Content Strategy
Getting Started Creating A Content Strategy
Before you get started creating content for your website and social channels, you need to have a solid strategy in place. Establish who you are, what your goals are, who you are trying to reach and what you want them to know. Creating content that has a clear purpose, messaging and call to action is the first step in implementing a solid content marketing plan. Purposeful content is powerful content. It allows your brand to shine and set you apart from competitors while organically increasing your brand awareness, engagement and following.
Who are you? Step one is knowing who you are, what you do and how you do it. How you present your brand to the world and connect with your audience is more important than ever. The digital-savvy consumer demands a personal relationship with the brands they purchase from. They want to be a part of the community, not just a swipe of a credit card. The below information is an example of key points you want represented in some way on all of your digital assets. What you say and how you say it showcases your brand in a certain light and will create a clear picture for consumers of what you do and what your style is.
Example Business:
A Piece Of Cake
Smithville’s Best Wedding Cake Baker
2 Sweet sisters whipping up decadent desserts with a dash of pretty, a dollop of sweet and a whole lot of whimsy!
Specializing in unique custom desserts, birthday and wedding cakes.
Blush is our favorite color and Pink Champagne is our signature flavor, yum!
Who are you talking to? Identify your consumer. Who is your client? What do they like? What are they looking for? What appeals to them and what do they respond to? You may have an idea of who you want that perfect client to be, but make sure it aligns with sales data and social media analytics as far as demographics and best selling products and price points. If you’re talking to the wrong person, you’re taking a step in the wrong direction. Creating a consumer profile will help you stay on track and on brand when creating content.
Consumer Profile:
Demographic: Females 24 - 45
Primary Revenue Driver: Luxury Custom Wedding Cakes
Upscale clientele looking for custom artistic creations for special events
Purchasing for a wedding, holiday, a child, friend or corporate events/fundraisers
Responds to unique, feminine and artistic one of a kind creations and flavors
Our client wants to be catered to and wants to impress
They love telling the story behind the design and flavors
What are you trying to say? What message do you want to get across to your audience? How are you engaging them? Always create content with a purpose, your viewers should never have to guess at what you want them to know or what to do next. Stay away from the hard sell. Instead, gently lead with your content, good content will inspire an action.
Messaging:
Showcase our gorgeous cakes and delicious recipes.
Our products are an experience, not just a dessert.
We work closely with every client to create a unique one of a kind design and flavor profile.
We are a family run business and care about our customers.
We are invested in the local community.
We want people to engage with our brand, attend our events/workshops, come into the store and book consultations.
Create a content calendar. Map out how and when you want to push out your content and on what platforms. Having a weekly strategy will keep things consistent and make it easier to create and curate purposeful content. How you execute content will depend on what channels it is going on, keeping in mind different formatting and messaging is needed for different platforms. Be sure to tailor your messaging for the different audiences on each platform and provide a link or call to action whenever possible on all social posts. Using scheduling apps like Hub Spot or Sprout Social can keep you organized.
Weekly Content Strategy:
Weekly Blog Post
Features ( can be all in one blog or separated into several shorter blogs )
Real Wedding ( showcases happy clients and your work )
The flavor of the week (showcases your talent)
Show-Stopping Cocktails that Pair Perfectly with Dessert (fun engaging piece that showcases you as a thought leader)
What’s Happening (lets consumers know about upcoming events or honors / featured you received)
CTA - Always have a clear call to action (book a consultation today!)
3 Social Media Posts ( Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest )
Monday - Real Wedding ( tie back to blog )
Tuesday - What’s Cooking ( behind the scenes in the kitchen)
Wednesday - Flavor of the week ( tie back to blog )
Thursday - Video content ( how to or the making of )
Friday - Show-Stopping Cocktails that Pair Perfectly with Dessert ( tie back to blog )
Weekly Newsletter
Cover all the topics you featured in your blog / social pages
Highlight any special events or promotions
Have a call to action in every email ( learn more, see the full story, book a consultation )
Create Content. Now that you know who you are talking to, what you want to say, what platforms you want to say it on and when you want to say it, start to brainstorm the content you need to create and/or curate. A written and visual element for each piece of content is key. You may want to consider doing a photo or video shoot so you have powerful original images. Avoid stock imagery whenever possible. If invested in and planned well, you should be able to come out of a shoot with a bank of imagery and video clips. Organic behind the scenes footage captured with your phone also works well for social! Just be sure to be consistent with your look and styling. Setting up a small photo op area in your shop is a good idea especially for smaller products like shoes, dessert, and jewelry.
Content Breakdown:
Blogs: Choose timely topics relevant to your brand, written for your audience to engage and inspire the consumer with informative content. The content of the blogs will also provide a great basis for weekly social posts and/or newsletters and email campaigns. Blogs for weddings specifically should always have a strong visual element.
Social Posts: Social Posts are created to drive engagement, likes and shares as well as traffic back to your website. Social posts can be mirrored to highlight the content on your blog and website and provide clients with access to your products, services, company news, happenings, and offerings while providing inspiring visual elements. Certain social platforms also lend themselves to in the moment behind the scenes type content.
Newsletters/Email Campaigns: Email marketing continues to be one of the strongest forms of lead generation and is a great way to inspire your customers to purchase. Weekly or monthly newsletters let your audience know what is going on with your company and your area, while also introducing them to the valuable content you have been posting on your blog and social channels. Always have a call to action or opportunity to click through to the website to learn more.
Brand Video: Give your brand a boost with video content. Showcase your awesome team, talent, products and services. This is a great way to engage clients with seasonal offerings, ideas, and inspiration. Videos have high engagement and drive significant traffic. On social media, video generates a considerable amount more engagement and shares than images and text.
Photo Shoots: Content without images is boring. A well-planned photo shoot will provide you with a bank of original visuals to accompany the content that will fill your website, blog and social channels.
Curation: The best thing about weddings, is well, weddings! That means taking the time to reach out to your clients and the event photographers to request access to images. Having real wedding images and client reviews is always great content!
Execution. Once you have all of your content ready, it's time to show it to the world! Good content will yield great results, but considering a paid push is not a bad idea. Content that does well organically will perform even better with a paid push and will provide valuable analytics and a return on your spend.
