Here at Sookio we specialise in creating content of all kinds, and my job is to find the best places to showcase that content, to ensure your audiences see all your hard work. That’s the brief explanation for what a digital strategist does, sounds simple but there’s lots of different elements that go on behind the scenes.
The basics of content strategy – why, who, what, how
In plain English, content strategy is planning and management of content from the initial ideas through to creation and distribution. This could be for blog posts, videos, infographics, whitepapers or your brand’s daily tweets and Facebook updates.
As with many aspects of marketing it is really important to define why you're creating content. This is one of the first steps to developing a content strategy.
Defining the reasons for your campaign will help you to create the best content, distributed in the right places that lead to conversions.
Next you should look at who you want to reach with your content, this might not always be your customers. For example, you might be a software company trying to recruit the best developers, and you can use content to help attract people to apply. That’s your why and your who. Next up is what – this is the kind of content you use – you could create an infographic that shows people the benefits of working at your company.
Then you should look at how you will distribute your content to people. The infographic could be used on a landing page on your website or on your social channels. You can then use targeted Google AdWords or social media advertising to drive traffic to that page, and job applications.
That’s a very basic guide to how we build a content strategy, and the kind of questions to expect as the client. We use these elements to learn about your business and your goals, and then we can start planning what kind of content to use.
Planning the content creation process
Once you have defined your content strategy it’s time to start creating! The content creation process is about managing all the creatives involved – copywriters, designers, and videographers - gathering information and meeting deadlines. I also work with you, the client, to ensure you’re up to date on the progress of the project.
Typically I’ll keep up to speed with what everyone’s doing using project management software like Slack or Basecamp, as well as with good old-fashioned face-to-face meetings.
It’s my job to set milestones for the project, stick to deadlines and keep the client informed. You’ll also be talking to me when it comes to signing off a piece of work so we can move on to the next stage.
Distributing your content
Distributing content isn’t just adding it to your site and hoping people will come - we’d all be pretty bored if it was that simple! You have to promote your content.
Read the rest of this post on the Sookio blog.
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