I’ve found that there are two types of business owner. The ones who love strategy and planning and actively seek out tools to help and, well, the other kind. To be fair even they could be split into two camps. People who know they need a strategy but just can’t quite bring themselves to do it and the ones who would happily wing it forever. Ultimately, guess which businesses have greater success long term? Yep, the ones with a plan. So why do you need a content marketing strategy? It’s an important piece of the overall puzzle. Here’s why.
A focused message = better results
When you plan your content marketing strategy in advance you can work out which products or services you want to focus on. I’ve talked before (a lot) about focusing on your ideal customer and your content strategy planning should be an extension of that. The TL;DR version is – trying to market to everyone just makes your content bland and boring. Equally, you could sell any product or service at any time, but it’s better to focus on one.
If you’re building a relationship with your customers, focusing on one service helps them to get to know you. Your posts and blogs over a couple of weeks or a month can give them in depth knowledge of that service and what it can do for them. They might not need that particular thing but it helps them to get to know you and keep following. If you jump about that trust could be lost. If you’d like some help identifying where your focus should be, I can help.
Less stress for you
Have you ever sat in front of your computer and thought ‘I need to post something today’. Or ‘I should get a blog out there this week’, without the faintest idea about what you want to say? A content marketing strategy helps you to overcome that. You’ll have a theme or product to focus on and you can get everything planned in advance. Rather than panicking and posting something random, you’ll have time to really think about what you want to say.
It also means that you can get blogs written and social media posts planned and scheduled during quiet periods. Then they’re there and ready to go when you get busier.
A consistent content marketing strategy
I’ll be talking more about aligning your content marketing strategy with your goals in a future blog post, but identifying which products or services you want to focus on is a good first step. By doing this you can get relevant marketing out there when people are most likely to be looking for it. It’s why you see loads of holiday adverts on Boxing Day and wedding industry promotions around Valentine’s Day. Timing is key.
Of course, it’s also important to have a consistent message. When your content marketing strategy is planned in advance you can ensure it all makes sense. You can have a theme running through each month’s marketing like a golden thread. It shouldn’t be exactly the same message every time, but it should all tie together. As you might have guessed, this month I’m mostly talking about strategy and planning. It’s a good way to start the year. I’ll be writing blogs like this one and sharing tools and resources that have helped me to plan so you can use them if you want to.
Do you have a plan for this year? If you don’t and you need some help, click here to find out more about my content planning and strategy sessions.
Further reading
If you’re wondering why you need content marketing anyway, here’s a great piece from marketing legend Neil Patel.