Content marketing strategy.
A content strategy decides what content you make, for whom and why, before production starts. This guide goes through what a content strategy contains and how to set one up, so each piece serves a business goal instead of filling a calendar.
By Alexander Larsson · Founder & Strategist· Published · Updated Our view
The strategy decides what you produce, not the other way around. Without it, content becomes a calendar with no direction.
What a content strategy is.
A content strategy is the plan that ties your content to the business: what you want to achieve, who you want to reach, which topics you want to own and how the content reaches people. It's a branch of content strategy↗ and part of a broader marketing strategy↗, not a separate content calendar.
Without a strategy, content marketing becomes a series of posts on a hunch, measured in clicks. With a strategy, each piece becomes a means towards a goal, and you know up front why you're creating it and how it will be distributed.
What a content strategy contains.
A strategy that holds answers five things, and they connect in a chain:
Business goal
What the content should contribute: leads, awareness or loyalty. The goal makes the follow-up meaningful.
Audience
Who you want to reach and what questions they ask. That decides which topics are worth owning.
Themes and message
The topic areas you want to be known for, tied to both the customer's questions and your expertise.
Formats and channels
Which formats (text, video, podcast, email) and channels suit the audience and the message.
Distribution and measurement
How the content reaches people and which metrics show whether it works, tied to the business.
How to set up a content strategy.
The order matters, because each step builds on the previous one. Five steps from goal to follow-up:
- 01Set the business goal. What should the content contribute, and how does it show in the business?
- 02Understand the audience. Who do you want to reach, and what questions are they searching answers to? This is where the strategy meets keyword research.
- 03Choose themes you can own. The intersection of the customer's questions, your expertise and what competitors don't cover.
- 04Decide formats and channels. Match format to message and audience, not to what's trendy.
- 05Plan distribution and measurement. Decide how the content is spread and which metrics reflect the business, before you produce.
Common misconceptions.
Most content strategies that don't work can be traced to one of these mistakes:
- ”The strategy is a content calendar.” The calendar is a result of the strategy, not the strategy. Start with the calendar and it's easy to end up in the wrong place.
- ”More content is better.” A strategy is as much about what you leave out. Fewer topics owned in depth beat many done half-heartedly.
- ”Production first, distribution later.” How the content will reach people must be planned before it's made, or it just sits there.
- ”The strategy is done once it's written.” A strategy is living: it's adjusted based on what the data shows.
The through-line: a strategy starts with the business goal and ends with how the content actually reaches and affects the audience.
How we approach content strategy.
We start with the business goal and the audience's questions, choose themes you can realistically own, and plan distribution from the start. The strategy becomes a plan you can act on, not a document in a drawer, and an initial review we do free of charge.
We measure against the business, not against the number of posts, and you own everything we create. It's the same principle that runs through everything we do: the right content, planned to reach people, tied to the business.
Want a content strategy that holds?
Tell us what you want to achieve and who you want to reach, and we'll sketch a direction: goal, themes and how the content should reach people. The initial review is free.
Write to us →Frequently asked questions about content strategy
What is a content strategy?
A plan that ties your content to the business: what you want to achieve, who you want to reach, which topics to own, in which formats and how it reaches people. It's set before anything is produced, so the content serves a goal.
How do you set up a content strategy?
Start with the business goal, understand the audience's questions, choose themes you can own, decide formats and channels and plan distribution and measurement. Each step builds on the previous one, so the order matters.
What's the difference from a social media strategy?
A content strategy is about what content you create and why, across all channels. A social media strategy is specifically about the presence on social media. They connect, but the content strategy is the broader plan.
How often should the strategy be updated?
Continuously, based on what the data shows. A content strategy is living: themes, formats and channels are adjusted as you see what works and how the audience's questions change.
How do you measure whether the strategy works?
Against the business goal it was set for: traffic, leads and relationships, not the number of posts. The metrics are decided when the strategy is laid out, so the follow-up measures effect, not just activity.