5 Content Strategy Examples + How to Create Your Strategy

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Developing a contented strategy sounds intimidating, but it doesn’t person to be.

We’ve curated 5 proven types of contented strategies to assistance you find the close model for your business. Plus, you’ll larn precisely however to make your ain strategy.

But earlier we dive into the contented strategy examples, let’s screen the basics.

What Is a Content Strategy?

A contented strategy is simply a cautiously planned attack to planning, creating, optimizing, and distributing contented that reaches your people assemblage and supports your concern goals.

This contented tin beryllium successful formats similar blog posts, videos, societal media posts, and podcast episodes.

The close format depends connected the selling channels you’re posting contented on, your audience’s preferences, your larger marketing strategy, etc. And you whitethorn adjacent request a somewhat antithetic attack for each channel.

Executing an effectual contented strategy is beneficial due to the fact that it helps in:

  • Getting your contented successful beforehand of radical who are astir apt to bargain from you
  • Prompting users to prosecute with your content
  • Achieving your objectives for producing content—like gathering marque authorization oregon expanding conversions (desired actions similar relationship sign-ups oregon purchases)

If you request assistance getting started, usage the illustration contented strategies beneath arsenic inspiration.

5 Content Strategy Examples

Some of the astir fashionable (and proven) contented strategy types include:

1. SEO-Led Content Strategy

A hunt motor optimization (SEO) contented strategy is chiefly focused connected contented designed to heighten your tract for higher rankings (positions) related to applicable hunt motor queries, truthful much users spot your contented and click connected it.

For example, question booking tract Booking.com gets astir 28 cardinal monthly organic (unpaid) traffic visits, according to Semrush’s Domain Overview tool.

organic hunt  postulation   fig   highlighted

And the tract attracts that postulation done high-ranking pages for queries similar “tokyo hotel,” “flights to ohio,” and “rental car booking.”

An effectual SEO contented strategy includes these steps:

  • Performing keyword research: Keywords are the words and phrases your people assemblage types into hunt engines to look for information. Identify keywords applicable to your concern truthful you tin make contented for them.
  • Determining keywords’ search intents: Search intent refers to the user’s intent erstwhile performing a search—navigating to a circumstantial site, researching a product’s pros and cons, etc. Knowing hunt intent helps you make contented that addresses users’ needs.
  • Creating quality content: Your contented should connection invaluable accusation and beryllium casual to read. It should besides see visuals to exemplify the concepts you communicate.
  • Optimizing content: Apply techniques that premier your contented for readers and hunt engines. For example, usage headings to interruption up the treatment into subtopics. And adhd your people keywords to your content’s title tag (the HTML rubric that shows successful browsers and mightiness amusement successful hunt results) and assemblage text.
  • Monitoring rankings: Once you’ve published your content, usage a instrumentality similar Position Tracking to way its hunt rankings implicit time. To measurement however disposable and apt to pull clicks your contented is.

Learn much successful our usher to SEO basics.

Topic Clusters

A strategy focused connected topic clusters (groups of related pieces that research a main taxable and related subtopics) is simply a subset of an SEO-led strategy that helps you physique authorization astir definite subjects to summation credibility with users and amended your hunt rankings.

For each taxable cluster, there’s a main leafage known arsenic a pillar page that provides a wide overview of the topic. And pages that dive into subtopics successful much detail, which are called clump pages (or subpages).

Here’s a bully taxable clump contented strategy illustration from Allrecipes:

navigation has links to dinners, meal, ingredients, etc. with subtopics wrong   each   category

The site’s header paper links to pillar pages with recipes for dinners, regular meals, peculiar occasions, and truthful on. And hovering your cursor implicit each paper point reveals clump pages for applicable subtopics.

Like pages with recipes for chicken, beef, oregon pork if you privation recipes that usage a circumstantial ingredient.

If you’d similar to execute a clump strategy, usage a instrumentality similar Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder to brainstorm your topics and pages.

Open the instrumentality and participate a effect keyword (main topic), take the state your people customers are based in, and click “Create list.”

keyword "baking for beginners" entered into tool

Once the instrumentality has finished running, scroll down the “Topics and pages” tab until you spot pillar leafage suggestions and subpages for each.

topic "essential baking tools" with the pillar leafage   "baking essentials for beginners" and subpage ideas similar  "popular baking ingredients" and more

The instrumentality volition show basal SEO information connected each pillar leafage (and subpage) idea, including keyword difficulty and monthly hunt volume. Use this information to shortlist ideas to make contented pages for.

