Developing your Content Strategy for Social Media (and Beyond!) MSBDC November 19, 2015
Overview Introductions What Is Content Strategy? Developing Your Content Strategy What It Looks Like In The Wild How Do I Know It s Working? Q&A
Who Am I? derek allard, Tunnel 7 Website design / internet marketing / optimization Maximize return on investment I help organizations succeed online
Who Are You? Your name, business, what you do Do you currently have a content strategy in place for your business?
Workshop Materials Handout and presentation slides: tunnel7.com/msbdcnov2015
Ground Rules
What Is Content Strategy?
The planning, development, and management of content written or in other media
Having A Plan Takes the guess work out of content creation Informs where this created content should live Based on your business goals and your audience Plan will adapt over time
Developing Content Focuses you on what is needed (stop wasting time) Articles, tweets, posts, videos, infographics Helps you look at the big picture Identifies who will be developing content as well
Analyze and Adapt Nobody gets it right the first time Analyze what works and what doesn't Success = engaging audience to achieve your goals Fail faster
Built On Goals / Audience Knowing who you are talking to will make your messaging much clearer Tone, language, design, colors, layouts all will differ depending on your audience Always, always, always let your goals be the foundation
Write down your top 3 goals and your target audience
Developing Your Content Strategy?
What Is Your Message? What benefits do you offer compared to your competition? What makes you unique in the space that you are in? Questions like this often lead not only to great content but the start of a solid strategy Are you targeting particular keywords for search engines?
Decide On Social Channels Twitter Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn YouTube Others?
Don t Forget Your Website Email Marketing Paid Advertising Print / Media Advertising
Define Who Who will be responsible for creating the content? Who will be responsible for publishing? Who will be responsible for interacting with audience? Who is reviewing/managing the website content? Be realistic about your strategy based on your resources
Define When How often will we post on social media? When will we write a new blog post for the website? When will we send email marketing out? When will we rely on paid advertising for promotion? Again, takes the guesswork away
It Unifies Across All Having a content strategy will help you have one unified message / tone / style across all channels In so doing it reinforces your benefits and your messaging for your business Leads to more sales / leads / conversions / increased audience
Repurosing Perfectly fine to have content across multiple channels Perfectly fine to reuse successful older content (posting successful call to action on social channels, etc.) Don t worry about overwhelming with the same message if that message is effective
The Hub and Spokes Your website is the hub of all marketing efforts Driving traffic to your website for specific actions Are those actions in place? Is your website converting well? Focus on successful conversions to see if your content strategy is working
What It Looks Like In The Wild
Some Background Goals = enter contest, sign up for access to their database of curated writing contests Audience = established and aspiring writers looking for recognition for their work Strategy = Become the go to source for finding out about legitimate writing contests
HCRTC example Show how one piece of content can be repurposed in many ways Design Marketing Optimization
HCRTC example Show how one piece of content can be repurposed in many ways Design Marketing Optimization
HCRTC example Show how one piece of content can be repurposed in many ways
HCRTC example Show how one piece of content can be repurposed in many ways
HCRTC example Show how one piece of content can be repurposed in many ways
The Approach They re not chasing every channel and every option They re focused on really 2 specific goals and have developed a content strategy specific to writers Provide information of value to the audience and become the go to resource for contests Translates into more signups and contest entries
Editorial Calendar Hands-On Exercise
How Do I Know This Is Working?
Leverage Analytics Will show what sources of traffic are the best both in terms of volume and conversions Will make decisions about channels to leverage and campaigns to undertake much smarter Takes a lot of the guesswork out of your content strategy
Data Will Help You Make Better Decisions About All Your Content Efforts
Look At Numbers Are there more sales / leads / conversions from your efforts? Are you closer to your business goals for these efforts? Should have a positive effect on the bottom line for your business
Success Looks Like Dropping channels and efforts that are not effective More engaged audience / more sales for the business Doing less with more Turning your content strategy into a well oiled machine where everyone knows their role and responsibility
Takeaways A content strategy will take the guesswork out of content Build your strategy around your goals and audience What is unique about you? What are your benefits? Focus only on channels that are working for you Analyze and adapt as you evolve your strategy - fail faster! Use your editorial calendar to simplify the process
Thank You All websites have room for improvement - Google Analytics will show the way Set up goals to more accurately (and easily) track successes and failures Focus only on those reports that are relevant to your website Design Marketing Optimization
Ask Me Questions derek@tunnel7.com Tunnel 7 413.282.9957 twitter.com/derekallard facebook.com/tunnel7 linkedin.com/in/derekallard