your client and develops your online reputation.
Your Content Strategy is one of the most important parts of your Digital marketing Strategy and requires a disciplined and focused approach to manage and distribute content to make the impact to achieve your goals.
Have you a content strategy?
Have you a content schedule?
Have you resources allocated, who is responsible? Do you need a professional copywriter?
Are you measuring the impact of this content? variations of content? across different distribution channels?
