Why should you create a content strategy?

So, why should you create a content strategy?

As a business owner, from the moment you start your business you become bombarded with information and tactics on how to grow your business, how to get leads in, and how to find new customers 📡😵

Creating content is a huge part of that, and it’s something I'm really passionate about 🙋🏻

However, I also know that creating a content strategy can feel really overwhelming.

It can feel like a whole other level of knowledge is needed to know what to post, when, and how.

But guys, let me break it down.

That is all we are doing.

We are planning what we're posting, when, and how.
And that's it. Let’s keep content SIMPLE.

And yes, of course, there are other layers that we add to that to think about - the audience that we are reaching, the exact message that we have, the exact timings of the posts and the mix of the posts - but all those nuances come in later.

The bottom line is this:
You create a content strategy so that you know how you can measure the success of your efforts.

If you are in business, (and I'm assuming if you're reading this, you are), content is about building your brand.

It's about finding people who are interested in what you have to say, in your products and services, in how you can help them.

When you have a strategy behind what you do, you are able to tweak, test and refine your efforts.

Otherwise, honestly? It can pretty much feel like you are blasting blog post after blog post or live after live into the abyss and you simply won't know what you're measuring and what you're measuring it against.

And guess what? That leads to not wanting to do it anymore (who’s been there?!).

It leads to inconsistency, and it leads to a boom and bust cycle of content.

I see people spending hours and hours creating content that just isn't hitting the home run with their audience because they haven't done the background work first..

Now, I also understand that, as someone who is hyper creative, the idea of having a strategy to succeed can feel really restrictive.
But here's the thing: you can create content any time.
You can create content when the inspiration hits.
You can work out how to work in a way that is best for you by batching, or working at the times of day that you feel most inspired.

You can even go off the beaten track and create something that's NOT on your strategy (you rebel, you!), as long as you also revert back to your strategy and use that as your backbone to measure.

So, yes, you can go completely off-piste and do an inspired live or post, and it won't mess with your strategy; but you also need to keep your planned out stuff running in the background so that you know what you are looking at results-wise.

That way you can keep yourself accountable, on track, and with actual data that is measured against your audience, what they are wanting to hear from you and what you're putting out.

So that's why you should create a content strategy.
To have a benchmark against which you can measure your ROI on your business.
After all, that's why you're doing it, right?

However you document your strategy - be it Post It notes, a Google Doc, Airtable, or scribbled on the blackboard (and more on that later) - it’s super helpful for your sanity, for your time, and for the ROI on everything you do in order to underpin what you are doing.

Next up, a strategy is also an artefact that you can use to begin outsourcing your content creation when you are ready to build a team.
Whether it’s help with scheduling, research, editorial, or admin, with a strategy in place you have a starting point that acts as a referral for everyone involved.

So there we have it.
It doesn't need to be much more complicated than that.

Stay posted for the next article in this series where we are talking about how to measure the ROI on your content creation efforts, what a strategy looks like, how to start creating yours, and much more.