If you market products or services online, you need a content strategy. We’ll get to why in a moment, but first, let’s clear up some confusion.
This website—our business at Electric Lemonade—is about getting the most return out of your content marketing strategy.
This page is about content strategy and why it’s so important that every online marketer has one.
What’s the difference? Content marketing is one component of your overarching strategic plan to carry out your organization’s mission. It’s why you have a website or social media presence in the first place—to reach and build your audience.
Content strategy is your content marketing battle plan. It aligns your missional goals with specific and measurable marketing objectives, then details the tactics for achieving them.
Why is it so Important?
The benefit of a content strategy is simple and profound: It gives purpose to everything you publish and every dollar you spend on content to ensure it’s on target and on time.
More than that, it breathes life into your online presence, letting your brand’s story and personality shine through.
Until potential clients get to know you, your content is what sets you apart from competitors. Without a strategy, you’re throwing spaghetti at a wall.
It is essential to write your strategy down, too. Have the document handy at all times and it will keep you, and anyone who has anything to do with marketing your business, on point.
Must-do First Steps
The most successful content strategies we have created at Electric Lemonade over the past 15 years began with exhaustive research:
- A thorough audit of existing marketing materials, including websites and social media channels
- Research to understand the client’s business or organization, its audience, industry, and competition
- In-depth interviews with the client
We learn everything we can about your organization first. That way, we’ll know the questions to ask to get all that valuable information in your head onto paper, where we can apply it to your content strategy.
This process is rigorous and it takes longer than writing, designing, and producing the words and images that will ultimately tell your story.
The payoff is content that has value for your customers, gains their trust, and moves them to engage your services.
The Making of an Effective Content Marketing Strategy
Developing a strategy involves many steps, and often smaller steps within them. Here are some essential to-dos:
- Audit and analysis
- Define missional goals and identify marketing objectives to achieve them along with the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will use to measure success
- Define your editorial mission statement and audience to decide what types of content will be most effective (written text, blogs, graphics, video, etc.)
- Choose your distribution channels (website, social media, newsletter, advertising, etc.)
- Establish standards for content creation to ensure brand integrity, including:
- Use of logos, fonts, and color palette
- Voice and tone
- Core messages
- Create an operational plan or blueprint that identifies:
- Who is responsible for creating and/or distributing content
- When content will be published (often mapping particular messages to specific marketing goals or steps along the customer’s journey)
- Distribution channels
- Plan how and when to measure progress toward meeting your marketing goals
- Periodically adjust your strategy to keep it relevant, timely, and effective
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Content Strategy?
Electric Lemonade offers preliminary content strategies at no cost. We do that to help the decision-makers in your organization understand its value, because we believe it is that important.
Send us your contact information below to get yours today.
