Why you need a content strategy

Is yours one of the 56% of businesses that create and publish marketing content without having a clearly defined strategy? Doing without this roadmap may be limiting your ability to be truly effective.

Here are some of the most important reasons to consider stepping back from your blogging, article writing and social media activity for long enough to determine and document your content marketing strategy.

Find your ‘why’

There’s no point writing and publishing content if you don’t know why you’re doing it. Becoming clear about the purpose behind your content marketing will help you lock down every other aspect of your strategy and often has the added bonus of helping to keep you motivated.

Determine what to focus on

Having a documented strategy ensures you focus your time and resources in the right areas. It helps you and your team prioritise the topics that are most likely to drive business success, and avoid those that likely to be more time consuming than they’re worth.

Focus on your customer

In an industry where we spend a huge chunk of our time thinking about the evidence and claims that support our products and services, your content strategy redirects the focus squarely to your customer. It forces you to drill down into who they are, what’s important to them, and the different ways that you might be able to connect with them.

Get smart about when and where you publish

Having a content strategy will enable you to make smart decisions about the frequency with which you create content and where it should be published. In my experience, having documented, strategic reasons behind your publishing schedule also tends to make the deadlines on your editorial calendar more meaningful and easier to stick to.

How much time and money should we spend?

Once you know the why, who, what, when and where of your content strategy, you’ll also be in a good position to determine how much time or money you’re willing to invest in it. This is especially true if you incorporate some aspect of measurement into your strategic plan, enabling you to keep track of what’s working and what’s not so that you can strive for continuous improvement.

In short, if you haven’t yet formulated a content strategy for your natural health business, there are numerous reasons why you should – all of which will help maximise returns you get from the time and resources you invest in content development.

If you’re ready to get started and would like the input of a highly experienced strategic marketer, please contact me for a chat.

Reference: HubSpot and Smart Insights. Driving Content Marketing Success, European edition. 2014.