“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. on writer’s block.
You own your website and blog. Your social media pages are free. But if you’re going to profit from the opportunity to broadcast on these media, you have to figure out what to publish. And as Kurt Vonnegut suggests, pity the marketer running out of things to say.
Create a good content strategy and you won't run out of things to say.
Our goal with content marketing is to drive profitable customer action with our publishing. So how do we know what to write? And do we always know why we write each piece of content? Let’s look back at the previous chapters in the book on our business: Our Story, Our Business Model, Our Prospects’ Problem, Our Solution, and our Buyer Persona. From this prep work, we can more easily decide on our content strategy.
Developing a Content Strategy Unique to Your Business
Deciding what to say and why to say it focuses our content creation. We’ll consider content that our audience wants while keeping in mind that over time it must lead to sales. Yes, we give our content away free, but ultimately, its purpose is to get prospects interested in our solutions. Solutions that come with our products and services.
So let’s go back to our content marketing plan’s previous chapters to help us articulate our content strategy. We’ll incorporate our story as the reason we’re a trusted leader in our field. We’ll set the tone of our writing… Maybe a calming, even tone for a lawyer specializing in family law and divorce. More technical for a plastics manufacturer selling to engineers. Helpful for a life coach.
Our business model directs what we want our readers to do. Can they buy online? Do they come to us in a brick and mortar store or restaurant? Are we a service where the conversion is a free consultation? We want calls to action in our content that make sense to our business’s bottom line and our audience.
Our prospects’ problem is the meat of our content strategy. What answers are they looking for? What are they interested in? How can you help?
A Content Strategy Example
I’ve decided that my prospects’ problem is that their business websites and social media publishing underperform. That’s because the old-fashioned content they cut and paste onto their owned media doesn’t sell. They’re not aware that the copy they used successfully on TV, radio, and print doesn’t work in visitor-centric internet marketing.
So I’ve based my content strategy on teaching the fundamentals of content marketing. That includes online writing techniques, the new customer-first marketing approach, and the reverse funnel of micro-yesses (a fascinating and profitable new way of looking at the traditional sales funnel. I’ll be writing about it soon.).
My NKB Marketing Solution is to create content that transforms my clients’ websites into powerful relationship building tools. We make the website the hub of their content marketing program. My content strategy is to write blog posts and share links on social media that get my audience excited about using content to build relationships online.
My strategy is to become a “new marketing philosopher.” I hope my content redirects the focus of business owners and marketing managers from web technology to modern, visitor-centric online conversations.
Your Content Strategy
So what’s your content strategy? What subjects will you write about in your blog? How will you speak to your visitor to keep them on your website? Can you think of an exciting report or checklist to get written to attract email sign-ups?
Create a good content strategy and you won’t suffer writers block! You’ll have plenty to write about as you build an excited, engaged audience. One that you don’t have to interrupt but willingly comes to you for your products and services.
Until next time,
Nick
Previous posts from first to last that help you write the book on your business, your Content Marketing Strategy Plan:
“Content Marketing Plan? Why Bother, It’s All in My Head”
9 Brand Story Idea Joggers to Help You Connect
How a Business Model Sets Up Your Content Marketing Campaign
Know Customer Pain Points for Better Content Creation
Your Business Solutions: The Fun Part of the Plan
Simple Buyer Persona Helps You Connect
Need help with your content marketing strategy plan? Find out more about me and my content writing services here. Subscribe to my email for tips, strategies, and online writing secrets. Also, if you Like my Facebook page, you’ll get content marketing ideas from experts all over the internet.
