Before I enter a supermarket, I have a list of items to buy. My choice of shop will probably depend on the brand name, the pricing and let’s say the building itself. It looks cool so you can enter just to window shop and get out. However, if I don’t find the items on my grocery list in the shop, I will go out and search for them elsewhere without ever returning to the shop. My reason is simple; it's cool yet the products they sell are irrelevant to me. Its content does not satisfy my desire.

I think we can use this to define content. Simply put, content is what is found within. The products I am searching for are what should be within the shop I enter.

Let’s get the point; in marketing, content is the relevant thing within your brand that is satisfying enough for your target audience. The audience should be able to relate to what you put out there. Hence, your content is the secret ingredient to an attractive online poster, a product or the brand itself even before the audience experiences the product or service itself.

There’s no strategy without a purpose, plan , set out sequence of actions and a measurable goal. Here are 3 steps to help plan your content strategy

Set marketing goals
Your brand purpose is the solution you are offering to an identified problem. Your brand vision should guide you in the next step after a clear purpose is spelt out. Is your vision to become the biggest player in digital marketing in the world? This definitely is a long term goal which could be achieved in years. The next step is to break down the long term goal into short-term motivation; yearly, quarterly, monthly or weekly goals. Now, a calendar can be drawn to take care of each content, one day at a time.

Audit the brand’s assets
We know auditors pay attention to details because they want to make the unclear clear. Just as it takes time to audit, we will dedicate some time to audit our brand’s initiatives and assets in two steps; content audit and event audit. With content audit, our aim is to identify opportunities and setbacks with the content itself. We need to ask questions about content title, content sources, target audience and their journey stage. Event-based audit occurs when we review our periodic theme, upcoming projects or past project evaluation. Content audits are mostly subsets of event-based audit.

Identify buyers’ journey stage
This last step is a build up to the previous step. Your content should not only be geared towards ‘forcing’ your target audience to buy. You need to allow space and time for digestion. Every buyer persona has a funnel through which they become advocates. The buyer persona funnel is in 3 stages; awareness, consideration and decision. Awareness stage is when you introduce the brand to the target. At this stage, you offer something relevant. It could be educational content that drives them to your website. The next stage is when you offer a free trial and then lastly they take a decision at the buying stage.