VIEW
READ MORE
Written by
Rik Mulder
Bet you've heard this saying before: "Content is king!" Ugh, we know, in fact, we fully agree. But what we often see on social media are posts lacking any consistency. Hastily composed, without a plan, lacking value. And so does (almost) every other entrepreneur. Perhaps that's why social platforms are littered with disposable content; lazy, rushed articles, stolen photos, or poorly shot videos. How many times have you scrolled through the digital trash bin today?
Good content is crucial for your brand. It's a key driver of traffic, engagement, and ultimately, sales or conversions. Done well, it can dramatically increase your follower count. It will boost your site visits and, best of all, create valuable new customers.
But (yes, there is a but) it's important to create targeted content. Pieces that your audience really wants to see and read, and that will continue to resonate with you long after they've been shared. This is where your content strategy comes in.
To create an effective content strategy, even if you're only looking at it from a social media perspective, start by following these steps.
You can't plan a strategy if you don't know where you're going. Whether you want to build brand awareness through organic search traffic to your blog or engage your existing customers on social media, you need to be clear about your goals. Create them, stay on top of them, and get there!
To create relevant content, you need to identify your target audience. You need to understand who they are and target them directly. And you know what's good for this? Brand personas! Also known as buyer personas. If you've already created one, great! If not, don't worry. We can help. Through extensive research, we'll determine several customer types for your business, and how best to address them.
Now that you've identified your target audience and goals, it's time to create the content that works for your brand. Visual content engages your audience more than text alone, and creating (custom) videos is a great way to get your message across. Infographics help convey information more visually, and custom GIFs or stickers are a great way to enhance your presence.
Besides identifying content types, you should also consider your brand's voice and messaging. It's important that this resonates with your audience and reflects who you are as a brand. Recognition builds trust, and trust builds loyalty. When consumers recognize themselves in your messages, it speaks volumes. Just think of supermarket ads, or those of Coolblue and Bol. All of them feature recognizable, and for some, hilarious, clips.
Dig into data. Use it to identify the most popular channels among your audience. Where do they spend the most time? Go there. For example, we know that Gen Z will flock to TikTok, a fashion brand appealing to millennials should focus more on Instagram, and for a B2B company, LinkedIn is the platform of choice. Different strokes for different people.
Besides looking at your audience, it's also good to keep a close eye on your competitors and see how their platforms are performing. What are they doing well? What can be improved? Are there opportunities for your brand? But don't just look at the number of followers – engagement is key right now. (And for those of you who didn't hear us say this loud enough – don't buy followers!)
Okay, so. We all know that content shouldn't be created without thought and consideration. Nor should you just throw content into the abyss without monitoring its performance.
To understand whether your content is helping you achieve your goals, you need to measure the success and failure of all your content. Create KPIs to help you track and measure, and use this information to refine your content strategy.
Creating content that works for your brand can be challenging, we know. But following this framework and creating a solid strategy for your brand will result in more successful content marketing campaigns.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you with your content strategy! Content is key, content is king, but don't be a drama queen.
