The nooks and crannies of the internet are awash every day with posts, tweets, blogs and newsletters. Everyone tries to outdo the competition. How will you get noticed as a company or organization in all this noise? How do you ensure your content reaches the audience you have in mind?
Smart enterprises establish a content strategy with this in mind. Such a document describes in detail what you are trying to achieve, whom you are targeting and which means and tools you employ to that end. It is not enough to merely fling something online—use a method instead! Which raises the important question: what do we think a content strategy should contain?
What exactly do you want to achieve? Putting content on Instagram for the heck of it, without a clear idea of what it will do for you, won’t help you further. Perhaps your goal is increasing your brand awareness, or positioning your product as a young and hip alternative with a couple of smart campaigns? There are as many good answers to this question as there are companies. Your goals ring through every future step you take, so take the time to formulate them.
If you don’t know who you are talking to, failure is certain. Take for instance this very article: we are aiming it at entrepreneurs and decision-makers within companies wanting to take the next step or professionalize. Knowing this will give you clearer idea of how to write the text or which images to employ. A proven way for gaining insight into your target audience (and their preferences) is by developing so-called “personas”; fictional clients falling within various archetypes.
Only now, when your goals and audience is known, will we actually start thinking about the content you could offer. The key thing is that your content should always be valuable, gripping and easily discovered. Sharable too, and inspiring to the target audience. Vuurwerk uses the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) to co-create content with you suited to every phase in the customer journey. Developing the right content requires taking a creative journey and experience too—there are no ready-made solutions that work in every situation! In our blog What is good content? we offer some examples of effective options.
Once you have determined your content, the next question is which channels you will put it on. Your own website is usually first on the list, with a newsletter, blog and/or social media following suit. In case you primarily deal with other businesses, LinkedIn and Twitter are solid options. If your customer base is comprised of consumers, however, Facebook and Instagram are more suited. Age plays a role in this too—the field is always moving and changes rapidly.
Filling out a content calendar is necessary to plan things tactically. Looking forward to the coming year, you can make full use of any recurring events. The right message on valentine’s day or Christmas can—despite heavy competition on those crowded moments—still pay off with tons of engagement. This calendar could also point out which platforms should be used for which articles and who is responsible for developing the content. This creates the necessary overview.
A very important point is: how will you post and manage your content? Preferably not by logging into every single channel, as that takes up too much time and creates clutter. A better option is to use your website’s content management system (CMS). When it comes to social media we usually employ management tool Coosto. This enables us to easily post content online, allowing you to engage and interact with customers on all your online channels at once.
The final step is to measure and improve. Are your goals realized? Who is discovering and sharing your content? With the reports from Google Analytics and Coosto we are able to monitor your online channels. This leads to a monthly report we will evaluate together with you. These measurements contain valuable information to continuously improve the content strategy.
Have we gotten you to start thinking about developing a (new) content strategy together with us?
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What is the story of your organization, its history, its culture? By using storytelling, you convey what you stand for. This is an effective way to create engagement and strengthen your branding, both internally towards your employees and externally towards your audience.
Once you have the above points in order? Then it is important to constantly remind your customers, fans and target group that you exist. This requires quite a lot of time and energy, so it can be smart to outsource the development and distribution of your content.
Now the fine-tuning process starts. Online tools such as Google Analytics and Google Ads enable you to view and analyze the visitor flows on your website. This way you can know exactly which campaigns are successful and what the areas for improvement are.