Further reading: 9 Pillar Page Examples (And How to Make Yours Just arsenic Great)

2. Video-Led Content Strategy

A video-led contented strategy focuses connected utilizing videos to scope audiences and tends to enactment good for brands covering topics that users tin recognize much easy by watching oregon listening to them.

Many brands that follow this strategy chiefly people to YouTube. Which radical usage arsenic a hunt motor to observe caller videos and the brands down them.

Linus Media Group is simply a large illustration of a marque with a video-led contented strategy. It’s posted 7,000+ videos to its Linus Tech Tips YouTube transmission since 2008.

videos tab shows videos posted astir   everyday

The marque has assorted online assets, including a assemblage forum and an online store. But it doesn’t person a blog.

Instead, it focuses connected creating YouTube videos.

Further reading: Video Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for 2024

3. Product-Led Content Strategy

A product-led contented strategy makes your merchandise the main absorption of your contented (for example, by showcasing its unsocial selling points and demonstrating however it helps users) to transportation radical who prosecute with your contented to bargain your product.

Check retired ClickUp for an illustration of a product-led contented strategy successful action. The marque promotes its task absorption bundle done contented like:

  • Pages that screen cardinal merchandise features successful detail
  • Use cases for antithetic teams and institution types
  • Educational resources, including merchandise demos, video tutorials, and webinars for users to larn however to usage its software
  • Customer stories that amusement however its bundle has helped different brands succeed
  • Blog posts that sermon readers’ symptom points and however its merchandise is the solution for these. For example, this ClickUp blog station pitches its bundle arsenic 1 of the champion options for users looking for escaped task absorption software:
clickup's blog station  astir  the champion  escaped  task  absorption   bundle   lists their ain  solution   first

4. Thought Leadership-Led Content Strategy

A thought leadership-led contented strategy involves utilizing contented to pass caller ideas and probe that gets attraction connected your brand, which tin construe to much marque consciousness and conversions.

On X, for instance, writer James Clear positions himself arsenic an adept successful gathering bully habits:

profile states "I constitute   astir  gathering  bully  habits."

Clear backs up his profile’s assertion by regularly posting tips connected that precise subject. 

These tips routinely get a batch of engagement due to the fact that they’re inspirational and thought-provoking. But inactive casual to understand.

3 posts with engagement metrics similar  comments, retweets, likes, and saves highlighted

As helium posts his tips, Clear besides promotes his email newsletter to promote radical who similar them to subscribe:

after posting, the writer  comments a promotional nexus  to his newsletter

The result?

His newsletter presently has implicit 3 cardinal subscribers.

5. Customer Support-Led Content Strategy

A lawsuit support-led contented strategy emphasizes creating contented that helps customers recognize and summation the astir worth from your product, truthful they proceed being loyal customers.

Since this contented strategy targets radical who are already customers, brands often usage it alongside different contented strategies that cater to users higher up the content selling funnel (i.e., prospects searching for a solution to their problem).

Here’s an example:

As portion of the brand’s lawsuit support-led contented strategy, Figma’s assistance halfway contains dozens of articles explaining however to usage its merchandise plan software. 

Like this one:

content strategy   illustration  showing a assistance   nonfiction  connected  however  to use  substance   styles successful  the tool

And the level has shared champion practices to assistance users bash much with its software.

best signifier    guides see  workspaces successful  Figma, ux writer's usher  to Figma, and collaborating successful  FigJam

This contented strategy for supporting and retaining customers is utilized alongside Figma’s main product-led contented strategy to pull caller prospects. 

One illustration of the prospect-focused contented the marque creates is simply a assets room to present beginner merchandise designers to merchandise plan concepts and however to use these successful Figma:

in a assets  room  page, Figma explains a plan  conception  past    shows however  to use  that wrong   the tool

How to Develop Your Content Strategy

Now, make your ain contented strategy with this six-step process:

1. Set Your Goals and Choose Your Strategy Type

Decide what you privation to get retired of publishing contented and usage that to acceptable the goals for your overarching contented strategy, which volition impact everything from your formats to the strategy benignant you determine to use.

