When you present yourself online, you inevitably produce content - as a freelancer, company or agency. This content determines whether interested parties become customers. And customers become regular customers. However, content is often created on instinct. I'll explain how you can achieve more with a content strategy.

To make one point straight away: When someone talks about content strategy, you always have to take a close look at what they mean by this. Because, as is so often the case in the digital world, this term is still relatively new. It changes dynamically over time, it is misunderstood or deliberately reinterpreted.

Content for content marketing

The following is my approach, which is essentially based on Kristina Halvorson. With her book "Content Strategy for the Web", she has contributed significantly to the foundation of this topic. "Content" is therefore a very broad term. It's not just about traditional content such as blog posts, articles, photos, graphics, audio or video. It's also about how you

• Name navigation points
• The form in which error messages are written
• How to design and name a form
• How your Facebook ad is designed
• What is in an order confirmation etc.

All of this is content. And it doesn't end there: The structure of the content, its networking and how you make it accessible is also part of it! So it's not just about creating content. Users must also be able to find it, understand it and ultimately feel that they are in good hands. More on this in a moment.

Tip: A content strategy also increases your productivity. There will be less chaos on your desk. And you learn to prioritize content correctly. See my article Productivity hacks - get more done with less stress.

The content strategy

A strategy, on the other hand, revolves around long-term goals. So the question is: where do you actually want to go as a freelancer, company or agency? The ways and means to achieve this goal are then the "tactics".

To clear up a typical misunderstanding: content strategy is not the same as content marketing. Content marketing is merely one of many possible topics within an overarching content strategy. Miriam Löffler and Irene Michl come to the following definition in their book Think Content! (Rheinwerk Verlag) come to the following definition:

"Content strategy is the responsible, well thought-out, economical, data-based, customer-oriented, analytical and professional handling of content - from planning to operational handling in day-to-day business."

Content strategy is an entire professional field in which you find yourself at the interface between marketing, content management, information architecture and user experience. In the following, I would like to explain what you can learn from this for yourself and your company.

Why do you need a content strategy?

In short, a well thought-out and formulated content strategy is an essential basis for making decisions, big and small, about content. After all, you're probably asking yourself questions like:

• Do I need a blog? And if so, what do I write about there?
• How should I write? Do I use the pronoun "Duze" or "Sieze"? Should I come across as casual and fluffy or serious and sedate?
• What do my (future) customers expect? How do I gain their trust? How do I stand out positively from my competitors?
• Which social networks are important? Do I have to be on TikTok now? Should I post stories? How do I win customers?
• How important is a newsletter? How often should it appear? What should it be about?

or else:

• What about downloads such as white papers and e-books? Is it worth the effort?
• Is messenger marketing for me?
• Where, when and how might my target group come across me? Are they looking for information via Google or YouTube? Do they mainly sit at their computer in the office or do they have their smartphone in their hand when they are out and about?
• What terms do my prospects and customers use? How do I present myself so that my services and special features are understood?
• And who actually takes care of all this content? How do we plan, curate, publish and maintain it? What do we already have and how successful is it?
• Who makes sure that it all fits together?

With the help of a content strategy, you can answer these and other questions. Another important advantage: it is also the basis for measuring your success. It can therefore help you find the right metrics and make the right decisions for you, your company or your agency.

And last but not least: The written (!) content strategy helps to ensure that your company is recognizable everywhere. Because sometimes content comes from completely different departments and employees: marketing, sales or even IT. The content strategy can inform them about what the content should look like. New employees or external service providers also have a common understanding of what is expected of them.

After all, every interaction is important and is becoming increasingly important. A single moment of irritation can be enough to lose a potential customer to a competitor.

Steps towards a content strategy

What is the best way to proceed? The starting point for a content strategy is the fundamental, overarching goals of you or your company. This, in turn, should already result in the desired target groups. Freelancers and small companies have an advantage over larger organizations at this point: They are closer to their customers. They therefore know much more about what their target group is interested in and how they can be reached without any extra effort.

