The easily most talked about concept for social media growth yet there is still a lot of uncertainty about what a content strategy actually entails.
So, let’s break it down…
What is a content strategy?
A content strategy is a detailed plan for how you are going to use content to achieve specific and defined goals. As an online business, your content is one of your most powerful marketing tools for lead generation, brand awareness and sales.
From now on, I want you to see your content as the top of your funnel. It is a lead generation and nurture tool for your business.
For example, you create a post that talks about a common problem your target audience experiences. You use defined keywords and hashtags to make sure the right audience sees your content. You write a caption that hooks them in, speaks to them in their language, and then directs them to take action with a well-placed call-to-action. You’ve gone from a fresh pair of eyes on your content to a new follower and potential lead for your business.
Take it one step further. You create a series of content that encourages people to follow you, engage with you, sign up to your lead magnet and hey fresco – you’ve now got a lead on your email list and, hopefully, being nurtured and converted as we speak with an automated email sequence!
By the end of that sequence, you have a sale and a new client!
That’s what your content strategy can and should do.
So, yes – posting just because you feel like you have to isn’t going to cut it anymore. Posting without really knowing what you want each post to do as part of the bigger picture isn’t enough. Not if you really want to level up.
And I bet that just reading that, you felt a wave of overwhelm and drudgery… am I wrong?
Well, let me just as quickly squash that feeling before it stops you taking action!
Because the content strategy I’m about to teach you is going to make sure you never feel overwhelmed or lost with your content ever again.
How do you create a content strategy?
Let’s take this one step at a time…
1. Define your goal (monthly or quarterly)
I recommend that you start by identifying your overall quarterly goal and then breaking that goal down into monthly goals to help you stay on track with a clear focus for how you’re going to nail your quarterly goal.
Don’t know how to identify your goals?
Here’s a list of defined goals for a content strategy:
- Increase brand awareness
- Drive traffic to your website
- Generate new leads
- Increase revenue
- Boost brand engagement
- Build a community around your brand
Focus on 1-2 goals at a time and really drive your content strategy each month to focus on that goal. If you are not making consistent income in your business yet, then make one of your goals to increase your revenue and/or to generate new leads.
If you’re struggling to build your social media following, then choose to boost brand engagement and to build a community around your brand.
If you’re the new kid on the block, focus on increasing brand awareness and generating new leads.
2. Know your niche
Your niche is a combination of what you want to be known for and who you serve.
Therefore, in order to really clarify your niche, you need to be confident in what it is you want to be known for as a brand.
Ask yourself these 4 questions:
- Who is your ideal client and target audience?
- What do you want to be known for?
- What is it you help people do? (specifically, what does the transformation look like)
- What does your ideal client need to know in order to achieve the transformation you provide?
If you’re struggling to answer question 4, then you need to research your target audience.
3. Analyse your past content
Skip this step if you’re starting from scratch.
Look at the content that you have posted in the past 90 days.
On Instagram, you can easily do this by heading to your insights and then filtering by the past 90 days.
Take a note of the top 5 posts that got the most likes, saves, shares and comments.
Write down the topic that you spoke about in the piece of content, what type of post it was (reel, carousel post, etc), and how it was formatted (talking tutorial, relatable reel, etc).
Use these a guideline for what your current audience are already enjoying so that you know what topics work well and how to format them.
Do the exact same for your worst performing content and try to identify if there are common patterns and issues within the content that you can easily identify. This will help you to learn and become a better content creator!
4. Identify your content pillars
Your content pillars are the 3-5 topics that you are consistently going to talk about within your niche.
Therefore, I want you to see your niche as the overarching topic and your content pillars as subtopics within your niche.
For example, a fitness coach whose niche is to help self-employed WFH entrepreneurs create a healthy home workout routine then her content pillars might be home workouts, mindfulness habits, and quick/healthy lunch recipes.
Alternatively, an online business coach (sound like someone you know??) whose niche is to help online coaches and service providers expand their business and build passive income streams with automated sales funnels then her content pillars might be content marketing, sales strategies and business growth tips.
You’ll notice that I tend to lean towards only 3 pillars. There’s a reason for that. It is far easier to become the go-to brand for fewer topics than if you diversify too much BUT that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to become a go-to expert with 5 pillars, especially if those 5 pillars intertwine well.
5. Categorise the different format types of content
Once you have your content pillars, it’s then important to identify the different types of content you intent to create (video, text, graphic, story, lives, blog) and cross reference that with the style of content (educational, motivational, storytelling, relatable) based on the platform you will be using.
If you’re just starting out, focus on one platform. If you’re diversifying your content marketing, then take into consideration that you will likely be repurposing content from one platform (for example, I recommend you start with TikTok, repurpose your best performing TikToks to Instagram, repurpose your most educational/inspirational TikToks to Pinterest, and then supplementing the remainder of your content based on the needs of your audience on each platform (e.g., carousels on Instagram)).
6. Brainstorm ideas that are value-based and goal-oriented
Your content must always serve your target audience and your business needs.
Therefore, map out content ideas that generate problem awareness, encourage likability with educational content (reciprocity), build trust with authority-building, build community vibes with the similarity-sense of belonging, and motivate your audience to take action.
These are the 5 integral pillars for online businesses creating a content strategy.
7. Schedule your content
Lastly, plan when and how often you are going to publish content for the different channels with a clear idea of what you intend each piece of content to do for your business with a call-to-action (CTA) to match.
Therefore, if you want more followers, your CTA should ask your viewers to follow for more XYZ.
If you want more engagement, encourage your viewers to comment by asking a question or starting a conversation.
If you want more exposure, encourage your viewers to share with a clear benefit why they should.
If you want more email subscriptions, direct your viewers to the link in your bio to snag access to *insert lead magnet*.
If you want more sales, either direct your viewers to pop into your DMs to chat about an offer or send them to the link in your bio for your opt-in/sales page.
And there you have it. A detailed and goal-oriented content strategy that will deliver time and time again. This strategy is foolproof and has worked for every one of my clients AND my audience on social media who use it.
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