plant the seeds of success
expand your reach and harvest the rewards with a customized digital content strategy from BitterRoot Content
what is content strategy?
Content marketing is a type of B2B or B2C marketing strategy that utilizes relevant content to provide real value to the lives of your business's current and potential customers. By sharing content, you are able to humanize your brand, build trust, and position your business as a thought leader in your industry to ultimately drive sales, increase organic traffic, and generate leads.
Unfortunately, it is no longer enough to simply generate content, and doing so can result in wasted time, capital, and effort.
To prevent this, you need a robust content marketing strategy, which serves as the foundation for all other content marketing efforts. It ensures you have a clear vision of what your business wants to accomplish through its content and provides an organized structure by which to execute this vision. Content strategy can also help you determine whether or not your current content marketing efforts are working by measuring progress against key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversions, leads generated, and revenue generated from those leads.
Like a roadmap, your content strategy will help you navigate the nebulous content marketing road ahead by providing guidelines and best practices for creating, distributing, promoting, measuring, optimizing, and analyzing your content.
definition
content strategy
Content strategy is a strategic approach that focuses on the "planning, creation, delivery, and ownership of content" to help you achieve business or organizational goals.
why does my business need a digital content marketing strategy?
Although 82 percent of marketers are utilizing content marketing to create new leads, generate more revenue, and increase brand awareness, less than half of them have a documented content marketing strategy and 27 percent have no strategy at all.
If your business finds itself among that 27 percent, it's time to reconsider the importance of documenting and implementing a content strategy.
businesses that employ content strategies report:
increased online visibility
Content creation such as blogging that is backed by a content strategy can increase a business's online footprint. By maintaining a consistent presence on the web, companies can improve visibility on search engines and drive their target audience back to their website.
more leads
A successful content strategy framework uses audience personas and search engine optimization (SEO) to discover content ideas and tailor that content to audiences most likely to convert to customers, thereby increasing leads.
higher engagement
When it comes to engagement, you're only as good as your content. Content that is created within a strategic framework is more likely to be shared, remembered, and used, resulting in improved engagement over multiple content marketing channels.
growing budgets
If you're looking to expand your marketing budget over the years, you will need a content marketing strategy that allows your company to successfully track and measure the results of each campaign. Based on these key performance indicators (KPIs), you can then fine-tune your strategy and improve outcomes, influencing the growth, profitability, and sustainability of your marketing budget down the line.
schedule your discovery call today
Receive a free mini content audit and learn how you can achieve the results you want with a custom content strategy from BitterRoot!
what are the elements of a successful content strategy?
Utilize the following five elements to create your own stellar content strategy plan and you'll be creating content in no time at all!
1.
2.
3.
audience personas
An audience persona is a fictionalized representation of your company's ideal customer. These are the types of people who will most likely find themselves drawn to your business and—if your content strategy is effective—will become loyal customers.
Personas allow you to understand the specific needs and queries that your audience is facing to help you ideate and create targeted content that can address these pain points.
Persona creation begins with a thorough analysis of your company's target market. Walk a mile in your customer's shoes by studying analytics, surveys, and interviews to gain an understanding of their overall attitude and sense of self. You can then use this information to create an audience persona that represents your ideal customer and provides the best possible plan for how to speak with this customer.
brand narrative
Your brand narrative is the story that you tell about your business, including its values and mission. It is the foundation of any sound content marketing strategy and establishes an emotional connection and brand voice with your audience. Building a brand narrative is essential before you can even begin to create content as it will allow you to create and publish content that is consistent with your brand voice and will set you apart from your competitors.
tips for building your brand narrative
identify your core values and mission
Identifying these is the first step in developing a brand story that resonates with your target audience. Your core values and mission are the foundation of your brand identity and differentiate your business from competitors.
ask yourself why your brand exists
Sure, you've determined your values and mission, but you also need to ask yourself why your company exists. Your why is the emotional pull behind your brand and the reason you do what you do. It's about finding that emotional connection with your audience, which is what will ultimately drive them to work with or buy from you.
kiss!
Remember the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Your brand narrative should be easy to understand and remember, so your audience can easily recall it when they think of your business.
understand your customer and their needs
Understanding and acknowledging the pain points of your customers is a critical aspect of building a compelling brand narrative. By identifying the challenges and obstacles that your target audience faces, you can craft a narrative that speaks directly to their needs and desires. This empathy humanizes your brand and opens the door for customers to engage with your business on a deeper level.
imbue your narrative with personality
While many of the aspects of your content strategy can seem cut-and-dried, your narrative is anything but. It's you! Your voice is what sets you apart from your competitors. It's what makes your brand relatable and human, not just another faceless entity that is only in it for the funds.
Your brand narrative should be consistent across all marketing channels, including social media platforms, email marketing, and website content. It should be reflected in all aspects of your business, from your logo and visual identity to your customer service and employee interactions. This consistency will help to establish a strong brand identity and build trust with your audience.
When crafting your brand narrative, be sure to focus on the unique aspects of your business that set you apart from competitors. This will help to differentiate your brand and make it more memorable to your audience. By creating a strong brand narrative that is consistent across all channels, you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and drive more conversions.
your content marketing mission and business goals
Hopefully you already know your business mission, but have you taken a second to consider what your content marketing mission would look like? If not, it’s time to do so. While your business mission is focused on the business itself and its bottom line, your content marketing mission should be centered around the customer experience you want to offer them through your published content.
It is equally important to ask yourself what your business goals are—particularly as they relate to your content strategy. Essentially, what do you want to get out of the content that you create?
