In our experience creating content for world-class companies across industries, we’ve identified three content pillars that make up the foundation of a successful digital content strategy:
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- Blogging
- Social media
But it’s not enough for these content pillars to exist in a vacuum. You need to leverage them strategically as part of an integrated approach to content marketing.
Connected Content Is Powerful Content
Too many businesses maintain multiple content streams that never interface. But siloed content is rarely effective content. After all, even the strongest solo pillar can’t properly support an entire digital content strategy. You need all three pillars working together to maximize the value of your content and achieve measurable results.
Let’s look at the specific strengths of each pillar and explore how, together, they can be a force for significant marketing impact.
Blogging builds organic traffic
Your blog is the perfect place to publish long-form content: comprehensive articles that inform, inspire, and establish your company’s voice and values.
But how does blogging deliver results? Put simply, the “great Google machine” reads your blog posts and surfaces them in relevant web searches—and you never pay a dime. With interesting topics, quality writing, eye-catching visuals, and a solid SEO strategy, your blog will attract new visitors to your website and position you as a subject matter expert in your field.
Does that sound like more than you can tackle on your own? Enlist the help of a company like Every Little Word that offers content creation services! We’ll help you select relevant content topics, interview your company’s subject matter experts, craft savvy articles, and ensure all the SEO t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted.
The takeaway? Every successful digital content strategy begins with longer-form content that lives on your website. Once your most robust content is established, your other content pillars can fall into place much more easily.
Email builds sales
An email newsletter is a terrific way to support sales efforts without blatantly selling.
Because you need email addresses to send emails to people, newsletter recipients will primarily include your customers or clients, as well as people who have opted into your newsletter via a lead magnet or download offer.
What’s the point in emailing people who already know about your business? They’ve already been vetted! They’ve proven their interest by buying from you or opting in—and those are the exact kinds of people you want to email. Better yet, they’re the people who will read your emails!
So how do you connect your blog content with your newsletter content? It’s easier than you think! Use your blog content in your email newsletter. Publish a snippet of your latest blog post with a “Read more!” prompt or rework portions of your blog content into an all-new message.
The takeaway? The recipients on your email list probably get dozens of emails every day. Make your email more than a sales pitch. Create a custom newsletter that people want to open and read!
Social media builds community
From LinkedIn posts to TikTok videos, social media is most effective when it’s engaging.
Ask yourself: What am I giving to my social media community? A reason to laugh? An inspiring message they’ll want to reshare? A unique perspective they’ll want to comment on? Tips, insights, advice, or wisdom?
Whatever approach(es) you choose, remember that social media is about community. The type of community you build depends on the type of content you share. And if you’re repurposing your blog and newsletter concepts into social media-friendly posts, you’ll expand your audience in alignment with your digital content strategy goals.
Isn’t social media meant to help a business get more customers? Yes! And no. You can’t control who sees your social media content, so you have to post with the awareness that your content can (and will) be consumed by anyone and everyone. Some will become customers; others may become employees at your company; and a few will even become unofficial brand ambassadors, regularly engaging with your posts and singing your praises.
The takeaway? Craft social media content that aligns with your carefully developed digital content strategy, and anyone who comes across your content will have an excellent experience.
How to Create High-Impact Content
Your time is valuable, so you want to achieve maximum impact with minimal effort. The simplest way to deliver high-impact content is to establish an iterative cycle of creation, publication, and engagement. Here are a few examples:
Repurpose your content
You can safely assume that no one will see every single piece of content you create. By reimagining and repurposing your content, you can distribute your message to more people. And when you regularly spotlight key themes across your content channels, you reinforce your brand message, which helps set expectations and improve the customer experience.
Schedule your content
It’s better to regularly publish one blog post per month than to publish seven articles in a week and then forget about your blog for the rest of the year. Search engines don’t reward stagnation! