3 Reasons Why Content Strategy is Absolutely Necessary

“The Consumer”: n. /kon.soomer/ – a complex enigma of whims and buying patterns. Prone to being enticed; quick to call ‘bullshit,’ the focus of this blog, and believe it or not: an actual human being.

A recent Bain & Company study, discovered that a whopping 80% of companies believe that they are consumer-centric; that they provide a ‘superior consumer experience.’ The same study revealed that only 8% of those companies had their consumers saying, “Yep, agree!”

That’s a staggering delivery gap no matter which way you look at it. So from where is this delusion originating?

Short answer: content strategy. Spewing content without structuring it around a good strategy is like setting up a carnival on top of a swamp. These 3 must-haves of content strategy lay a solid foundation for your awesome content, making it more accessible to the people that are actually going to make a difference for your brand.

Call the Right Audience

In a room full of Baby Boomers, you’d have an audience of snoozers if you delivered information on how to better your Tinder profile.

Calling the right audience to your content starts with a serious understanding of whom you want to talk to. Mind you, that’s a person, not a statistic. The legendary author Kurt Vonnegut writes in his book Bagombo Snuff Box, “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.”

The bottom line? Do the grunt work. Talk to the people you are trying to entice. If you’re going after a yoga-doing stay-at-home-mom millennial, go talk to one! What does she click on? Is she a Twitter user? Does she get her recipes off of Pinterest? Put in the face time; get your results.

Build an Editorial Calendar

85% of top-tier companies have one. That’s only 44% of average companies, though according to Kapost. While you may emerge from a coffee date with your consumer feeling optimistic and ready to create some content she’ll click on, laying out an editorial calendar is integral in locking her in for the long-haul.

Consumer loyalty happens on a long and consistent road paved by you. Build a 3 to 6 month strategy that consistently talks to her. This entails knowing important dates that the rest of the world will already be talking about. Product launches? National Cheeseburger Appreciation Day? Playing off key dates can boost your content and should live in your editorial calendar.

Peppering in ‘evergreen’ content shouldn’t take a backseat, though. Securing a reputation as a year-round resource is important for continued success and solidifies your brand as an authority.

Finally, overlaying flexibility can turn a good calendar into a great one. Swerve to focus on things that are happening now and suddenly. Comment on breaking news, engage with trending hashtags, and above all, surprise your audience and stay fresh.

Don’t forget that there are agencies built around this stuff. People whose job description centers on creating badass and engaging assets and putting them in front of the consumer in an appetizing way. Ahem ahem. Most of the time it makes more sense to leave it up to the experts.

Direct them to the Goods

Inciting interest in relevant, time-appropriate content is a major part of the battle, but don’t dress up your consumer base and then leave them no place to go. Take a moment to check in right now: how much of your content does its job in the conversion department? Make a tick mark.

Now going forward, as you pique the interest of your target consumer base, drop in a tasty CTA nugget. While the main focus of your content may to be to inform or entertain, when it all comes down to it, a missed opportunity to use your creative goods as a converter to sales is content wasted. Go back and measure it in a month. Don’t be afraid to switch it up if it’s not taking!

And fear not, your CTAs don’t have to be loud—they should principally serve as a light bulb over your consumer’s head saying, “these guys understand me, I want to know more about what they have to say.”

The Long and the Short of Content Strategy

Step 1:

Take the time to sit down and have a beer with your target consumer base. They will tell you what they want. Spoiler alert: video is absolutely killing it right now.

Step 2:

Sit down with a calendar and do the grunt work. And don’t you dare forget to mention the most important days of the year. Like National Cheeseburger Day. We won’t trust you if you don’t celebrate the most important holidays.

Step 3:

Leverage your best content into becoming your most powerful conversion tool. Drop in those CTA nuggets, and give people a reason to be excited to learn more about your quirky, creative, entertaining brand’s brains from which the content came.