Why Content Strategy Matters

If you’ve put so much as a toe into the blogging/social media world, you’ve got an idea of the time and effort it takes to continually produce valuable, targeted content. It’s easy to get stuck on the details: headlines, posting frequency, moderation. But it’s important to take a step back and think about your goals, and what your content should actually be conveying.

The steps of deciding what content to create and share, how and when to share it, and what goals that content has all fall under the umbrella known as content strategy. Working through this process can be tedious, but it’s critical to your business’ success for several reasons.

Write right

Content strategy helps businesses identify and create the content their target audience actually wants. It’s a waste of resources to create content that attracts everyone except the people with whom you really want to work. Better to create content that speaks to your prospects and pulls them directly to you.

Cut costs

Knowing precisely what content you need to produce reduces the time and money you spend creating content that isn’t beneficial. Also, shifting your resources to creating only the right content means that your content’s value and effectiveness will increase.

Coordinate communications

A content strategy organizes not only content creation, but also online sharing and communications, website content, and “traditional” marketing (billboards, commercials, direct mail, etc.). Coordinating every aspect of your communication and advertising makes it easier for everyone to work toward the same goals.

Measure & sustain

Content strategy helps answer the world’s oldest marketing question: “What’s the ROI?” It gets your goals in place and allows you to develop the road markers you need to ensure you’re moving toward those goals.

Onward and upward

The importance of content is only growing. As the Internet and social media continue to have bigger effects on business, having a well-developed content strategy in place will help you focus and maintain your lead generation and branding efforts.

Related links

• The 5 Characteristics of Compelling Content
• Creating Content: Agency vs. Freelance
• The Biggest Reason Your Marketing Strategy is Failing

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