I don't need to speak to you personally to know that you have rushed into marketing your business online with no plan, framework, nor strategy. Because that's how many people do it. They start by taking photos, creating graphics, writing copies about their business, and then hasty assembling them together and posting it online. Sometimes, they think having a junior social media executive or copywriter will do the job. They're not that expensive to hire and they seem to know how to run things on social media.
The importance of Content Marketing Strategies
While social media can be a powerful tool for driving leads and conversions, it's not enough to simply post content and hope for the best. And that is exactly why there are no conversions! It has nothing to do with the platform and may not have much to do with your content. You have simply tackled the process in the complete wrong order. Imagine buying ingredients without knowing what recipe you need to cook. It's unlikely you can prepare the meal you desire. That is the same as creating content before knowing what content you should create with a well structured strategy.
What is a content marketing strategy?
Fast Fact
Key Takeaway
What are content, social media, and digital strategies?
Let us look at this with a simple analogy - fishing. Much like fishing, you can’t expect to use a random fish bait in the middle of the ocean and catch a big fish. You need the right length of fishing line, a professional rod, and strength.
"Having a strategy is when you have a theory about how the market will react to what you do through research, then to use such learnings to plan out how to position the brand in its best way." - Joyce Tsang, inspired by Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review
Content Strategy
Social Media Strategy
Digital Marketing Strategy
1. Content Strategy (what are your baits?)
A content framework uniquely tailored to your brand to attract your target audiences.
A content strategy is a guiding principle for the content you create. It identifies the common grounds between what your brand can offer and what your target audience actually wants. It is an overarching strategy that identifies your content pillars (open-ended topics), content formats (word, video, graphics, etc), and most importantly, your content's objective (what are these content trying to achieve and how do we measure their success).
A content strategy is not focused or restricted by a single or a collection of distribution channels. The content it illustrates can be posted online, printed offline, or further built into webinars and events. In short, a content strategy tells you what content your brand should create.
Need to share this with the team? Looking for a downloadable to keep and digest?
Click here for our free Content Strategy deck!
2. Social Media Strategy (river, lake, or ocean?)
Utlizing tools across different platforms to raise awareness, interest, and conversion for your brand.
A social media strategy is the guiding principle for how content should appear on the selected social media platform with regards to competitors' performance and the platform's best practices. It covers the available tools (Live on Facebook or Reels on Instagram), the execution details (hashtags, visual selection, etc), and anything that can help propel the performance of your content on the platform (algorithm understanding and format preferences).
A social media strategy suggests the types of content to produce, but are based predominantly on what is already out in the market, not what your unique branding indicates. Hence, it cannot replace your content strategy.
What are the differences between content marketing and social media marketing?
Content marketing and social media marketing are two distinct but interconnected strategies. Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract and engage a target audience. It encompasses various forms of content such as blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and more. On the other hand, social media marketing involves utilizing social media platforms to promote and distribute content, engage with the audience, and build brand awareness. While content marketing is a broader approach that encompasses all types of content, social media marketing specifically leverages social media channels as distribution platforms and emphasizes interactive engagement with the audience.
Can you provide examples of content marketing on social media?
Examples of content marketing on social media include creating and sharing informative blog posts or articles that provide valuable insights to the target audience, sharing engaging videos or tutorials that showcase products or services, developing visually appealing infographics or data visualizations to present industry statistics or trends, conducting live Q&A sessions or webinars to educate and engage the audience, and curating user-generated content that highlights positive customer experiences.
What types of content are suitable for social media marketing?
These include visually appealing images or graphics that grab attention, informative and engaging videos that convey messages or demonstrate products, concise and compelling text posts that spark curiosity or encourage interaction, infographics or data visualizations that present information in a visually digestible format, user-generated content that showcases positive experiences or testimonials, and interactive content such as polls, quizzes, or surveys that encourage audience participation. By utilizing a mix of these content types, social media marketing can effectively convey messages, foster engagement, and drive desired actions from the audience.
Is there a PDF resource on social media content marketing available?
Looking for practical content creation tips to stir your brain juice and follow as you execute your content? Start with our Super Guide on Acing 7 Content Formats!
In this super guide, we cover the things you need to assess to create:
Text
Static
Interactives
Graphics
Videos
Downloadables
Audio
Each comes with an exact checklist-style question framework for you to think about before diving into content creation.
3. Digital Marketing Strategy (which bait, on which line, for which location?)
The distribution of your content to your target audiences online via organic and paid methods.
A digital marketing strategy is a guiding principle on how content should be distributed across different channels in the online world. It should entail the customer journey across various stages in the marketing funnel. The strategy outlines the platforms and the route the audience may take and implement tactics for that to happen. Tactics may include different CTAs (downloads, subscriptions, clicks, etc), paid efforts (retargeting or social media ads), and owned channel creations (landing pages, websites, etc).
In short, a digital marketing strategy should outline the route of which the audience takes and what content points they will reach as per the stages in the marketing funnel.
Does digital marketing include content marketing? Is content marketing considered a type of digital marketing?
In my perspective, it's actually the other way around - content marketing includes digital marketing. While content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience, digital marketing encompasses a wide range of strategies and tactics, leveraging various digital channels such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, paid advertising, and more.
In essence, content marketing serves as the broader marketing strategy that guides the creation, distribution, and analysis of content, while digital marketing acts as the cornerstone that allocates the optimal combination of organic and paid efforts across different distribution channels. Together, they work towards driving brand awareness, increasing website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately converting prospects into customers.
What are the benefits of content marketing in the context of digital marketing?
Overall, content marketing plays a vital role in driving the success of digital marketing initiatives by establishing meaningful connections with the audience, improving search engine rankings, and ultimately fueling business growth. While digital marketing alone can achieve metrics such as traffic, ranking, and impressions, it cannot secure the quality of incoming leads without effective content marketing.
The quality of the content is crucial, and content marketing serves as a powerful tool for lead generation. Without leveraging content marketing to capture and nurture potential customers throughout their buyer's journey, the created content would struggle to deliver the desired results. By focusing on meaningful, valuable, and engaging content, businesses can attract and retain high-quality leads, ultimately driving conversions and achieving long-term success in the digital marketing landscape.
What can the strategies help achieve? What are the numbers?
See our client results here for reference!
Now that you know what each strategy is, how should you tackle them together as a Content Marketing Strategy?
At Joyce Tsang Content Marketing, we have a set of codify programs for any companies to adopt their content marketing strategies into their marketing workflow. We claim this process not through mere assumptions but from our expertise in the content marketing, social media, and digital marketing field.
We have studied common client problems, global benchmarks, and best practices through repeated observations and applications to formulate such a plan. By creating the right pieces of content, addressing the right target audience, conveying the right message at the respective contextual moment, a business can attract both down funnel and top funnel leads.
More Resource
 | Do you want to create your own content strategy for your brand? Start with our Super Guide on the 6 Steps to Create Your Own Content Strategy! |
Youtube Video - Create Your Own Content Strategy: 8 Steps for Anyone to Start - Free Downloadable Template Included |