How to Create a Winning Content Strategy

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Data from Content Explorer

Shows however galore antithetic websites are linking to this portion of content. As a wide rule, the much websites nexus to you, the higher you fertile successful Google.

Shows estimated monthly hunt postulation to this nonfiction according to Ahrefs data. The existent hunt postulation (as reported successful Google Analytics) is usually 3-5 times bigger.

The fig of times this nonfiction was shared connected Twitter.

Our contented strategy astatine Ahrefs is simple.

In a nutshell, we:

  • Create blog posts and videos astir applicable topics that radical hunt for connected Google and YouTube.
  • Nurture and amended those radical with utile contented connected Twitter and successful our newsletter.
  • Retain customers and physique marque loyalty utilizing product-focused tutorials successful our assistance center, academy, and successful our instrumentality itself.

This strategy has been hugely palmy for us. We get 500K+ monthly visits to our blog from Google, person 100K+ radical connected our mailing list, and person 200K+ subscribers connected YouTube.

More importantly, it’s helped our ARR turn beauteous consistently implicit the years.

But portion you could blindly transcript our contented strategy, that wouldn’t needfully beryllium omniscient due to the fact that what works for america mightiness not enactment for you.

That’s wherefore we wrote this guide—to amusement you however to make a contented strategy that makes consciousness for your business.

Here’s everything you’ll learn:

What is simply a contented strategy?

Content strategy focuses connected the imaginativeness and program for your content. It’s wherever you reply questions similar why and how to make content, who the contented is for, and yet how you’ll utilize contented to marketplace your business.

What’s the quality betwixt contented strategy and contented marketing?

Content marketing is the process of creating, editing, and promoting contented for selling purposes. It mightiness beryllium a blog post, video, merchandise documentation—anything that helps you to attract, nurture, and clasp customers.

In different words, contented selling is the execution of tactics that further your contented strategy.

To marque things adjacent much confusing, if you make a Venn-diagram of contented strategy and contented marketing, the intersection is your content selling strategy.

Content selling strategy concerns itself with the readying and orchestration of your contented selling efforts. It involves defining your marque dependable and style, contented ideation, creating a content calendar, mounting and measuring goals, etc.

Why is it important to person a contented strategy?

Having a contented strategy is important to guarantee that each portion of contented you make has a purpose. It stops you from creating contented for the involvement of it and throwing wealth down the drain connected random contented that does thing for your business.

It besides helps guarantee that you’re creating contented for the close audience, successful the close format, for the close channel.

How to make a contented strategy

Creating a contented strategy tin beryllium rather a daunting process, truthful we’ve created a elemental model to marque things easier called the content strategy canvas:

The intent of the content strategy canvas is to assistance you make a basic content strategy by answering 5 elemental questions:

  • Who are you creating contented for?
  • Why are you creating content?
  • What type of contented volition you create?
  • Where will you people the content?
  • How will you make the content?

Let’s locomotion done however to reply each of these questions.

Question 1: Who are you creating contented for?

Putting into words who you’re trying to scope with your contented is the archetypal and astir important step. It volition service arsenic a guiding airy for each your content creation efforts and assistance support you on track.

If you’ve done your market research and created lawsuit personas, this should beryllium easy. You’ll already person a coagulated thought of who you’re trying to reach.

For example, if you’re a owe broker successful Florida, that mightiness beryllium thing like:

Millennial couples (25–30) successful Florida with aspirations of owning their archetypal home. They’re moving professionals strapped for clip and consciousness frustrated by the complexity of the process of getting connected the spot ladder.

If you don’t cognize rather truthful overmuch astir who you’re targeting, consciousness escaped to support things broader.

For example, arsenic providers of SEO software, thing similar this would marque consciousness for us:

People who privation to thrust much postulation to their website(s).

It’s somewhat oversimplified, but it’s capable to assistance america debar creating contented astir dead-end topics.

