Why Content Strategy Is More King Than Ever

How a good content strategy can get your business heard by the people that matter most.

The saying Content is King has stood the test of time and will continue to do so. However, in these Covid-19 times, it would be wise to adapt your content strategy, so you don’t risk leaving your king in a checkmate.

What do I mean? Basically, your content needs to be mindful of the current pandemic, and most importantly, your audience. You should take into consideration that your audience is navigating unchartered territory right now; they are anxious, fearful, financially unstable and looking for answers.

Pivot and adapt to the current situation
In our digitised world, content has become synonymous with marketing; we create and market in order to sell. With people spending more hours online than ever before, ensuring that your content gets the attention of your target audience is difficult under normal circumstances. But these are not normal times and, honestly, the last thing people want is a pushy sales pitch or superfluous chatter.

So… what should you do? In one word: pivot. Adapt to your audience’s current state. Be helpful by offering content that will relieve their anxiety, help in their search for answers and provide useful information, tips and insights. Acknowledge your audience’s situation by creating content that is of value to them right now, content that is engaging and most importantly helpful.

There are multiple ways to get relevant, value-driven content across to your audience: blogs, websites, emails, social media platforms, white papers, newsletters, webinars, videos etc. But you need to stop, think and plan ahead first. Set out a content strategy that will enable you to come across as an empathetic brand to both existing and potential customers, while keeping the conversation relevant to your business or industry.

Develop a content strategy
While the discipline of content strategy is nothing new, I’m still surprised as to how often companies drop the strategy part and jump straight into content creation.

‘We need a blog, ‘we need to create a viral social media campaign’, ‘let’s get some videos out there’ are all too common phrases. This kind of panicked push will do nothing for you. Instead you need to take the conversation straight back to basics: Content Strategy.

Here are five questions you should ask yourself before creating content

1. Why do you need it? What are your strategic objectives and how is this piece of content going to help you achieve your goals?

2. Who should be reading it? What’s your target audience and what do you want your audience to do once they’ve consumed the content?

3. What are you going to say? What are your key messages and how are they relevant to your audience?

4. Where will this piece of content fit into your overall marketing plan? What other channels are you using and where does this piece fit in?

5. How are you going to measure success? – what metrics are you going to use to track the ROI on your content?

As Seth Godin says: “It might be that instead of spending more time looking for a louder platform, you could profit from digging in and doing the hard work of figuring out the change you seek to make. If you’re unable to influence one person in a face to face meeting, all the tech in the world isn’t going to help you change a million people.”
Creating a content strategy as well as the actual content takes time. But remember that your audience also has time on their hands in the current situation. The work you put in now could lead you to success post-pandemic.

Blog by Cristina Kristensen, Senior Communications Consultant at In2