If you’ve ever wondered how businesses were posting consistently and aligning their blogs with their sales, sales with their instagram posts, and their instagram posts with their website content; it’s because they have a content strategy.

A content strategy is a plan put together by a business (or creative team) to roll out specific content in a specific order based on goals and priorities. Even further, this plan considers who your target audience is, what they’re listening to, what products they need, and how to reach them. From there, you break all of that down into priorities and goals, which leads you to decide what type of content to put out into the marketplace. Complex yes; impossible no. 

Why you need one?

When you’re in the position to grow your business, you have to start with growing your audience. This doesn’t always mean casting a wide net, sometimes this means finding the people who really need what you have and connecting with them. Having a strategy prevents you from being all over the place and it gives you direction and tangible results. A content strategy allows you to put all of your ideas into one big, organized plan that you can use over and over again as you grow. 

How It Can Help?

If you are not already convinced, here are a few other perks of having a content strategy: 

1. Engage Your Audience 

As previously mentioned, a content strategy can help you engage your audience. If you’re a first time entrepreneur or new to a particular field, a content strategy can also help you find your tribe and explore your niche. Firstly, you’ll need to do some research. Who needs your product or service? What are they listening to? What places are they frequenting? How will they know you exist? Starting here can give you a sense of what kind of content to create. For example, the younger generation is paying more attention to video than blogs which means if they are your audience, you may need to create instagram reels or start a youtube channel. Whatever you do, make sure you’re being authentic to yourself and your business. 

2.  Meet Your Goals

This is a big plus of a content strategy. Most people post content without considering why they’re posting or sharing it. And content doesn’t always include social media. You have newsletters, email blasts, blogs, even website content that can also be considered. You could set a goal to raise awareness, which may mean you post more often. Or you could have a goal to engage your current client base and make them return customers, which means you may focus on newsletters or wherever you are currently getting most of your customers. As your goals shift and change, so can your strategy. 

3. Maintain Your Brand Voice

Did you know your brand has a voice? The same way every person is known for one thing or another, your business is the same. You can have a silly and playful voice or a more serious and sentimental one. Or you can do both — it’s all up to you and what your business represents. Having a strategy can make sure you stick to that voice at all times and that you don’t stray from what makes you who you are. By creating a plan, you won’t have to scour for content or post things just because they’re popular. You can share based on who you are and what you want to say. 

4. Make yourself an expert 

There are certain companies and businesses that need to become experts in their field. Take a marketing firm for example, sharing content that positions you as an expert will draw people to you. When people have questions, you have the answers; and when you have the answers, people will come back to you over and over. You can create content that is informative just as much as it is entertaining, that way you sell your knowledge; thus selling your product or service. 

5. Grow Your Business 

There are many entrepreneurs and business owners who do not get into business for the money. Some of us do it for love – which is admirable. But we have to admit, when we get to a certain point in our business, we have to decide whether we’re going to make it our primary source of income (if it isn’t already) or leave it all together. If we decide to keep going, we should consider how we want it to grow. A content strategy can help with that too. You can decide how you want to grow your business, by how much, and in what way. You can wing it for the rest of your business career or you can create a plan that makes it a little easier to move forward. Up to you. 

If you’ve been thinking of creating a strategy or handing off your content to an expert, click here to check out how we can help you.