If content is king, strategy is the limo

If content is king, strategy is the limo

Cracking content without a stellar strategy is King Charles in Norwich city centre: powerful but lost.

A content strategy is all about putting the right content in front of the right person at the right time. Without it, even your best content flounders. And so your investment sinks.

But bring out that content strategy limo, and you’re putting Charlie and your business right where they belong:

On the throne.

Ben Collier smiling to the camera in a closely cropped headshot.

“James’s keen insights helped us rethink our content strategy and tailor it to different sales funnel parts, engaging our potential customers and driving conversions.”

Ben Collier, co-founder of Ocasta

So what is content strategy?

Imagine a cheat sheet that tells you what to create, why and when to create it, and what to do with it once it’s made.

That’s a content strategy.

It’s a detailed plan that outlines how you can use content to achieve your business objective.

No more wasted money on “um, we need an idea for this week’s blog”. Every step in your content production is a part of your plan.

Because, without that focus, your content team is like poor Norwich City after the goal’s been taken off the pitch: they can have a nice kickabout, but they won’t be getting back into the Premier League any time soon.

“James is certainly someone you want and need as part of your content strategy.”

Jane Margetts, Marketing Director at Restore Records Management

Jane is smiling to camera with long dark hair.

What does a content strategy look like?

Kinda tall, handsome, wind-swept and interesting with a glint in its eyes that promises good times ahead.

Your content strategy will be made up of:

  • Content audit
  • Customer research
  • Customer personas
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
  • Customer journey
  • Content topics
  • Content briefs
  • Content calendar
  • Distribution plan

In short, your content strategy will tell you what to write, when, where, and how to share it. You’ll squeeze every drop of value out of your content investment, and get results that earn you a pat on the head and a big raise.

(Sorry, my legal guy just told me not to make that promise. Not even the pat on the head. He’s not much fun at parties.)

Headshot of Penni Pickering, closely cropped, wearing glasses and smiling.

“James is both incredibly lovely and properly knowledgable. The kind of knowledgable where you can just relax and trust him to lead the process and produce the goods.”

Penni Pickering, Co-Founder of Kabo Creative

How do I get my content strategy?

Each strategy project is a precious snowflake. Because each one’s different, not because they melt on the tongue.

But whether you need me to build everything from the ground up, or you need someone to take your various assets and forge them into something that will work, the process will usually look a little something like this.

Faceytalk

We’ll set up a call to discuss your business objectives, your customer base, and your desired customer base (not always the same thing). The point of this session is to determine what you’re trying to achieve, so I can figure out how content can help with that.

Sessions and workshops

If you haven’t got a handle on your customer personas, tone of voice, or style guide, we’ll set up some sessions and workshops with the relevant stakeholders. I run these to help create the assets that will form the basis of your strategy, which you can use for your own projects as well.

Review

The next step is to review the content you’re currently planning to write and/or publish.

That’s because we don’t want to stop content production while we work on your strategy, but we do want to make sure the content you produce will work within the final strategy.

Otherwise you’ll need to delete content you already paid to produce, or spend more time and money rewriting it to fit the strategy. No thanks.

Interviews

Who knows what kind of content your prospects want to see?

Your prospects.

So we’ll set up interviews with some of your customers to understand what they like to see, how they think, what problems they’re facing, what problems they know you solve and what problems they don’t know you can help with.

Research and findings

I’ll also go away and do some independent research on your competitors, your customers, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and more.

I then present you with the findings that came out of all this work, as well as any assets such as personas or style guides.

Content plan

Once the research phase is complete and signed off, I’ll outline what kinds of content are needed in order to help achieve the business objectives. The outline will include topics, goals, CTAs, journey position and persona targeting.

Content briefs

If this is something you’ve asked for, I’ll produce content briefs for the pieces I’ve recommended. These will be written to match the skill level of the writers you’re planning to use.

And you’re set up for success

With that, you have everything you need to create the content that will get your results.
You won’t just be a king of your category; you’ll be sat on your throne, getting the results you and your business deserve.

Award-winning results

That all sounds great, you’re thinking. I just need someone else to tell me how great it is.

So here’s what Ocasta’s Ben Collier had to say when I worked on his content strategy.

“If you’re looking for a copywriter with a strategic mindset, unmatched focus on narrative, and a genuine focus on driving results, look no further than James.”
Ben Collier, co-founder of Ocasta
Find out more about how I took Ben’s business objective and crafted an award-winning solution for him.
Ben Collier smiling to the camera in a closely cropped headshot.
A 30s style cartoon image of a man wearing large underpant style briefs and pulling on a tight vest top.

Brief FAQs.

You’ve got burning questions.
I’ve got ointment Answers.

How much will my content strategy cost?

I’ll be honest, it’s no small investment. With content audits, customer research and personas, content journeys and topics, briefs and calendars, there’s a lot to do. Some agencies would ask you for at least £10,000.

That’s why you want your copy, righter.

Content strategist projects begin at £5,000.

Does my content production have to stop while we're working on strategy?

No, but we might want to make some tweaks to your plans. What we don’t want to do is create content that won’t fit with the final strategy. So I might recommend you shift your focus slightly so you can keep producing great content that will contribute to your final strategy.

How long will my strategy take?

A strategy rushed is a strategy wasted. But who can wait twelve months before seeing results?

That’s why I take a practical approach. A key part of my process is to review and optimise your content production, so it can not only continue but improve, bringing in better results straightaway.

We can also break your strategy down into modular mini strategies, so you can roll out mini strategies and get results faster.

Can you write the content too?

Of course. The benefit to hiring me to write the content is that you can skip the steps involving content briefs, as well as saving time on bringing the writer up to speed; I’ll already know what we’re trying to achieve!

Can you do a social media strategy too?

I’ll recommend certain social posts as part of your content strategy, and I can even write social media posts for you. But social media strategy is a different ball game. You’re better hiring a specialist to work on that.

I read that customer personas are useless?

Customer personas are nothing more than a picture of your ideal client. But some marketers have stopped using the term “persona” because they think a persona includes pointless or useless information.

The truth is that you can do a persona wrong (i.e. Mary is 54, likes baking, and wears brown brogues) or you can do it right (i.e. Mary is a sales manager overseeing a team of 10+ and needs a way to track the activity of her sales people).

Look after your footwear

Stop dragging your heels and get in touch.

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Cropped image showing a child's legs in stripy tights with their feet in adult women's pointy heels.