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Guest post by: Jim Schakenbach Become an Author

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Time and time again, we hear that tired phrase, "content is king." But the reason we keep hearing it is because it's true. Content - that elusive gray cloud of words, images, and graphics - is the soul of any organization, large or small, profit or non-profit. Without content there is no brand, no image, and no value. Good content requires a content strategy. What is a content strategy? In short, it is the analysis, creation, publication, and maintenance of useful, appropriate, valuable, and current content, developed to meet one or more established goals. Without proper planning, your content runs the risk of being dull, unfocused, and ineffective - leaving you with little or no brand identity, no customer interest, and no sales.

To develop a content strategy for your company or organization, you first need to:

• Understand your target audience's needs - what are their "pains" and what will make those pains go away?

• Define your ability to meet those needs - what do you have that potential customers might want, how does that compare to your competition?

• Set content goals to address those needs and pains

• Conduct a content audit to determine what content already exists - current website, printed materials, as-yet-untapped employee knowledge?

• Assess the value of that content - is it current, still relevant to your target audience?

• Determine what NEW content is needed - can the old content be revised, or does it need to be completely rewritten?

• Determine who is going to provide it - an employee, agency or freelancer, a combination?

• Where and how your content is going to be used - website only, downloadable files, printed pieces?

Addressing these points is critical for determining what will motivate your audience and the topics your content needs to address; what you need to do to create that content, and what form or forms it needs to take. This will create the foundation for developing focused, appropriate, and effective content.

A good content strategy will help you more easily identify, create, and maintain the various marketing communications tools every company or organization needs to be successful. A workable content strategy enables you to build, populate, and maintain a website more efficiently; build and maintain your brand identity more effectively; and develop new business more easily.

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