I know, I know… holiday chaos is going on, Covid is making things that much more challenging, and things are well… uncertain. Planning your marketing content for the next year is the last thing on your mind. Honestly, it is usually the last thing on my mind as well. I’m just a human as you are, and I don’t like writing content. I am always finding “reasons” to avoid doing it. That is why this might be the first time you’ve ever heard from me.
Last year, I started on a “little” project to get myself more excited about writing content. I created a content calendar for myself and even went as far as recording a video series about content marketing to share with others. Then Covid happened, and I lost steam. You might be wondering what in the world content marketing has in common with brand strategy and why I’m even talking about the topic.
You see, content marketing is the action arm of your brand. You must have content to attract and interact with your audience. It allows you to show your human side, creating relationships, trust, and leads.
Here’s a quick view of how things work:
- Your brand is the heart and soul of your business. It is born when you build your brand strategy.
- Branding is the body that carries your brand out into the world. Things like your website, logo, business cards, and messaging (also called touchpoints.)
- Once out there, your brand isn’t going to sit like a lump. It needs to be active. That activity, all the stuff you put up on social media and your blogs, is content marketing.
It is challenging to have content without a strategy, you end up with blinking cursor syndrome, and it is just as bad to have only a strategy sitting there doing nothing. You need to have both.
In my upcoming posts and articles, I’m going to showing my process for creating content. I do not profess to be a content specialist, but sometimes it is easier to do things when you have someone doing it alongside you. 🙂