For example, instrumentality a taxable similar “reverse representation search.” This sounds similar a taxable related to SEO connected the look of it, and it gets an estimated 1.6M monthly searches successful the US

… but the world is that astir radical searching for this apt don’t adjacent person a website. They’re astir apt conscionable trying to hunt down a catfish.

Here’s our contented strategy canvas so far:

Question 2. Why are you creating content?

Each portion of contented should person a purpose.

Broadly speaking, determination are 4 of these:

  1. Increase marque awareness and present your marque to imaginable customers.
  2. Create involvement and desire by teaching imaginable customers much astir their problems and however your merchandise oregon work tin solve them.
  3. Nurture involvement and entice the acquisition by further educating imaginable customers astir your merchandise oregon work and wherefore it’s the champion solution for them.
  4. Retain customers and physique marque loyalty by educating customers connected however to get the astir retired of your merchandise oregon work and intelligibly demonstrating its value.

If you’re acquainted with the marketing funnel, you’ll announcement that these 4 “purposes” align broadly with the stages of the buying journey.

Either way, you’ll spot that these “whys” are prefilled connected the contented strategy canvas due to the fact that you request to make contented for each purposes. After all, there’s nary constituent successful having a well-known marque if cipher ever buys thing from you, and there’s nary constituent moving to pull customers if you can’t clasp them.

However, it’s important to recognize 1 happening earlier we continue:

Each portion of contented tin service aggregate purposes.

Many of our blog posts connection bully examples of this thought successful practice. For example, instrumentality a taxable similar “how to find debased contention keywords.” This station arguably serves each stages of the selling funnel to varying degrees.

That said, immoderate contented pieces volition beryllium much focused connected solving conscionable 1 problem.

For example, instrumentality our “Ahrefs vs.” page. This leafage explains what the manufacture thinks of Ahrefs compared to our competitors and showcases a fewer of our unsocial features.

Here are the problems it does and doesn’t lick by my estimations:

Depending connected wherever you’re astatine successful your contented selling journey, you whitethorn request to absorption much connected 1 of these “purposes” much than the other. This is wherever a content audit can travel successful handy, but that’s a taxable for different day.

Question 3: Where volition you people content?

Knowing why you’re creating contented is simply a bully start, but you besides request to cognize where to people it to scope customers and imaginable customers.

Given the myriad of publishing options these days, this process tin beryllium overwhelming.

Here are conscionable a fewer places you could people content:

  • Blog/website
  • YouTube
  • Social networks
  • Email
  • Slideshare
  • Guest posts (i.e., connected different peoples’ websites)
  • Podcasts
  • Q&A sites (e.g., Quora)

So which should you choose?

Firstly, don’t get bogged down trying to make contented for each transmission imaginable. These are each viable options successful 1 mode oregon another, but you can’t bash everything—especially erstwhile you’re conscionable starting connected your contented journey.

Secondly, don’t take randomly.

You should take 1 oregon 2 channels that marque the astir consciousness for your business, and you should basal these connected your answers to 2 questions:

  1. Which channels lick your “whys”?
  2. How and wherever bash your customers devour accusation online?

Let’s commencement by answering the archetypal question…

Every bully contented strategy involves creating contented for each signifier of the journey—from marque consciousness to lawsuit retention—but not each selling channels are suitable for solving each problems.

For example, publishing an email newsletter is of nary usage for gathering marque consciousness due to the fact that those unaware of your marque don’t subscribe. Similarly, doing podcasts is hardly apt to assistance you clasp customers and physique marque loyalty.

You either request to take 1 transmission that’s suitable for each stages oregon aggregate complementary channels.

Here’s a speedy cheat expanse for the astir fashionable owned channels to help:

How bash you cognize which 2 channels to choose?

This is wherever the 2nd question comes in handy:

How and wherever bash your customers devour accusation online?

Your market research should person uncovered the reply to this question but if you’re not sure, see asking oregon surveying your customers directly. Alternatively, if you’re considering your blog/website oregon YouTube transmission arsenic 1 of your selling mediums, usage a keyword probe tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to spot if radical are searching for topics related to your business.

