5 Things To Have In Your Content Strategy

Feeling overwhelmed by your ever-evolving content needs?

Years ago, friends and co-workers would ask me to make Websites for them, and it was a simple enough prospect; do some coding, take a picture or two, write some copy, and they were thrilled. But these days having a ‘presence’ on the Web is much more complex; you need social media accounts, constant content updates, and sometimes real-world collateral. Even a simplistic content strategy needs a constant stream of assets; and the more professional they are, the more credible your business seems. But how do you even begin? How do you know what to look for in hiring someone to develop a strategy for you and produce or manage your content?

1. Make sure that you have a clear idea of your own business goals so that your content strategy can map to them. Every piece of content should match a goal; awareness, retention, expansion/growth, etc. Your content producer should be constantly reviewing the business’ needs and pivot when needed.
2. Know your peak seasons, off seasons, and special occasions, and revisit your strategy during the downtimes. Don’t try and develop a ton of content when you’re in full swing; have assets developed in advance. Also be sure your producer is aware of relevant days for your industry and researches lesser known ones to leverage.
3. Don’t think that AI is a strategy unto itself. It’s tempting to think that you can just get a LLM to go on autopilot for you and generate a ton of content and you’re set. But AI content should be part of a holistic strategy, not the entirety of it. And anything important, like branding assets, should never be left to AI, as you have no ownership of those assets and run the risk of legal issues if your content is infringing any copyrights.
4. Make sure you are not doing too much for what your needs are; it’s great to have channels on every social media platform if it makes sense for your business, but don’t assume that you need it all. You might only need occasional images of your work, while your Web copy doesn’t need to change. You might get a great deal of benefit from video, or it could be overkill. Don’t be pushed into making content that doesn’t have a ROI, and don’t let anyone make content for you that doesn’t know how to gauge it.
5. Don’t ignore the details. Your content should be accessible to the fullest extent possible. Your copy should be proofread. Your images and videos should be checked for glaring issues. Any assets not made directly need to be licensed appropriately. Any content produced needs a clear contract on ownership and how/when/where the content can be used. Don’t assume that you can reuse an image that someone created for you wherever and however you want; some content is only licensed for a specific use. All the ‘little things’ matter, which is why you shouldn’t trust your content creation to a novice.