In part one of this series, I talked about the first of three pillars for creating relevant content ─ knowing your audience. If you don’t know who you are trying to reach, you run the huge risk of wasting precious time and effort chasing after the wrong group or no one at all.
As I mentioned in part 1, the true value of your efforts is awarded by your target audience, whether this value is measured as higher website traffic, number of qualified leads, web forms completed and submitted, or tickets dropped. However, as important as knowing your audience is, so is identifying a content strategy for success, which is the topic of this blog.
Identifying Your Strategy
According to Merriam-Webster, a strategy is defined as “a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time.” Notice how part of this definition encompasses the element of time. Effective goal-setting practices always require a well-defined time frame for goal execution. The same is true for your content's delivery.
To get the most bang for your buck, you will want to distribute your content:
Through the most appropriate channel(s).
At the right time.
With the aid of real-time analytics.
Below is more information on the three basic principles mentioned above. When properly implemented, these principles will help you to execute a strategy that serves to enhance, rather than detract from, your content’s relevance.
Principle 1: Find the Right Channel
Many organizations have amazing stories to tell. These businesses have perfected the types of products and services their customers want. The problem is that to get the most “content mileage,” well-meaning marketers fall prey to over distributing. Their aim is to release their amazing content through as many channels as possible without carefully considering why this is necessary.
Different distribution channels serve different purposes. Depending on what you are trying to communicate and why, you will need to identify the best channels for telling your story to your audience.
If your customers are highly active on YouTube or Instagram, a Facebook ad campaign may not yield high results. If your message covers a timely topic, your monthly magazine may not be the right place for it, but your business blog or weekly email bulletin might.
Using various channels to distribute your content is a great way to maximize its reach. These channels, however, must work in harmony. In addition, each piece of content you distribute has to be part of the same larger story regardless of its medium.
Principle 2: Timing Is Everything
Besides working in harmony, you need to identify when you will distribute each message in a particular medium. And the more channels you choose, the more carefully you need to time when your content is distributed. You also need to identify whether each distribution channel will play nicely with its brethren.
How long your message(s) will run is important as well. To maximize the number of clicks, your banner will need to remain on a website far longer than a day or two. On the other hand, an email bulletin is typically sent once and maybe a day or two later, depending on how often you are or will be communicating with this particular audience through this channel.
Finally, don’t disregard time zones, major calendar events and holidays that might interfere with or enhance your message’s reach and relevance. Scheduling your much-anticipated webinar at 10 a.m. might be OK for people living on the East coast, but not for those on the West coast. Holidays that are not widely celebrated might also put a damper on your message's reach and the level of engagement it generates depending on your audience.
However, a series of social media posts sent on a particular day can be far more effective at generating engagement with your brand than a message spread through various channels. Jimmy Johns Father’s Day tweet, which generated more than 40K likes and 32K shares, is a perfect example of content distributed at the right time, leveraging the right channel with the right audience.
Principle 3: Test and Refocus (if necessary)
The final principle is that of testing. Pillar 3 will explain ways to track your content's overall engagement once everything is said and done. The type of testing I’m referring to in pillar 2 is of the A/B testing kind.
For example, say your message will be delivered via email, several times, for one week. Rather than sending one email multiple times, craft two emails with different subject lines or teasers to identify which one generates the highest open rate. If you feel daring, you can perform a subject line-teaser combo test. (The teaser is a phrase or sentence that appears right after the subject line.)
If you don’t want to test your content with your entire audience, you can always perform a champion/challenger test followed by an A/B winner split. Another easy test you can perform for message optimization is time of day. While early morning is typically recommended, your audience might respond better to an evening email or social media post.
The point of testing is to obtain real-time information on your content's immediate engagement level and reach, as well as the effectiveness of a particular distribution channel. Armed with this information, you can tailor your content strategy to enhance its effectiveness.
Bottom Line
Identifying the right channel(s), properly timing when your content will be distributed and testing your efforts are essential components of an effective content strategy. Putting together the right action plan is key for ensuring your content is distributed in the most effective way. This, in turn, will help you maximize your content’s reach and enhance its relevance.
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