What is content strategy?
You make plans for achieving professional goals all the time.
Content strategy is a plan, too, but this one uses a calculated approach
made of content — like messaging, advertising, articles, communication, PR,
social media posts, and so on — crafted specifically for the audience that will
help you achieve your goal.
Scroll down for examples.
Businesses, organizations, and non-profits hire me to:
Listen to their goals, ideas, and challenges,
Research their past performance and their audience, and
Develop a plan that uses content to achieve their goals, implement their ideas, and manage their challenges.
Sometimes they have employees or divisions that can execute their plans. Other times, they like me to oversee their plan’s implementation.
Professionals frequently connect with me when…
They recognize that a situation could be improved through better communication.
They need to attract the attention of a particular audience.
They want to use the power of storytelling to convey or amplify their message.
Examples of small-scale projects:
A researcher wants their work communicated to the public, to potential research partners, or to donors in an engaging, approachable way.
An institutional leader wants to use articles, op-eds, or press coverage to develop their platform or gather support.
A program with multiple committees needs a liaison to maintain consistency and progress.
A critical initiative requires mindful, deliberate communication and optics oversight.
A professional needs to strike the right tone in their emails, documents, or other communication.
Here’s a bigger project:
Imagine that the owner of a microbrewery wants to become known for her brewery’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
She’d bring me in look over the content she already has—marketing, messaging, staff training, etc.—to ensure it consistently reflects the brewery’s green philosophy.
I’d also help her find and apply for any certifications, awards, or other recognition of best environmental practices, or get her brewery involved in local environmentally conscious efforts.
Sending deliberately focused press to the news media, designating her staff as press sources of info on best practices, or creating training events for green-minded homebrewers could also become part of her plan.
And a bigger one:
Let’s say a hospital has hired a new president. Although they already have a marketing staff, the hospital’s directors want a special focus on controlling the many layers of messaging that happen with such a shift. They would hire me to design a plan for the different forms of communication for different audiences, keeping a consistent theme and narrative across all messaging.
You can imagine how a hospital staff member would want to know some of the same things, but some different things, a local family with young children, an Army veteran, or a media outlet.
My job is to understand the hospital’s goals, be familiar with its existing system of communication, and to know the audience — that is, the staff member, the family, the veteran, and the press — then create a plan for communicating what matters to each group. My content might include social media, press releases, mailings, emails, television interviews, speeches and presentations, events, and so on.