Strategic Pillars Behind Every Winning Content Strategy

A good content strategy is a foundation for all of your content marketing.

Even the most ambitious, driven content marketers will struggle without a well-established content strategy to provide focus and clarity to move their brand forward.

Content strategies also ensure consistency and allow you to share your vision transparently without hounding after new marketing strategies to see what works for you frantically.

Several different components make up the building blocks of a winning content strategy. However, three identifiable strategic pillars can guide you to reach the best content strategy for your brand.

You need to ask yourself the following three questions:

Why?
Who?
How?

Why?

Any good plan in life comes with asking yourself: why? What is the purpose of what I aim to do? The same philosophy should drive your content strategy.

Firstly, begin by assessing your goals for your business and having a clear vision of what you want to achieve.

Creating good content comes from within. By understanding your business model and your brand better, you will find out which content marketing efforts will be most successful for you.

Who?

This pillar deals with identifying your ideal target audience. But – this is not just regarding the target audience of your business but also the target reader for the content you are creating.

Content marketing is similar to casting a net not only to catch the attention of your target audience but to use your content strategically to appeal to a broader customer base.

At times, the people viewing your content are not necessarily your niche target audience. They can also be people who can recommend your products/services to their friends and spread awareness of your brand.

Additionally, to understand your target audience better, organisations often create customer profiles or “buyer personas” to know the type of customers your brand has and wants.

How?

The final pillar in a successful content strategy is looking at what sets you apart. In a crowded market, what attracts customers to come to your stall? What is your business’s unique selling points (USPs)?

By better understanding your brand mission or story, your content strategy can enhance brand engagement by identifying what appeals to your audience.

This step is where creating good content comes in. Incorporating your brand ethos and understanding your brand’s distinctiveness will allow you to not only create quality content but meaningful content as well.

The above three pillars are fundamental steps to align your vision and fuel your determination. But remember – each content strategy is different, and what works for others might not necessarily work for you.

Use these pillars to set structure to your vision. But know that a successful content strategy also comes from being reflexive of your approach and assessing what works (and doesn’t) for your brand.

By keeping all of this in mind – your journey on the path to content marketing success has already begun!