Tip: Do you work independently or as a freelancer? Then read my blog post on typical freelancer mistakes - and how to avoid them.

As a service provider or manufacturer, it is important that you literally speak your customers' language. This is crucial when they compare your offers with those of the competition. Do they understand at that moment that you can solve their most pressing problem?

You can use this information to answer many of the questions I listed above. For example, as a B2B company, it will most likely make more sense to be present on LinkedIn than on TikTok. This is of course an extreme example. It also works with the question: would you prefer LinkedIn or Xing or both? TikTok and Snapchat and Instagram and Pinterest or just one of them?

In short, if you know your target groups well, you can classify and evaluate new trends and hypes very well. For example, you look at a new social network or a new app that everyone is talking about and ask yourself: Would I find my customers here? Does the environment match how I present myself?

And yes, you are allowed and encouraged to step out of character and try something new. In general, targeted experiments are important to gain your own experience. But that's something you also do. After all, when building a house, the foundation and the floor plan are also important before you decide on the wall colors...

Components of your content strategy

In your content strategy, you therefore record what you know about your target group in as much detail as possible. The concept of personas is often recommended here, as target groups are generally not uniform: Instead, in this case you use fictional people based on real information. You will probably need several personas, as your customers may include both store owners and managers of a B2B company. Both have very different perspectives and needs. The respective persona reflects this as accurately as possible.

The tone of your content is an important topic. Should it be young and dynamic? Or sedate and credible? In some companies, there are good reasons why there is a separate document for this. Because every piece of content is geared towards this: from the error message to the white paper to the social media ad.

When it comes to content, the customer journey also plays an important role. The basic idea here: Before making a purchase decision, prospective customers go through various phases. Ideally, you want to have content that fits each stage of this journey. At the beginning, for example, this could be introductory, useful, non-promotional content (which brings us back to the topic of content marketing). Product pages follow later. Finally, immediately after the purchase, you want to make sure that the customer feels comfortable with their decision - this is a very important point. And think about your existing customers too! They are often forgotten in the heat of the moment.

The content audit

As part of your content strategy, you should also carry out a content audit - an inventory of your content. How high quality and effective is each section or subpage? What success rates are you achieving with each one? In this content audit, you record, among other things, where you are already present with content and who is actually responsible for it: from your own website to things like newsletters and social media profiles.

Tip: An SEO audit as preparation is also very helpful here. It shows you how your websites are positioned on Google & Co. And what you can improve. See our 8 steps for the SEO audit guide.

This will result in a content overview and an editorial plan for the future. At this point, don't forget to question critically:

• What should remain of the previous activities?
• Which areas need to be updated and how urgently?
• Where do you need a new concept? Or what needs to be deleted without replacement?

You've probably made your decisions based on gut instinct so far. Now is the chance to change that. The editorial plan also serves to stabilize the work on your content. It should be clear for each channel what is to be posted, when, where and by whom. Updating, improving or deleting content is also part of the regular tasks.

Also specify how and how the success of the content is to be measured. Again, this will only work if you have a clearly formulated objective in the first place.

My conclusion on the content strategy

If you're clever, you don't just see digital as an opportunity for marketing and sales, but start much earlier. Content marketing is the modern form of corporate publishing, which is no longer just a tool available to corporations. Anyone can reach their customers directly with the appropriate effort. And that is a great potential.

Speaking of time and effort: my personal credo is "less is more". In today's digital landscape, this is more relevant than ever: we are constantly inundated with information and content. Interchangeable, run-of-the-mill content no longer stands out. They simply get lost.

It is therefore perfectly fine if you only have a little time for this topic. Concentrate your resources on a few pieces of particularly well-made content. Make sure that even things that seem mundane, such as order confirmations, are clearly formulated, suit you and your customers and ideally stand out in a positive way. In all of this, make sure you know where you want to go. And how to get there. Review your content strategy regularly: are you still on the right track?

If you have such a written content strategy in place, you are already one step ahead of many other entrepreneurs and agencies. This is because most of them have not yet internalized the fact that they are also media companies these days.