How Content Strategy Can Keep You and Your Small Business out of Trouble!
A strategic approach to your content helps you save a lot of time and money – but most importantly: it helps you save your precious nerves. So why aren’t people going crazy about it already? That’s because most people don’t know they need Content Strategy – until they find out what it is.
Start today with bringing the best out of your content across channels to create a holistic experience for your users, and an optimized workflow for your business. Find out everything related to the “what” and “why” and embark on your very own Content Strategy journey!
What on Earth is Content Strategy?
It felt like my brain was running in circles trying to answer this question when I first read about the discipline of Content Strategy. The most concise answer I found is a definition coined by Rahel Anne Bailie, a true pioneer in the field, who describes Content Strategy as “a plan to create a repeatable system that governs the management of content throughout its lifecycle”
But what does that mean in plain English? As the name already suggests, Content Strategy combines the best of both worlds: content and strategy. That means that this combination creates new synergies that enable you to gain more detailed and precise insights and outlooks that help you plan your next publications across channels.
I would like to share the insights I have gained through my continued efforts to understand the discipline as they have helped me immensely – and I am convinced that you too can reap the benefits of Content Strategy!
A Strategic Approach
Being a self-employed Business Development Consultant one of my biggest learnings was that efficiency is key in order to ensure that the ever growing demands of online presence do not consume the entirety of your professional and private life. A constant lack of time used to be my biggest pain point for years, and is still the most frequently discussed pain point that clients bring up in 1:1 sessions.
By improving your understanding of the subject matter, and finding a work-around for a potential lack of budget, you give yourself the opportunity to take the time and space needed to capitalize on your strategic efforts in order to ensure a smooth and efficient execution of the concepts in the future.
DIY: Content Strategy on a Budget
Ready? Set? Go! But wait… your glorious new ideal content strategy bubble that you have dreamt up while reading this is about to burst because you do not know how you could pay for all the work needed to implement this successfully? Or do you not even know where to start?
We’re in this together – so let me guide you on this beautiful journey you just embarked on. You don’t need to hire your own “Content-Strategy-Person”, and you also don’t need a wild budget to become successful. Get started on a limited budget: all you need is consistency when applying these three principles:
- Know Your Brand: take responsibility! Get an overview of who you are, and who you’d like to be as a brand. Set the tone for what is to come by defining a benchmark to measure against as explained here.
- Know Your Content: take ownership! Apply the principles you have learned in practice by following the three main steps of Content Analysis outlined in this blog post.
- Know Your Goals: take action! Time to grow your dream bubble of Content Strategy. Prevent it from bursting by finding out how you can strategically strengthen your brand with optimized efforts here.
Ready To Dive in at the Deep End?
Happy that I made you curious! Here are a few of my favorite reads on the topic that would be an ideal fit for you to follow up on this blog post:
- The Language of Content Strategy. by Scott Abel and Rahel Anne Bailie: sets the tone with 52 short essays and definitions composed by experts in the field. Click here for a short summary of the book.
- Content Audits and Inventories: A Handbook. by Paula Ladenburg Land: provides formal guidance on how to keep track of your content. Click here for a short summary of the book.
- Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. by Margot Bloomstein: details best-practice examples from the field to give a more hands-on perspective on applied Content Strategy. Click here for a short summary of the book.
Still eager to learn and discuss? Leave us a Love Letter in the comments to start a conversation – we’re happy to hear from you!