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3-2-1 Fridays: 3 ways to make your content strategy more valuable

3-2-1 Fridays: 3 ways to make your content strategy more valuable

21 Oct

Welcome to today’s issue of Efikó, a weekly newsletter by me, Dozie Anyaegbunam, focusing on all things content marketing and living your best life. THANK YOU for being here! I appreciate you!

Happy Friday content folks,

How’s your week going?

Mine? I am having a blast. I discovered the magic that’s Bature Brewery’s craft beer and grilled chicken.

Gosh. It’s so so so good.

Plus, I also got to spend time with my siblings, my friends, and a mentor of mine. All in all, it’s been a great trip so far.

Now to the business of content.

3 Things I Learned This Week About Making Your Content Strategy More Valuable

i.

Your content strategy falls flat on its face without a thorough competitive analysis. Without competitive data, you are flying blind.

So how do you go about it?

First, find 3 - 5 businesses that speak to a similar audience. Your sales team is your source of truth here. And if you are freelancing, ask your client to introduce you to the sales team. Make sure to speak to the SDRs and AEs. (The SDRs bring in the leads. And the AEs close the opportunity.)

Next, you’ll need to:

Study their positioning. Are there statements they repeat across their website and social channels? Can you get a sense of their tone of voice (I usually use Grammarly to sense-check my position on their tone of voice. It isn’t always perfect. But at least I have a data point asides from my gut)?
Look at organic traffic and channel stats. Here, I use Ahrefs to learn about their organic traffic. Is it growing, static, or declining? What social channels are they using, and which seems to be their primary channel? Here I use the eye test. Yet to find a free tool that’s as good as the Social Insider.
Finally, links and screenshots of their best content. See if you can split your findings here into JBTD content, brand awareness content, BOFU/MOFU content, and buzz-worthy content.

A SWOT framework is probably the best way to distill your findings and insights from this exercise.

ii.

Next up is a content audit. Here you review all existing content (blog, podcast, video, and social, depending on your scope) and highlight the following:

Top performers
Growth opportunities
Mid-content that can be refreshed or optimized
And content you need to bin.

An excellent way to approach a content audit is to review your content using the following filters:

Target audience
Content format
Key messaging
Funnel placement
CTA strategy

iii.

Finally, workshop with the team. In an ideal scenario, you would bring everyone into a room to discuss the following:

Your target customers. Their pain points. And what an ideal customer looks like.
The functional and emotional benefits of your product.
Questions prospects ask ( the sales and customer success teams are best for this data point).
Your current buyer journey. If one exists.
Content formats and channels the team thinks might work for content.

However, life isn’t always ideal. So, my approach is to run mini-workshops with the various teams (ADRs, AEs, Customer Success, Social and Comms, Demand Gen.). It might take longer. But it gets the job done.