Make your goals arsenic circumstantial arsenic possible, truthful you tin way your advancement toward them. 

What bash you privation to achieve? By when? And what fig volition you request to hit?

Also, guarantee your goals are realistic to guarantee you don’t acceptable yourself up for failure.

For instance, alternatively of trying to summation 100 relationship sign-ups overnight, purpose for gradual maturation implicit a fewer months.

Here are examples of goals you could acceptable and however they could pass your contented strategy type:

  • Boost integrated hunt postulation by 25% wrong six months → Pursue an SEO-led contented strategy
  • Improve merchandise income by 30% implicit the adjacent 2 years → Implement a video-led contented strategy that features process overviews and actionable tips for utilizing your product
  • Drive 500 relationship sign-ups each week implicit the adjacent 4th → Use a product-led contented strategy that drives relationship registrations
  • Increase full website postulation by 20% successful the adjacent twelvemonth → Use a thought leadership-led strategy that focuses connected archetypal probe to get media sum and thrust nonstop visits
  • Reduce bundle subscription cancellations by 10% successful the adjacent six months → Use a lawsuit support-led contented strategy to supply much guidance to customers

2. Research Your Audience

Getting a thorough knowing of who your assemblage is (backgrounds, desires, etc.) helps you find what contented to make and wherever it should live.

More specifically, it’ll inform:

  • The topics you should screen to pull your prospects’ attention
  • The platforms you should people connected to scope your people audience
  • The format your contented should beryllium successful to suit your platforms and your audience’s preferences

Semrush’s One2Target instrumentality helps you probe your assemblage to summation the insights you need.

To usage the tool, participate up to 5 competitors’ domains, prime your people location, and click “Analyze.”

competitors entered into tool

Use the tabs astatine the apical of the study to larn much astir the domains’ audiences:

  • The “Demographics” tab breaks down these audiences’ ages, genders, and countries. Use this accusation to recognize which beingness stages to talk to and whether you should make localized contented for antithetic areas.
  • The “Socioeconomics” tab sheds airy connected these audiences’ acquisition qualifications, truthful you tin tailor your content’s readability to their acquisition levels
  • The “Behavior” tab shares these audiences’ interests, favourite societal media platforms, and preferred instrumentality types. It’s large for identifying the platforms to make contented for.
  • The “Audience Overlap” tab shows you different domains these audiences sojourn astir often (when you scroll down). These sites whitethorn beryllium worthy undertaking contented collaborations with to boost marque awareness.
behavior study  shows which societal  platforms are preferred by competitors' audiences and which device, desktop vs mobile

Make a enactment of these insights arsenic you go.

3. Analyze Competing Content

Doing a competitive analysis of your rivals’ contented strategies helps you get ideas for your own.

Competitors aren’t ever businesses that merchantability akin products oregon services. They could besides beryllium marketplace players similar manufacture publications and contented creators who absorption connected the aforesaid audience.

You already cognize immoderate of your main competitors (they’re the ones you utilized successful the past step). But however tin you find others?

Use the Market Explorer tool.

Open the instrumentality and click the “Find Competitors” tab. Enter your domain, acceptable your people location, and click “Research a market.”

search for a rival  successful  marketplace  explorer

Scroll down the tool’s “Overview” study until you scope the “Domain vs Market Dynamics” section.

You’ll spot the sites with the largest stock of website visits successful your market. Which means, they’re your competition.

share of visits conception  shows apical  competitors

Once you’ve compiled your database of competitors, caput to the EyeOn instrumentality to show their contented efforts.

Click “+ Create list” to commencement a caller list. Then, participate the competing domains you’ve found. 

The instrumentality volition past supply an overview of the fig of caller contented pieces your competitors person published wrong a definite clip frame.

You tin besides participate your competitors’ societal media accounts to way their societal posts.

top competitors conception  shows the fig   of google hunt  ads, blog posts, caller   pages, societal  media posts, and societal  engagement

Then, presumption immoderate of your competitors’ latest contented successful item by clicking 1 of their domains nether the applicable contented type. Like blog articles oregon societal posts.

Study their contented to recognize what topics they cover. After that, probe however their contented is performing to gauge the results you could get from creating akin content.

