Content strategy – a simpler definition

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Much has been written and spoken about digital ‘content strategy’. But many people – including marketers – are still confused about what the term really means.

Popular definitions of content strategy don’t always help.

Newscred Head of Strategy, Michael Brenner, suggests that content strategy is “the mindset, culture and approach to delivering your customer’s information needs in all the places they are searching for it, across each stage of the buying process. It is a strategic approach to managing content as an asset, with a quantifiable ROI.”

It’s a true statement, but not immediately useful if you’re introducing the subject to a client for the first time.

Kristina Halvorson, co-author of Content Strategy for the Web, has a briefer explanation: “Content strategy is planning for the creation, delivery and governance of useful, useable content.”

Even this can leave the uninitiated with more questions than answers.

For a simpler definition, let’s first address the terms ‘content’ and ‘strategy’.

What is ‘content’?

In the context of digital marketing, content is the stuff that contains meaning in online communication.

The starting point for most content creation – whether the communication occurs via a web page, an article, a blog post, a social media status update, a video or a podcast – is written copy.

So let’s just say, for our purposes here, that ‘content’ and ‘copy’ are broadly synonymous.

What is ‘strategy’?

A simple definition of the word ‘strategy’ is ‘a plan of action to achieve a long-term objective’.

Even simpler – let’s say that a strategy is a plan.

So, if ‘content’ can be talked about in terms of ‘copy’ and ‘strategy’ can be described as a ‘plan’, then the simplest form of ‘content strategy’ is a ‘copy plan’.

Your content strategy is your ‘copy plan’

OK, I admit it. I’ve fallen over the edge from ‘simple’ to ‘simplistic’.

I’ll argue, however, that ‘simplistic’ is often the best place to begin. There’s always time to become more complex as we progress.

At the beginning of a content development assignment it’s useful to say, “Before we write the copy, let’s create a plan (or ‘content strategy’) for the creation or curation of that copy.”

I often meet prospective clients – some of whom are seasoned professional marketers – who ask if I can ‘just write new copy” for their business website.

I immediately ask them questions like:

• Do you have a clear notion of how your digital copy/content will help you achieve your business objectives?

• Have you audited your existing copy/content to know what works and what doesn’t?

• Do you understand your target audiences (in terms of customer personas etc) and the types of language they respond to?

• Do you have a clear understanding of the voice and tone you need to use to reach these audiences?

• Do you have a preference in terms of the formats that your copy/content will be used in (e.g. text, video, audio, infographic)?

• Do you have a strategy for repurposing your copy/content in various media (e.g. social media, print, face-to-face presentations)?

• How much copy/content would you like to create and how much would you like to curate from external sources?

• Have you developed an editorial calendar to ensure your copy/content is continually refreshed and updated in the future?

If the prospective client is vague in any of these areas, I’ll invariably say: “Ah … before we start to write new copy, what we need is a copy plan or content strategy.”

Only then do they begin to understand content strategy and see its value.

When a business develops a content strategy before they begin to create content, the result is invariably much, much better.

It’s that simple.

When you need help with content strategy or content creation, please contact me any time.