HOW TO BUILD A LONG-TERM
STRATEGY IN A REAL-TIME WORLD
WHY LONG TERM?
Content marketing can be chaos. When brands like Oreo and
Airbnb are the content marketing masters of real-time relevance
and your consumer conversation changes minute by minute, it’s
difficult to think beyond the latest headlines and hashtags. Yet
your content marketing success relies on a steady stream of
consistent, quality material that can’t just be produced overnight.
How do you satisfy everyone from your sales team to your
social following? And can you do it with your sanity intact? With
the right long-term strategy, it is possible.
The best strategy provides a solid foundation to serve your
business goals, while remaining flexible enough to let you
capitalize on the latest cat meme. It’s a blueprint to keep you
moving in the right direction, even when a delayed product
launch or news story forces you to take a detour. In short,
a long-term strategy is more control over the chaos. Ready
to start?
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BENEFITS OF A LONG-TERM STRATEGY
Content marketing is like investing, in that it requires a consistent and sustained effort to yield the best results. The
reality is that you can’t always predict what will be most successful, but planning ahead helps you work smarter. A
long-term content strategy doesn’t mean you have every single piece of content mapped out for a year; it means
you have established parameters and guideposts to help you stay close to your larger goals as you go.
Improve ROI: Instead of investing in one-off Improve Quality: Whether it’s a seasonal
pieces or scattered efforts, a long-term infographic or a major foundational piece
strategy lets you take a more holistic for your brand, a long-term strategy lets
approach to content creation and you focus your energy on creating strong
publishing, helping you get more bang content ideas and adapting in real time.
for your buck.
Save Time: A solid strategy gives you Increase Impact: A solid strategy ensures
a map to follow, making it easier to you’re creating a steady flow of content—
streamline production and plan ahead. not sinking all your resources into one
“viral” effort that may end up flopping.
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DON’T BE AFRAID
OF COMMITMENT
Before you brainstorm a single piece
of content, you need a strategy to
make sure that content is aligned
with your goals. Luckily, there’s no
need to get overwhelmed. Take this
step-by-step approach to crafting a
content strategy that works.
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1) IDENTIFY YOUR OBJECTIVES
4 QUESTIONS TO ASK
The first step is the most important: deciding These questions can help inform your objectives.
what it is you’re trying to achieve. Your core
objectives will inform everything going
forward, from the message you communicate, Who is the audience
to the platforms you use, to the types of you want to reach?
content you create. Are you looking to
increase conversions? Build brand awareness?
Build trust? Clearly identify your objectives to What message do you
form the foundation of your strategy. want to send to the world?
What content will be
valuable for your audience?
What response should your
audience have, or what action
do you want them to take?
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2) CREATE YOUR INITIATIVES
Once you know what you’re working toward, you can focus on identifying content initiatives. If your objectives are
“what” you’re trying to achieve, your initiatives are “how” you’re going to do it. Note: This isn’t the time to identify
specific creative yet. Content initiatives are more like content pillars for you to ideate within later. They provide
guideposts for your strategy—even when you need to replace an objective or shift focus.
OBJECTIVE INITIATIVE
Create eye-catching
Build brand awareness content that stands out
As you craft your
from the crowd.
strategy, focus on
outlining a flexible
framework that
Create content that showcases you can continue
Build trust expertise and provides value to refine or adjust
to the audience. as needs arise,
without derailing
your overall goals.
Create robust content that
Increase conversions targets sales-qualified leads.
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3) BUILD CONTENT CLUSTERS
For each initiative, you will want to identify the type of content that will most effectively achieve your objective.
(You’re still not delving into actual creative ideas yet.) Again, things may change. The goal here is to provide a
blueprint to reference as you go. In general, your content will fall into three buckets.
1) Core Content: These are
foundational pieces that are E-books Slideshows Videos Motion
directly tied to your content Graphics
initiatives. They may be evergreen
or crafted around a specific event,
such as a new product launch,
but they are robust pieces that
provide tremendous value. Interactive White Case
infographics Papers Studies
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2) Divisible Content: This is lean content that is repurposed from your
core content; it is meant to extend the reach of your core pieces and
allow for a steady stream of publishing. For example, information from
a white paper can be turned into several mini graphics to be spread
through social media or posted on your blog. (Check out this
infographic for more.)
CORE CONTENT
3) Newsworthy Content: This
is any timely content that
BLOG
CONTENT capitalizes on news, trends, or
industry events. Scheduling this
in enables you to be proactive
BLOG POST
instead of reactive, which is
especially vital to stay ahead
of the curve.
SLIDESHOW
INFOGRAPHIC
MICRO-
CONTENT
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As you decide what content would work best for each initiative, consider the following:
Distribution Channels
What channels are best to reach your audience? How can you optimize distribution to get
your content in front of the right eyes? Check out “How to Determine the Best Distribution
Channels for Your Content” to help you decide.
Creative
Any creative you produce will need to align with your audience and your objectives.
Check out “5 Ways to Know if Your Content Idea Will Work” once you’re ready
to brainstorm.
Formats
What type of content is most effective to communicate your message? For example, if
you are trying to prove your expertise, a white paper or e-book may be the right
format. For brand awareness, infographics or social content might be the right choice.
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Create content clusters for each initiative, and map them accordingly.
CORE CONTENT
Video
OBJECTIVE INITIATIVE DIVISIBLE CONTENT
Create eye-catching
Build brand Behind-the-scenes blog post,
content that stands quote cards, GIFS
awareness out from the crowd.
NEWSWORTHY
CONTENT
Mini graphics,
social memes
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4) FILL IN YOUR JANUARY
EDITORIAL CALENDAR
1 2 3
Now, you are ready to create your
editorial calendar and fill in your
initiatives. Consider which initiatives
might be more effective throughout 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
the year, according to seasonal, Video Blog News Social
Launch Post Piece Post
social, or industry events. Depending
on how many initiatives you have,
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
you may want to map things monthly
Graphic GIF Blog Graphic
or quarterly. 1 1 Post 2
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Meme News Social GIF
Piece Post 2
See our Guide to Create
Marketing Campaigns to
build out your initiatives. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Social Blog News Graphic
Post Post Piece 3
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5) ASSESS YOUR RESOURCES
Creating your content is the most exciting and challenging part of this
process. Once you have your strategy and content types outlined, you You will likely need outside
must decide how you are going to execute your creative. Consider help with your content.
each project’s needs to determine whether you can accomplish what When looking for a new
you need internally or if you need significant external support. vendor, choosing a creative
Depending on your creative, you may need: partner who intimately
understands your brand is
important. Switching vendors
from project to project is
inefficient, as each vendor
must learn your brand.
Building a relationship with
Copywriters Editors Designers a vendor who can provide
your services is the key to
producing quality creative
at scale.
Producers/Project Art PR/Distribution
Managers Directors
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For more help with your content
strategy or creation, contact us.
[email protected]
949.614.0759
@columnfive
