Your Content Strategy Statement: Why Define It?

Are you in the start-up phase of a content strategy or are you already creating content? If so, who is it for and what do your target groups get out of it? If the answers to these questions don’t come to mind or are unclear, you’ll benefit from clarifying a key aspect of your strategy: the content statement.

A synopsis, what is that?

This statement crystallizes the essence of your strategy and guides you in choosing the type of content to produce, your primary audience and the associated benefits. For internal use it should be short, simple and clear.

Similar to your brand identity’s mission-vision-values ​​trio, this statement determines the purpose and goals of your content. With this compass of your strategy, you will steer your messages in the right direction!

Formulate your content statement in 4 questions

  1. What types of content will you produce or share: industry news, popular tech topics, or other original content? Since the answer remains at a high level, the different possible formats are not yet explored.
  2. Who is this content for? You may have multiple goals, but it’s better not to target too large an audience. If you want to reach as many people as possible, your content could be too general and lose relevance!
  3. How does this benefit your audience? In other words, why do your audiences need your content: to educate themselves, arm themselves with handy templates, or follow what’s new in their industry? Remember to look for specific aspects that are being overlooked by your competitors to find ways to improve your expertise while still meeting the needs of your audience!
  4. What are the attributes of your content? These properties relate to the first impression you want your content to create. Do you win the trust of your target persons or confirm your expertise?

Your statement helps identify the right stories to tell the right people, aligned with your overall business goals.

For example, if your strategy is to demonstrate your expertise to marketers, you could provide them with content that answers questions they ask themselves every day. Why not create informative articles, an FAQ or learning capsules about this?

On the contrary, providing customer testimonials or employee portraits would not meet their needs – which you would understand pretty quickly from your content statement! That’s why it has to be specific: to decide whether or not you should produce a piece of content.

Also read: The DNA of Successful Content Marketing: Everything You Need to Know

Why is a clearly defined table of contents useful?

  1. Determine which topics are not worth discussing. In the storm of ideas, all suggestions are good. Then you have to arrange yourself! A great idea may not align with your content strategy and business goals, or may not resonate with your audience at all. Therefore, the table of contents will help you in your decision.
  2. Tailor your content marketing to your goals. Your content is the star of your attraction marketing (inbound marketing), it aims in particular to attract the attention of potential customers and to convince them of your expertise.
  3. Unify the content of your different platforms. You’re probably not only active in one medium: Do you have videos, social media campaigns, a blog, how-to guides? Before you create it, your statement helps you pinpoint it by drawing a line that runs through your various pieces of content. A plus for your consistency!
  4. Let your brand identity shine through the tape. Branding gives shape to an organization’s identity; Thanks to marketing, it makes itself known. The role of the content statement, then, is to match your identity so that it’s recognizable, from your voice to your images. This is the whole point of a writing guide based on your content statement.

Thanks to a clear statement, your content marketing will be more effective overall. On the contrary, a lack of coherence, consistency or relevance can make you appear disorganized or even damage your status as an expert and the bond of trust with your potential or current client.

If you’re looking to hand polish any aspect of your content marketing or make your business shine, contact us!

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