1. 8 Steps to a Smarter
Content Strategy
Eric Wilinski
CantaloupeContent.com
415.971.3249
eric@cantaloupecontent.com
2. Content Strategy:
Due Diligence
Understand
what your
target
market
wants and
needs
1. Define
target
personas
What
content do
you have
already?
2.
Inventory
content
What must
you give
targets that
you’re not
already?
3.
Identify
gaps
5. Due Diligence
1. Define target personas
•What problems are they
trying to solve?
•What are their interests
and tastes?
•What do they talk about
in person, online, and in
surveys and forms
•What are their digital
habits?
2. Inventory existing
content
•What marketing content
do you already have?
•Can it be “chunked,”
repurposed, optimized?
•Is it effective in moving
targets through the sales
cycle?
•Is it relevant to target
personas?
3. Identify gaps
•How does your existing
content map to what
targets want and need?
•Are you missing the
opportunity to engage
targets with specific types
of content?
•Are you engaging targets
wherever they are, across
a range of relevant
channels?
• Are you tapping into your
organization’s unique
domain knowledge and
brand values to add
value for targets?
6. Planning
4. Prioritize channels
• What channels will get your
content in front of targets –
or targets’ networks?
• In-house blog
• Guest blog posts
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Google+
• SlideShare
• Email
5. Create editorial calendar
• Are you committing the
resources necessary to
publish new content
regularly?
• Are you telling stories?
• Industry-relevant stories
• Company-origin stories
• Customer-success stories
• Who owns what?
• Editorial calendar
• Creative executions
• Channel management
7. Execution
6. Promote &
socialize
•Are you promoting
your content on key
digital channels?
•Are you publishing
new content
regularly
•Do you have the
resources to
execute?
•Are you
encouraging
conversation about
and sharing of your
content?
7. Monitor &
participate
•Are you listening to
targets?
•Are you responding
in a timely fashion?
•Are you being
transparent?
•Are you being
accountable?
•Are you escalating
key insights about
target needs and
how your
organization can
meet them?
8. Measure & revise
•What content is
working best in
terms of
engagement?
•What content is
working best in
terms of
conversion?
•How can you adjust
your approach to
be more relevant
and engaging?
1. Define target personasWho are you trying to engage? What problems business problems are they trying to solve? What are they searching for on your site? Beyond business problems, what are their interests? What are they talking about – in person, online, and in surveys and feedback forms? What are their digital habits – where can you reach them online? 2. Inventory existing contentWhat marketing content do you already have? Online? Offline? Can it be “chunked,” repurposed, optimized? Is any of it particularly effective in moving targets through the sales pipeline? Is any of it low in value to targets? (Feedback from sales, or from customers directly, can be very helpful in understanding the value of your existing content.) 3. Identify content gapsYou understand your targets’ problems, and how you can help solve them. You understand their broader related interests. You know what content you already have. Now it’s time to map what you have to what targets want and need, and identify types of content you’re missing – content that will help engage targets more deeply and more consistently. Digital offers the opportunity to engage targets earlier in the customer lifecycle. And digital means shareable, meaning your content can end up in front of your target even if it only reaches the target’s friends, family, or colleagues initially. So think beyond promotions and product demos, and consider building out content that taps into your organization’s unique domain knowledge or brand values to add value for targets. As any 3-year-old fan of Thomas the Tank Engine will tell you: It’s all about being useful. (E.g., Columbia Sportswear released an app giving users instructions on how to tie more than 70 kinds of knots.) (You may not see the ROI in this, but rest assured that your competitors do.)
4. Prioritize channels 5. Create editorial calendarContent marketing success is typically contingent on the regular publication of new or repurposed content. Ideally, this content will tell stories – industry-relevant stories, or company-origin stories, or product-development stories, or customer-success stories, etc. To ensure sufficient resource allocation, create an editorial calendar detailing who’s going to deliver what and when, and which channels you’ll use to deliver each content piece. Remember: Content marketing is a process, not a project.
6. Promote and socialize contentDeliver and promote your content via your chosen digital channels. Publish regularly; make sure you have the resources in place to execute your editorial calendar. Ask questions; encourage conversation about and sharing of your content. 7. Monitor and participate in conversationsIn the digital era, you’re no longer the sole author of your brand – you co-author your brand along with the marketplace. Effective content marketing requires understanding of this, and participation in the digital conversations that emerge around your brand. The keys here are responsiveness and transparency. You’ll be pilloried for things like deleting negative comments from your Facebook page – and in the digital world, word spreads fast and far. 8. Measure and revisePerhaps the biggest advantage of digital over traditional marketing channels like advertising and PR is the measurability of your efforts. Study the analytics for insight into what content pieces are working best in terms of engagement and/or conversion. Then tweak your editorial calendar to give the market more of the content that works.
