6 SIMPLE CONTENT

STRATEGY QUESTIONS TO
ASK BEFORE STARTING YOUR
CONTENT MARKETING
JOURNEY

WELL, FINDING THE ANSWERS

DEFINITELY NEEDS A LOT OF
BRAINSTORMING!

Content marketing is still the buzzword, given the ease with which the right words get
into the heart and minds of the right audience in this online-obsessed world. But
competition has become tougher than ever. Hence, the key is to use the right form of
content at the right time through the right channel, focusing on the right audience. And
how do you find this key? With some smart content strategy, of course!

Since coming up with a competent and crisp content strategy is so important, you should
obviously be asking the right questions. What are these questions? Well, that’s the
easiest part – it’s just 6 simple questions.

SIX QUESTIONS THAT HELP CREATE

YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
1. Why do I need a content marketing exercise? The answer to this question helps
you define your content marketing goals.
 2. How will I achieve my content marketing goals? The answer to this question is
the longest and defines your content roadmap.
3. Who will be my target audience? The answer to this critical question will define
the type of content, the frequency of content interaction, and the channels you
choose. If this step is ignored, your content marketing will be way too generic,
producing no results.
4. Which type of content would I require? Of course, there are many favorites, but
a well-tailored content format depends on your specialization and your target
audience.
5. What are the content channels I should use for content marketing? A perfect
combination of different content channels can help you reach out to different
target groups distributed across the online world.
6. When will I clear each content marketing milestone? The content timeline is
critical – a parameter that must be closely watched through your engagement.

So, let’s look at each question in more detail, shall we?

Why

The why focuses on the goals of your content marketing initiative. Most successful
organizations, a popular example being Amazon, have consistently reinvented their
content marketing strategy by concentrating on this question, “why”. Every answer to
their “why” ends with the customer, which explains their consistent success with
content marketing. Their goal is to expand their community and to deliver useful content
to this close-knit community who value Amazon. This goal answers the “why” for
Amazon. Similarly, have a goal set for your content marketing. Why should you take
up the content marketing initiative? The answers can vary from “so my audience can
get to know my products well” to “so our brand can connect with our target audience
and build a consistent interaction”. Each goal will have a completely different content
strategy.

How

The answer to “how” gives you a clear perspective of the content marketing approach
you need to take. Every content marketing strategy should be unique and personal,
focusing on your audience and your goals of interacting with them. Yes, numbers
matter but quality matters more. Hence, while building your content strategy, do not
just blindly rush ahead to build a meaningless crowd – groups with followers who are
not your target audience, purposeless likes, or shooting arrows in the dark.

Ensure that your content strategy details how you will be finding your target audience.
Think about the brand personality you would want to portray to your audience –
informative, fun, up-to-date, frank, or cause-focused. There are many personalities to
choose from, but it must identify with your brand. But the core is to get your identity
across as a brand worth trusting. Of course you can always change the content flavor
and dare to experiment with unique approaches.

But whatever you do, never sell obviously- well, AIDA still means a lot in the content
world. Also define how you will be measuring content performance, what insights
would you be assessing, and how often would you be reassessing your approach.
Answering this question does require a lot of brainstorming sessions.

Whom

Answering the question “whom” definitely takes a long time. Surprisingly, most of us
think we know our target audience. But when we actually get down to researching about
the persona of our audience, there’ll definitely be a lot of surprises. Personas are not a
figment of your content marketer’s imagination – these personas are created from the
data gathered from interaction with potential customers, their social media channel
preferences and behaviors, their likelihood of visiting your landing page/site, their
lifestyle and other demographics, possible problem areas, wants and needs. In addition
to the extensive data capture options, technologies such as chatbots are precious support
in gathering important data about your audience using a simple conversational interface.
Which

As irrelevant as it sounds, the type of content depends on your brand personality and
your content marketing goals. Although written text – from blog posts to whitepapers –
are still popular, it’s videos that are fast becoming the darlings of content marketing.
With innumerable content models from images and infographics to case studies and
quizzes, you need to choose content formats in stages. Plan your content strategy for a
specific period, by combining different formats and then revising the formats for the
following period. This gives you a good overview of what format clicks and what does
not. Also assess the best time of the week a specific format of content would work.
Never forget your SEO strategy and look for the set of keywords that will help your
content gain visibility.

What

The content channels you choose are really important and it depends a lot on your target
persona. Choose the social media channels where you can easily establish your visibility
with your target persona. Do not ignore other content channel options such as email
marketing, online events, webinars, and podcasts. Ensure that your content approach is
mobile friendly given the increasing tendency to catch up on content “on the go”

When

The timeline is critical – the key here is consistency. The Content Marketing
Institute and Seth Godin are great examples of consistent content engagement,
delivering refreshing perspectives on content marketing. Most of us budding content
marketers would have definitely had our initial lessons from these leaders. Ensure that
your content plan flows seamlessly from one topic to another and from awareness to
action. Plan a detailed schedule for a specific period, say, quarter, with regular content
performance checks. Then tweak the approach depending on the response. But never
stop.
CONCLUSION

Content marketing requires immense focus and a continuous engagement with your
target audience. This requires you to answer the six critical questions of why, who, how,
which, what, and when. The answers to these questions will help you define your
content marketing strategy with ease. So how far are you on your content marketing
roadmap?