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Today we are going to be discussing “7 Tips For Creating A Content Strategy that speaks directly to your ideal customer. If you have any questions contact Matchbox Design Group Today.
Creating content in the age of AI is not much different than before. While you are able to rely on intelligent and informed assistance, to succeed at content marketing, you still need to create a strategy that speaks to your ideal customer and their needs.
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Here are seven tips for designing and executing a plan to help you reach new leads, establish trust, and boost your brand authority.
What Is Content Strategy In Web Design?
Content strategy in web design is the process of creating, planning, and managing all the content on your website. It’s the blueprint that ensures every piece of content aligns with your brand’s voice and drives your audience into taking the intended action.
The relationship between content strategy and web design
Content strategy and the elements of web design are deeply interconnected, and each plays a crucial role in your website’s success.
- Enhancing UX: While content strategy delivers relevant, valuable content, web design presents it in an appealing, user-friendly manner. Together, they create a functional and attractive website. Moreover, focusing on developer productivity within web design can streamline the development process, reducing time-to-market and enhancing overall site performance. By integrating tools and practices that boost efficiency, developers can more effectively translate content strategy into a compelling user experience.
- Boosting SEO and discoverability: A robust content strategy incorporates the right keywords and high-quality content, while web design integrates these elements into the site’s structure. This combination enhances SERP rankings and increases organic traffic.
- Ensuring brand consistency: Content strategy ensures all content—like blog posts, images, and videos—aligns with your brand voice and values. Web design then reflects these visually through color schemes, fonts, and aesthetics, creating a cohesive brand experience for your audience.
Increasing engagement and conversions: Content strategy crafts compelling CTAs and engaging content, while web design strategically places these elements to guide users toward conversions. This combination encourages users to sign up for demos or make purchases—whatever your desired action is—driving your business forward.
Understand Your Audience’s Pain Points
Your first step is to understand the problems, however big or small, your audience is trying to solve.
This means you will need to conduct some common-sense research. What is it that you offer, and how does it help your audience? What are they currently doing to solve the issue? What can you offer that will make it easier for them?
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and approach your content from there. What could you say or do that will make them want to convert?
Investing.io is an excellent example of doing this right. They not only found a hole to fill in the market, they also found the words to shine a light on it. A newsletter designed by entrepreneurs turned investors, their pages speak directly about the pain point: there is no other community like it.
Source: investing.io
They don’t beat about the bush trying to sell themselves to everyone and anyone. They are very clear about who their audience is, what they are missing, and how their solution will help.
Understand Their Knowledge Level
The other thing you need to know about your target audience is how much they know about the pain point itself or the various ways to solve it. Sometimes you’ll find that your leads aren’t as informed as they could be, so you will have to educate them first and convert them second. On the other hand, if they are very familiar with the issue, you will need to tailor your tone of voice and language to accommodate their experience.
Let’s look at another great example. Trustshoring has created three distinct services for three types of clients. They have then gone the extra mile and tailored their content to each of these ideal customer personas.
Source: trustshoring.com
Not only are the individual landing pages written so that they speak directly to the customer and demonstrate an understanding of the main issue. Their blog is also filled with content that aims to educate these different lead segments. The posts use different language and jargon, either explaining an issue in-depth or diving straight into the finicky details of software development, depending on the target readership.
Help Them Find What They Need
An often overlooked aspect of content strategy is website navigation and internal linking. Sure, you have created all of this amazing content. But since you are never going to rank on the first page for all of it, how are your customers supposed to find it?
By creating a clever navigational scheme, you can make it much easier to find and enjoy interconnected content. Internal linking will also help you not only pass on link equity but also improve time on-site and engagement rates.
Startup Resources is a good example of implementing this tactic effectively. Their categories page is very well thought out and helps readers delve into precisely the subjects they are interested in. The categories themselves have also been cleverly chosen, and they target the specific topics of interest and pain points of the brand’s readers.