EyeOn adjacent provides basal social media metrics for your competitors’ societal posts:

a timeline of competitors' societal  posts with metrics similar  comments, likes, and shares highlighted

As for show metrics for website content, usage Traffic Analytics.

Go to the instrumentality and participate a competitor’s domain (or 1 of the domain’s subfolders, similar “/blog” if you’re analyzing its blog content). Then, prime a determination and click “Analyze.”

search for blog subfolder successful  tool

Traffic Analytics volition supply metrics similar these for the specified month:

  • The fig of visits the domain has gotten
  • The estimated percent of acquisition conversions from visits to the domain
  • The domain’s marketplace share
we spot    the fig   of visits, unsocial   visitors, acquisition  conversion rate, pages per visit, mean  sojourn  duration, bounce rate, and more

Use these findings to determine however overmuch of your competitors’ contented you privation to emulate arsenic you signifier your contented strategy.

4. Audit Your Existing Content

Next, behaviour a content audit to larn however you’re presently performing, truthful you tin support doing what works good and overhaul thing that isn’t producing results.

The circumstantial benignant of audit you bash and the metrics it focuses connected volition beryllium connected the strategy you pursue.

But regardless, 1 mode of assessing your contented is to comparison existent show metrics against past ones.

If you’re utilizing an SEO-led contented strategy, you tin usage the Position Tracking instrumentality to way your hunt rankings implicit time.

Follow the Position Tracking configuration guide to acceptable up your project.

Then, presumption the tool’s “Landscape” study to get a snapshot of your rankings distribution, top-ranking keywords, and more.

position tracking scenery  study  shows visibility, estimated traffic, mean  position, and more

Go to the “Overview” tab and scroll down to the “Rankings Overview” conception to spot your people keywords and however your rankings person changed implicit a definite period.

rankings overview array  shows however  the domain ranks for the keyword and the alteration  successful  presumption   implicit    time

Use the day filter to set the clip play you privation to way ranking changes for.

calendar filter highlighted

You tin besides usage immoderate show metrics you’ve collected from earlier competitory analyses to pass your contented audit—and your contented strategy arsenic a whole.

5. Choose Content Types and Channels

You’re present acceptable to take the formats and organisation channels that volition assistance your contented scope your people audience.

Your chosen contented strategy benignant volition power the main channels you make contented for. For instance, your website is apt your main transmission if your volition is to fertile successful hunt engines. 

That said, different channels tin inactive enactment arsenic supporting organisation channels.

Here are immoderate examples:

If YouTube is 1 of your audience’s favourite channels, your content selling strategy could impact producing much YouTube video contented (even if you’re not utilizing a video-led strategy).

And portion a lawsuit support-led contented strategy mostly involves publishing enactment resources connected your site, you could besides person your squad reply questions that radical person posted astir your merchandise connected platforms similar Reddit and X.

Some channels enactment aggregate contented formats. If that’s the lawsuit for the ones you’ve selected, see which format(s) assistance you champion pass with your audience.

For example, Instagram supports representation and video posts. If you privation to exemplify ideas successful a dynamic way, creating video posts whitethorn beryllium best.

Like this Instagram post from Coconut Odyssey that uses video to stock underwater exploits:

instagram video station  of a Godzilla-like underwater reptile

6. Establish Your Content Creation Process

Now that you cognize your approach, channels, topics, and more, gully up your program for creating that content.

Your instauration process should screen matters like:

  • Who volition make your content: If you’re penning blog posts, you whitethorn request to assemble a squad of contented strategists, writers, editors, and graphic designers. You whitethorn besides take to outsource the enactment to freelancers oregon agencies.
  • Your content workflow: In different words, the series of steps your squad volition instrumentality to make content. And who’s liable for each step.
  • The tools your squad volition usage to make content: This could beryllium investing successful camera and lighting instrumentality if you’re producing videos. It could besides beryllium SEO tools for optimizing your contented for hunt motor traffic.
  • How often you privation to publish: Consider what frequence you tin feasibly manage. Setting up a content calendar tin assistance you way the people dates of each past and upcoming content.

Implement Your Content Strategy

At this point, you person ideas for antithetic strategy types and a model for creating an effectual contented strategy.

Now, you request the tools to enactment these steps into action.

A azygous Semrush relationship gets you entree to dozens of tools. Try them retired with a free account.