For example, we spot thousands of radical searching for SEO-related topics each period connected Google and YouTube:

This tells america that publishing contented connected these channels makes consciousness for us.

We besides cognize that we tin usage societal media and email selling to nurture and clasp customers, truthful we’ll make contented for these channels too.

Question 4. What benignant of contented volition you create?

If you’re readying to people contented connected YouTube, it’s beauteous evident that you’ll beryllium publishing videos because that’s the lone benignant of contented you tin publish. But for galore different selling channels, things aren’t ever truthful obvious.

Take your website, for example. There are galore types of contented you could publish, including:

  • Blog posts
  • Whitepapers
  • Landing pages
  • Wiki articles
  • Interactive tools
  • Video courses

Nobody has unlimited resources for creating content, truthful it’s worthy considering which contented types you privation to focus on.

For instance, connected our website, we chiefly absorption connected creating 3 types of content:

  • Blog posts
  • Wiki articles
  • Interactive tools

Right now, we person 906 blog posts, and our blog gets an estimated 253K hunt visits each month—according to the Top subfolders report successful Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.

Sidenote.

Many of these blog posts are translations; we lone person ~300 English posts. 

We person 10 escaped tools, which nonstop america an estimated 301K monthly hunt visits.

And we person 267 Wiki/help articles that nonstop america an estimated 2.3K monthly hunt visits.

Those 2.3K visits to our Wiki articles mightiness look negligible compared to our blog and escaped tools, but the intent of this contented isn’t to thrust tons of traffic. Its intent is to amended and clasp customers by answering communal questions astir our toolset.

On Twitter, we chiefly absorption connected creating and sharing merchandise updates…

NEW: The “Organic traffic” graph present accounts for seasonal fluctuations of hunt volume!

This information volition amusement successful Organic keywords 2.0, Top Pages 2.0, and the Organic hunt tab and metrics successful your Site Explorer Overview. pic.twitter.com/eLmZrzygZB

— Ahrefs (@ahrefs) May 6, 2021

… and informative threads with distilled cognition from our blog posts:

If you person customized illustrations oregon infographics connected your site, it’s highly apt that others volition usage them successful their content.

For example, here’s a graph from our station astir long-tail keywords connected different blog: pic.twitter.com/6q32eEbB9G

— Ahrefs (@ahrefs) December 29, 2020

When it comes to filling retired this conception of your contented strategy canvas, don’t overthink things. Just jot down applicable types of contented for each measurement successful the journey.

It’s besides good to usage the aforesaid benignant of contented crossed aggregate stages wherever it makes sense. For example, we utilize blog posts for everything from raising marque consciousness to nurturing customers, truthful we database that contented benignant crossed each stages successful our canvas. But we lone database wiki/help articles successful the retention stage.

Question 5. How volition you make the content?

Creating a contented strategy isn’t conscionable astir readying what to do. You besides request to see however to execute your plan.

In different words, you request to inquire yourself: “what resources volition I need?”

You tin radical these resources into 2 categories:

  1. People. Who bash you request to hire, and what skills bash you need?
  2. Products and services. What tools oregon services volition you need?

For example, accidental we wanted to make blog contented and YouTube videos for a caller brand, we’re astir apt going to the pursuing people at a bare minimum:

  • Blog contented writer(s)
  • Scriptwriter(s)
  • Blog editor
  • Videographer
  • Video editor
  • Designer
  • Virtual adjunct (VA)

We’ll besides request a fewer products and services, including:

Here’s our completed canvas:

Final thoughts

Having a contented strategy is invaluable for keeping your contented instauration efforts connected way and ensuring that the contented you make has a purpose. After all, it’s ace casual to autumn into the trap of creating contented conscionable for the involvement of it.

If you’ve already created your contented strategy, the adjacent measurement is creating a content selling strategy and commencement creating content.

Got questions? Ping maine on Twitter.