Create Topic Clusters
Speaking of connecting your content, don’t forget to create topic clusters when planning out your strategy. It will help you establish yourself as an authoritative and relevant source on smaller topics, and it will give your readers plenty to read when they visit your website.
Start with a pillar post: the main topic you are writing about. Then consider all the topics that might interest readers, and come up with a list of questions they may naturally ask. Cover all of these topics in separate articles, make sure to interlink them, and include your clusters in your newsletters.
Surfer SEO does a good job with clustering. Currently, they are covering topics related to hiring and selling SEO services. They’ve written about finding clients, creating reports, and choosing an SEO agency.
By targeting both sides of the same content coin, so to speak, they are establishing themselves as a go-to resource, as well as naturally giving their readers more to read and more to learn.
Decide On Content Types
Next, choose appropriate types of content that engage your audience and encourage them to take action.
Offer a mix of content formats. Think articles, infographics, podcasts, interactive quizzes, or interactive videos.
Don’t forget to align each content type with its purpose. For instance, HubSpot uses detailed blog posts for in-depth guides, videos for demonstrations, and infographics for quick, visual data.
This strategic approach ensures your content meets different needs and preferences.
Of course, you don’t need to go all out like them, especially if you have a smaller content team. You can adopt one new format, like the short, and slowly build on it as your brand grows.
Build A Content Calendar
Creating a content calendar and workflow is similar to setting up a roadmap for your content strategy—one that helps you stay organized and consistent when posting.
Start by outlining your content goals and themes for the upcoming months, deciding on how often you’ll post—whether daily, weekly, or monthly. Tools like Google Calendar and Trello can help you plan and schedule your content.
Be sure to include details such as topics, deadlines, publication dates, and the team members responsible for each task.
This approach keeps your content flow steady and avoids last-minute scrambles.
Next, define the steps in your content creation process, from ideation to publication. Typically, this includes brainstorming, drafting, editing, design, and final approval. Assign specific roles and responsibilities to team members for each step. Establishing a clear workflow reduces bottlenecks and ensures high-quality content is delivered on time.
You can also use project management tools like Asana or Monday.com to track progress, measure productivity, and ensure everyone stays on track.
Write Quality Website Content
A thoughtful content strategy is key to creating a successful website.
When you align your content with your site goals and global audience preferences and integrate it with UX, it can significantly boost your site’s performance. Furthermore, when you apply best practices like intuitive navigation and usability, and combine them with a well-structured content calendar and workflow, it ensures your site keeps users engaged and satisfied.
Let Your Customers Speak For You
Don’t forget to include user-generated content in your strategy too. It’s a great way to add another layer of credibility to your website. Customers will always trust a recommendation more than they trust anything a brand has to say about their own work, so bolstering up your claims with reviews or testimonials is a great tactic.
Make sure to carefully choose which client blurbs you want to highlight. You don’t want to sound too good to be true, even if the compliments are coming from a customer. Instead, try to choose the ones that would most directly speak to your audience: coming from someone who they admire, connect with, or respect.
SellerPlex did a good job with their choice of testimonials. They all come from business owners and entrepreneurs who can show exactly how the brand has helped them succeed. Adding video testimonials is also a great touch, as it helps visitors connect with the speaker even more.
Get Them Involved
Finally, you also want to incorporate some form of interactive content that will get your readers involved and engaged. Make sure it is directly tied to your business, though, and not just a random quiz or infographic that you created for the sake of interactivity.
16Personalities have done a great job with their surveys, for example. They know their readers will want to learn more about their personality type but also actively participate in research about the type’s habits and eccentricities.
They are then able to use the results from said surveys to create even more content. They routinely publish new findings and send them out to their subscribers via the rare but compelling newsletter.
Wrapping Up
Consider these seven tips before you resume planning and creating content for your brand. While they are not flashy or fascinating, they can help you speak directly to your target audience, help them find what they are looking for, and ultimately convert them to paying long-term customers.
You should now have a better understanding of these 7 Tips For Creating A Content Strategy that speaks directly to the appropriate customer.
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