You might have heard this thing called content marketing. It’s a good practice for building organic discovery for your business. However, building a content strategy for your blog isn’t as easy as professional marketers and content creators make it seem. Creating content is hard! So, here’s a quick and dirty tutorial to help bootstrap your content strategy process.
I’m going to make this as easy as possible. This article isn’t a content strategy class. It’s only meant to help get you in the proper headspace for creating a content strategy plan. It’s easier to pump out blog articles when you have diretion. So, let’s get started!
What does your business offer?
The first step is to create an outline of every feature and service your business offers. List everything – even the tiny things. Sometimes it’s those small things that potential customers want.
If you need inspiration, visit your website. Your website should have everything you offer on it. Once you’re done scouring your website, ask the people you work with for ideas.
Why I Use Outlines To Build Content Strategies
I recommend using an outline because I love outlines. I have ADHD, so using outlines keeps me on track. Not all our brains work the same, however. If outlines don’t work for you, create a vision board, a Kanban board, or whatever works for you.
Ultimately, you’re looking for a way to easily represent high-level ideas like your business’s features and services. You also need to be able to add ideas and points to each high-level idea, too. This is the reason I prefer outlines.
What Problems Do You Solve
Now that you have a handy dandy outline for everything your business offers, it’s time to figure out what problems it solves. This part can be a little tricky.
Go through each heading in your outline. Add an entry under each heading for a problem that a feature or service you offer fixes. Do this quickly. You’re going to make multiple passes through your outline on this step.
Next, take a break. Seriously. Go work on something else. Come back to your outline after a few hours, or even better, in a day or two. Give your mind time to absorb what you’ve already accomplished.
Once some time has passed, go through your outline again. Do the same thing. What problems does your business solve for your customers? Spend more time on this pass. Give each heading careful consideration. Try to think outside the box, too. Are there any off-the-wall problems that you could help customers with? Write those down, too.
Start Searching
Your outline should have tons of stuff on it at this point. Now it’s time to dig deeper, but you’ll need some inspiration. So, get some coffee, open your favorite browser, and pay Google a visit.
First, search for companies like yours. Dig through their websites. What kind of blog articles do they have? What verbiage do they use to describe their business or products? Scour all of it.
With any luck, you’ll find some inspiration from your competitors. Anytime you get an idea, mark it down in your content strategy outline under the appropriate section.
Rinse, and repeat. Do this step multiple times. It gets boring quickly, and websites can start to blur together. Likewise, if you’re not a marketing professional or content creator, your stamina for this particular workload may not be very high. You need energy for inspiration. Breaks are key.
Start Lurking
Finally, go to social websites like Reddit or Quora and search for your particular product or service. Don’t use your brand name. Stay generic.
For instance, if you’re a plumber, do searches for various plumbing things and not your business name.
The idea here is to see how potential customers express their frustrations, what questions they ask, etc… You’re trying to learn how the customer speaks. Customers don’t speak the same lingo industry professionals do.
Anytime you find a new problem, write it in your content strategy outline.
How Do I Find Topics For Blog Articles
All the work you did is coming to a head. Now it’s time to start thinking about potential blog articles.
I prefer brainstorming twenty or so articles. Go ham, though. The longer your list is, the better off you’ll be in the future when you start writing.
Take a good look at your content strategy outline. I mean, take a really close look at it. Take a moment to refine it as needed.
Each section of your outline should start with a feature or service that your business offers. Pick one – preferably a service that you want to sell more often. Revisit the others later.
Next, go through each problem your chosen feature or service fixes. Think like a customer and write down what your customers might type into a Google search when looking for a solution to that problem. Try and push for at least five different search queries for each issue.
Once you have a good list of searches, turn those searches into questions. Let’s stick with the plumber example. A customer might ask, “How do I fix a clogged kitchen sink?” Do this but try and make questions a bit more specific.
Write Your Blog Posts
Now it’s time to start writing your blog posts. Write a blog post for each one of the questions you created. While writing each post, keep it very customer-centric. Explain what happens, why it happens, and how the reader can solve their problem.
Your blog post does a few things:
- Creates an organic funnel from searches to your website
- Expresses authority in your field
- Demonstrates that you can solve whatever problem the customer has
- Develop a parasocial relationship with potential customers
Don’t make your blog posts all about your business. Readers want answers – not sales pitches. With that said, include a small bit at the end of your blog posts with a call-to-action for potential customers to contact you if they need help.
Wrap Up
This is far from an exhaustive list for creating a content strategy for your business. You can do many things to optimize articles, draw more attention, and market them. Take baby steps, however. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Blog posts can be rewritten and repurposed later. For the moment, this should be enough to help get you moving.
As for that CTA I mentioned above, if your business is in the tech space and you need help, give me a shout!
