How To Build A Fool-Proof Content Strategy For Your Brand?

by Kaitlynn Tovar |

March 22, 2023

April Fool’s Day is just around the corner… and we’re here to say that building a content strategy is no joke! Bill Gates uttered these famous words over 20 years ago: “Content is king” – and he was really on to something there. Having a great content strategy is essential to the success of your marketing efforts and your business as a whole. A content strategy is a plan where you use content to help you achieve goals you’ve set forth for your business. This content can be visual, audio or written – but one that is successful is one that keeps your customers engaged. In this blog, we’ll cover the top ways you can build a fool-proof content strategy for your brand.

1. Define Your Goals

What is the overall purpose of your content strategy? What do you hope to gain from your content strategy? Set SMART goals before you begin building out your content. SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based. Let’s dive into that further, shall we?

  • Specific
    • Your goals should be specific and narrow. Make sure your goals are clear so they’re easier to achieve.
  • Measurable
    • Any goal that you set needs to be one that can be measured and tracked. Decide how you plan to measure your goals. What tools will you use to track your progress?
  • Achievable
    • Make sure your goals are achievable. You want them to be challenging, but not impossible. Ask yourself if you can realistically accomplish this goal?
  • Relevant
    • Your goals should align with your values and long-term objectives. Not only that, but they should also make sense.
  • Time-Based
    • To hold yourself accountable and prioritize tasks, make sure you are setting a realistic deadline. Setting a due date helps keep us focused and motivated.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

You’re putting content out there – but for who? Nonetheless, you want to create a positive user experience and deliver the most relevant content you can to the people who will interact with it. In order to do this, however, you must first understand your audience and who they are. When determining this persona, consider the following demographics:

  • Age: How old is your target audience? What age group are you marketing towards?
  • Gender: What gender is likely to purchase from you?
  • Income: Are your customers likely to be lower-class, middle-class, or upper-class?
  • Education: What level of education do they likely have?
  • Marital Status: Are they married? Single? Do they have a family?

Once you’ve defined the demographics of your customers, you can move on to determining their buying habits, behaviors, interests, motivations, hobbies, and more to really understand who you’re targeting.

3. Run a Content Audit

When refining your content strategy, consider running a content audit on all current content you have out there already. This is the process of analyzing and assessing content on your website. This will help you determine your strengths and weaknesses – where you need to improve and what’s currently working. During your content audit, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to analyze how your current content is performing, repurpose it if needed, optimize it, and see where your new content strategy will fit in to the one you currently have in place.

4. Brainstorm Content Ideas

Now we’re on to the fun stuff – brainstorming content ideas! Determine what type of content you hope to create, and start coming up with ideas to turn these dreams into a reality. Some content ideas that marketers are looking at implementing into their marketing strategy today include:

  • Interactive Content: Content that encourages users to participate, such as polls, quizzes, and infographics.
  • Podcasting: More and more businesses are utilizing podcasts as they become more popular.
  • Testimonials: Sharing reviews from previous customer is a good way to establish trust and credibility.
  • Videos: Videos and moving ads have proven to be more effective than still images, and get more viewers.
  • Storytelling: Storytelling can be a powerful tool and add personalization and authenticity to your brand. Consider sharing stories about your business.
  • Memes/GIFS: Memes and GIFs are more popular than ever and a great thing to add to your content strategy.
  • Checklists and Free Guides: Customers love “free” – so why not provide them with free guides and checklists that relate to your business?
  • Influencers: Many brands are beginning to use influencer marketing in their content strategy, and partnering up with reputable influencers people can trust.

5. Publish and Manage Your Content

Last but certainly not least, you’re ready to publish and manage your content now that you’ve built out a good content strategy. Managing your content successfully can be tricky, but we’ve broken down a few ways to do this that are seamless and easy.

  • Use a calendar or other tools to organize and schedule your content
  • Establish accountability for your content team, and define responsibilities
  • Communicate effectively and consistently with your team to ensure everyone is on the same page
  • Meet consistently with your team to collaborate on ideas and make sure your content strategy still aligns with your goals and objectives

Many businesses make the mistake of putting content out there and then never looking at it again. However, you need to make sure your content remains relevant. That being said, throughout the year, you should run content audit after content audit, take a look at your goals and make changes where you see fit, and measure and analyze your content to get the most out of it.

Contact VitalStorm Today For All Your Content Strategy and Digital Marketing Needs

Have questions about your content strategy? Need help mapping out a plan? Have other digital marketing needs you need addressed? We do it all. Get in touch with our team at VitalStorm today. Call us today at 877-311-5695 or visit more of our marketing tips here.