Content marketing strategy and planning is a continuous, agile process. If you’re involved in it, you already know this. You review key themes, leverage current assets for different formats, scan the market for new themes, maximise channels to get your message out to your target audience. Rinse. Repeat.
Well, it’s time to think about a third R: Refresh. Like all agile processes, content marketing needs to be looked at in its entirety every so often (at least twice a year).
Why?
To boost its benefits.
To align with corporate objectives as they evolve.
To increase conversion rates.
To stay ahead of the competition.
So how can you refresh your own content marketing strategy?
1. Always start with the end goal
Some business goals are universal… better awareness, more targeted leads, higher revenues. Rings a bell?
Some goals change with the seasons… expand into a new region, promote a new strategic partnership, drive demand for a new product.
You need to map all current goals - anything that has a KPI attached to it this year - and align your content strategy to it. Chances are, you’re not way off. Business doesn’t tend to shift that fast (if yours has, then a complete content overhaul is required, not just a refresh).
In most cases, there will be slight shifts, new topics to cover, new campaigns that need fresh assets…
So readjust your strategy to match your current goals, and don’t assume you can just “add stuff” to your plan.
2. Check what you have
Some clients tell me they don’t have enough content [you might say no-one ever does] but when I show them what they actually have, they’re often surprised. Bespoke PR articles, web pages, videos of conference presentations, LinkedIn posts… Some of your hidden content – what wasn’t necessarily produced as “marketing content” – can turn into very powerful assets indeed.
Remind yourself of everything you have in your official content library: blogs, webinars, eBooks, case studies, podcasts…
Ask your internal stakeholders what they need (especially sales).
If you can, use a content management platform to help you: not just to list your assets, but to assess how they’ve performed so far.
Don’t forget to map content to key personas, regions, stages of the buying cycle...
It will be much easier to spot gaps that way, and pair the right asset to the right campaign.
3. Check what others talk about
So now you know what you have, and what you might be missing. But that’s not the whole picture. You need to spend time looking at what others talk about, and find out what’s relevant for you and your organisation. So who should you listen to?
- Your competition
- Industry publications
- Speakers at trade events and conferences
- Key partners
- And also customers, suppliers, governmental bodies…
You need to do this as part of your agile content strategy process, but Refresh time is a great opportunity to spend some time doing some research into key topics in your market.
4. Refresh your editorial calendar
I’m assuming you have one… At least a basic one. If you don’t, check out these free templates from Hubspot. If you do, chances are you’re relying on it too heavily. And just adding items as you go along isn’t enough.
The Refresh stage is great for evaluating everything you have on your calendar, not just new items.
Take into account the goals you’ve just re-defined, the assets you deemed as missing during your audit, the topics you fail to cover as well as your competition, etc.
Use measures to understand how well your assets performed recently to help you prioritise which ones to develop next.
Make sure you have a detailed list for the next 3 months, a tentative list for the following 3, and placeholders for anything else.
5. Leverage your content
You’ve heard this before and you’re likely doing it to some extent. But there’s always room for more repurposing. Content needs to be leveraged (adapted and re-used) in multiple ways:
- Across channels (turning a webinar into a blog)
- For different uses (turning a long-form article into an eBook for sales)
- For SEO purposes (turning an article into a search-engine optimised web page)
- And much more..
Your audit will tell you where the gaps are, but you don’t always need a brand new asset. And if your marketing department lacks resources (spoiler alert: they all do), then leveraging content will plug some of the gaps faster than anything. Don't worry, you’ll still get to use your genius and creativity, especially for new topics, new angles… But making the most out of what you have is plain common sense. And that way, you can repurpose your assets for your different audiences, channels, campaigns.
Whatever you do, always plan for social media posts and campaigns when you release a new piece of content. For every asset. In every channel. After all, “It’s not the best content that wins. It’s the best-promoted content that wins.” (1)
We all know content is king. It feeds your campaigns, attracts new leads, helps your sales teams convert their prospects, educates your audiences (including staff). Content gets the word out about what you do best, what you do differently, how you help your customers. Despite all that, it often gets relegated to a supporting role. But make it a leading character instead and it will shine its light brightly across your entire marketing mix.
So what will YOU do differently this year to boost your content strategy? Whatever you decide, please keep my top 5 tips in mind. They’re not fully comprehensive… maybe I should turn this article into a full-blown Content Strategy eBook as part of my own goals! But hopefully they’ll help you refresh your strategy to give it a boost throughout 2023.
If you need help with your content marketing, contact me.
For more info, check out my blog on How to Nail your Content Marketing Strategy
1. Andy Crestodina
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