How to strategically share your stories to achieve your goals
"Strategy" sounds very complicated, doesn't it? Well, it doesn't have to be.
Here's why having a basic strategy for your storytelling is important and how you can create your own content strategy in a few easy steps.
In this article
Why you need a content strategy
How to create your own content strategy
What your content strategy does and doesn't need to be
Finally: Success in Content Marketing
Make the most of your content marketing efforts
Frequently Asked Questions
Why you need a content strategy
Once you've started writing, creating content, and sharing it online, you'll want to make sure you're not just randomly firing off stories. You want to have a plan. If you're creating content and publishing it, you have some sort of goal. The point with a strategy is to make that goal a little more explicit, and then map out a plan for how to get there.
The term “content strategy” can sound a little daunting, especially if you’re a beginner in online content creation or marketing. And even if you’re a little more experienced, you know exactly how complex and elaborate a content strategy can be. But it doesn’t have to be that complicated.
I have over 10 years of experience in online writing and content laos business email list marketing. I've seen strategies that are 60 pages long and don't work very well, and I've seen some that fit on one page and are super effective.
Here's what a content strategy really is in its most basic form and how to create your own in a few very basic steps.
First: the goal of having a strategy for your content
write more
Write and share your stories to find the maximum positive impact for others and yourself.
What you really want from your stories is for them to help you achieve your goals and for them to help your readers achieve theirs. That means you want to have discovered:
What are your goals?
What are your audience's goals?
What are the steps to connect your goals with those of your audience.
Getting from A to B, or 1 to 2 in the summary above, is what your strategy is for. Your strategy is your roadmap for how you are going to get from where you are now to where you need to go.
How to create your own content strategy
How to create your own content marketing strategy
This is how a basic marketing strategy or Storytelling strategy is built:
1. Identity and value proposition
Figure out who you are and what you have to offer. What is your mission? What is your vision (personal or brand) for the world? What do you or your organization know more about than other people, what are you better at than other people, and/or what people might want to learn from you about? Write them down. Create 1-3 topic areas to write about , for now.
2. Audience and needs
Find out what the people you could help actually need (with research and by talking to real people). Doing keyword research is probably a good idea, here too [ read more about basic SEO and keyword research, here ]. Find out who your target audience really is – this helps you create a better strategy and better content too.
3. Connect your goals with those of your audience
Figure out how you can help people in your audience and what a reasonable goal is that you could achieve on your own, with the help of content marketing . For example: could you help people with advice? Would it be in the form of free stories, or could you create an eBook? This is where it could be valuable to create (or revise) a basic value proposition, if you’re already at that stage. What product or service could you offer that would truly solve your audience’s needs?
4. Make it measurable
Connect a few KPIs (key performance indicators) to your goals. I advise you to track no more than three main KPIs at a time. How many people will you reach? How many people will read your stories? If you're selling something, how many customers will you serve in a given time period?
Make sure the numbers are as concrete as possible — not too high but still a reasonable challenge. And make sure you track your results so you can change your plan when necessary.
5. Create your message
Create the message that conveys your understanding of what your audience needs, how you can help them, and how it will benefit them (with the trinity of Need, Solution, Result). Read more about the Need, Solution, Result structure, here .
