As we welcome a new year, we can reflect on the mechanisms that contributed to our successes as well as the shortcomings which held us back. What can be done to ensure more favourable outcomes in 2022 and beyond?
That’s where content strategy comes in. Content strategy encompasses the ongoing processes that go into the creation, planning, delivery and promotion of content across platforms. A content strategy helps businesses garner online traffic, organic leads and conversions.
As highlighted by Forbes, companies with a “digital-first” strategy have been more successful at staying afloat during COVID-19 than those that don’t. Creating content gives you a chance to increase your customer base, connect with existing customers, and demonstrate the value people can obtain by engaging with your products and services. Content strategy builds the bridge between your business and your target audience.
Do you have the best intentions of furthering your content strategy, but you’re not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place. We’re here to help you put your best foot forward for 2022 and beyond.
Here are our top tips for our how you can elevate your content strategy:
Define business goals
Great content is underpinned by a clear purpose. Defining your overarching business goals is the first step to elevating your content strategy. Content is a hand which plants the seeds of your business into the hearts and minds of consumers. Content needs to be created with the intention of enacting overarching business goals.
A content strategy can help businesses:
• change brand aesthetic
• enhance customer experience
• improve conversion rates
• increase social media following
• introduce new products and services
• shift target market.
A content strategy helps you break down your goals and understand how content can be used to make them a reality. According to HubSpot, 70% of marketers are making content strategy a priority investment. With so many businesses learning to harness the power of a good content strategy, elevating content is essential for future business success.
Improve customer engagement
One of the salient goals of a content strategy is optimising customer engagement. This calls us to understand the different stages of the buying cycle and how content can be leveraged to support customers in each phase.
The main stages of the buying cycle are:
• awareness
• consideration
• purchase
• retention.
When customers are in the awareness stage, they’ve realised they have a problem that needs solving. Creating content for customers in the awareness stage requires us to clearly illustrate the problem they have and present a logical solution. As they look for solutions, they enter the consideration stage. The consideration stage involves customers comparing options and discerning which choice best suits their needs. By this point, the customer has a firm intent of wanting to enlist a business’ product and/or service to solve a particular need. When creating content for customers in the consideration stage, you need to illuminate your point of difference. Why should customers choose your service over another?
When the customer has found an ideal solution (which is hopefully your business), they enter the purchase stage. Even though a conversion has been made, the job isn’t done. Developing an ongoing relationship with customers is essential in ensuring they repurchase and refer your service. This is known as the retention stage. Creating content for customers in the retention stage calls us to consider their evolving needs and desire to stay connected with the business. Always deliver content that offers value beyond a hard sell. Educate, inspire and make your audience feel important.
Greater intellectual capital
A good content strategy requires us to not just react to news or jump on trends. Our external communications enact a chance for us to be proactive – pose questions, initiate conversations and catalyse shifted paradigms. If you’re just parroting what everyone else in your industry is saying, you won’t stand out.
When developing a content strategy, always think about what you can offer that no one else is doing. What are your brand values? What issues are important to you? What are you seeking to change? Sharing original thought leadership pieces and feature stories can act as a microphone for your one-of-a-kind expertise.
Refine SEO strategy
SEO is a job that’s never finished. As with customer needs, the algorithm is always changing. This calls us to regularly tweak our SEO strategy in ensuring our content is being seen by our target audience.
Having a consistent content schedule increases the likelihood of website pages being indexed. This gives your website a more favourable position in search rankings, meaning people are more likely to see and engage with the content you produce. Consistently distributing high-quality content also creates opportunities for you to rank for more keywords and attract backlinks from other companies. When people see that you produce valuable content, they’re more inclined to keep visiting your website, share your content and link back to you. This acts as a precursor to increased search traffic.
Ongoing evaluation
Creating a good content strategy is no one-stitch-in-time-saves-nine scenario. We always need to be tracking our results, monitoring what’s working and what’s not. Google Analytics is a great tool for understanding how users engage with content. Important metrics to pay attention to include, average time spent on page, bounce rate and page views. Consistently measuring results helps us continuously create content that is valuable for our audience.
A good content strategy unlocks so much potential for business success. It helps us create a more recognisable brand, attract customers and nurture lifelong loyalty.
Excited to reap the rewards of a new and improved content strategy?
We’re here to help. Here, at Elite Words, we help our wonderful clients fulfil their strategic communication goals every day.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you get ahead!
