When you think of the word strategy, your mind may jump to any number of images, everything from a sport to war. The common link for these images is a goal that requires critical thinking, and there may be certain risks involved if you don’t achieve your ends. For a game of chess it may mean a captured king, but in business it may mean a loss of profit.

Checkmate

The reason your king is captured could be because you didn’t use the right tactics- other pieces of strategy like your knight- to your advantage; the same holds true for business. Despite a focus on content, a lack of strategy or tools to succeed could jeopardize drawing in an audience, much less securing one. This piece covers how to think about going about content marketing, as well as several tactics to help move forward in practice.

Clear Definition

The most essential part of strategy is definition. There must be a specific goal, objective or underlying purpose to actions. In other words, you attract your audience because your content means something to someone.

Difficulties that may be encountered is not just articulation of content and content message, but defining the audience you can draw in. There are many people in the world with different interests and characteristics; the sooner you understand the audience you want or that wants you, the better.

Metrics

Another asset to a content marketing strategy is understanding how to measure your success and shortcomings. This understanding allows you to understand what content works and what doesn’t work, the reason that is, and how to adapt accordingly to new data before you. This is important because you learn how to deliver content in an effective way.

Defining the success of your content also lets your content be more observable for evaluation and engaging for your audience, who may feel more a part of your business as a result of content that relates to them.

Now that we’ve elaborated on focus areas of strategy, let’s move forward to tactics.

Responsive Content

Responsive content is paramount in today’s world because of the transparency and interactivity of today’s media. Three examples of such content are websites, social media and blogging.

Websites defined as responsive adjust their layout for easy navigation on the device accessing the content. This is a tactic for website formation, which usually acts as a hub for a variety of content that businesses want to share.

Social media is also an important tactic as a way to literally respond to the questions, comments and concerns of your audience as a form of promotion, building a lasting relationship through engagement. The more audiences can communicate with you, the more trustworthy your content becomes.

Another type of responsive content is blogging or social forums, where ideas are articulated and exchanged. These spaces are meant for your audience and provide a way to give consistent, relevant content on a variety of related issues.

Traditional Content

While there is technology to take advantage of, it does not change the importance of using traditional media that doesn’t necessarily rely on the Internet. This may include but not be limited to:

Videos (how to’s, etc.)
Newsletters
Photos
Written accounts
TV, Radio, or newspaper advertisements

While newer forms of media blend in and are taking over, traditional media still fills a gap in promotion and interacting with audiences with a more personal touch.

This concludes our holistic look at content marketing strategy and some helpful tactics.

http://www.prweek.com/article/1280795/five-reasons-why-traditional-media-matters

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2015/02/content-marketing-playlist/

http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/06/content-marketing-definition-tactics/