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Marketing insights

5 steps for developing a winning content marketing strategy

By Anne Neubauer
April 18, 2023

Want to build a killer content strategy for your business? Look no further than these five essential steps: figure out who your audience is, create content that they'll love, use the right tools, measure your success and then tweak your approach as needed. And if you want to make the process even smoother, consider using Brightspot CMS—it's a platform that can help you streamline your content and meet all of your marketing goals.

2 Min Read

Anyone in the business of creating, delivering and measuring content knows exactly how nuanced and complex launching a new content program or campaign really is—and how little other business functions understand what goes into making the launch successful. Because of this, there’s inherent pressure to get everything right—to cause no tension or stress between teams and experts leading up to launch, execute the plan exactly as laid out and hit and (ideally) exceed all KPIs.

The reality is that a new content program or marketing campaign launch won’t ever go exactly as planned. It won’t ever be perfect because of how fast-paced, dynamic and ever-evolving the world of content can be as well as businesses themselves. Fortunately, there are often opportunities lying within the imperfections. New channels are adopted, new customer insights are discovered, new experts emerge, new learning opportunities are unveiled... and so much more.

But to be in a position to better anticipate the surprises and reduce the chaos leading up to launch, content pros first need the right people, processes and technology in place. Only then can they adapt and pivot as needed, ensuring a successful, efficient content program or campaign launch that’s as close to perfect as they come. 

5 must-haves to nail the launch essentials

There are various elements that need to be established in order for a content program (i.e., an ongoing brand strategy that’s executed across channels) or content campaign (i.e., a goal-focused, time-sensitive series) to run smoothly.

Strategy alignment

First and foremost, you need to ensure there’s a clear, concise and comprehensive strategy in place—one that answers the what, why, who, where and when. It should account for the program or campaign goals, positioning and key messages, and insights about the target audience. Setting the strategy requires an intensive, focused effort from team leads as well as careful planning and coordination across the business units that will play a role in the launch. 

Skills and resource allocation

You need the right skills on your team and, importantly, you need to ensure those people have the space and time to dedicate to the launch. All too often, organizations will have competent, capable content teams with diverse skill sets across writing, SEO, analytics and distribution, but they won’t have enough availability within their days and weeks to manage every moving piece and anticipate potential roadblocks leading up to a launch. It’s essential to get budget, time and personnel balanced and in order before execution starts. 

Content production

The process of content creation and production—and doing so at scale—is one of the biggest, most strenuous lifts within a program or campaign launch. Content teams need to coordinate across the business to glean insights for the materials, and then they need to have a process in place to ensure consistent, timely creation across various formats and channels. To help manage everything, teams typically have content calendars that help them track both materials and contributors within the process (learn more about content calendar best practices).

Content distribution and promotion

Distribution and promotion of content across your channels is easier said than done. It requires knowing where your target audience is showing up (this may be different across buyer personas) and when they’re showing up so that you can engage them at the right place and time to drive an action. Beyond the different paid, earned, owned and shared channels you may leverage for distribution, you need to account for various tactics for promotion as well, such as paid advertising and influencer partnerships. 

Measurement

Clear KPIs (e.g. engagements, conversions) should be included in the upfront strategy, tied to the program or campaign’s overall goals and objectives. To track and report on these, content managers need a system (e.g. Google Analytics, Semrush, Adobe Analytics) in place, ideally integrated with their content management system (CMS) to analyze the data in real time so they know when and how to make adjustments to the content strategy to optimize performance. Again: no launch is perfect, so it’s critical to have the insights and ability to revise and refine as you go. 

How to address—and overcome—launch challenges

Nailing the strategy, honing the right skills, executing production, distribution and promotion, and measuring it all to glean insights is already a very tall order. Adding on to the complexity of a program or campaign launch, the process also requires close collaboration with all other business functions to ensure they’re feeding timely insights into the content creation process and staying on top of evolving industry trends so you’re not lagging behind competitors.

Cross-functional team collaboration

Launching a content program or campaign involves heavy collaboration across the organization’s subject matter experts and business functions, including sales, product, IT, HR and others. It also requires collaboration between communications and marketing experts, including writers, designers, and potentially external agencies. Team leads have to wrangle experts for internal interviews and coordinate multiple rounds of reviews and approvals of content with multiple stakeholders—all of which is time-sensitive and time-intensive, especially for larger organizations with departmental silos and geographically dispersed teams. Stakeholders often have different priorities as well, which the team needs to navigate to ensure everyone’s needs are met. 

Evolving industry trends

Audiences everywhere are inundated with information from multiple sources, every day, all day—meaning, standing out from your competitors has never been more challenging. At the same time, the ways in which you can and should engage with your audiences are constantly changing. Best practices are always refined; the tools and technology you leverage are regularly optimized; the channels you leverage are growing in size and complexity; audience expectations are both high and ever-evolving. Staying on top of everything is challenging, nonetheless staying ahead of it—especially when you’re in the throes of a program or campaign launch. 

Bridging the gaps

Overcoming these challenges while also managing every component that goes into a successful content program or content campaign launch is a near-daily challenge for content managers and their teams. But while the perfect launch doesn’t exist, you can certainly aim for perfection—and get close to it! —with the right people, process and technology in place.

Organizations have multiple tools that support the launch of a content program or campaign, but it’s the CMS that serves as the hub for all content-related activity. Unfortunately, many teams are still bogged down by platforms that can’t easily accommodate and adjust to their audience’s preferences and today’s industry trends. They’re unable to move quickly or make adjustments to workflows without a cumbersome overhaul—and then the launch is inevitably riddled with challenges.

The right CMS is one that’s flexible and allows teams to create content fast and work the way they want to work. It integrates with other solutions so that teams gain the insights needed to refine and elevate their launch approach as needed. It shouldn’t make teams adjust to the technology’s capabilities; rather, the platform should support and help refine the processes that already work best for the team.

That’s where Brightspot comes in. Fast, flexible and fully customizable, Brightspot perfectly harmonizes your technology approach with your content strategy so your launch can be as close to perfect as possible. Plus, our customer-obsessed teams can help you overcome everyday challenges to ensure you’re set up for success in the near- and long term.

Gearing up for a launch? Have questions or concerns about your CMS’s capabilities? We’re happy to talk through any and all of it with you—reach out today.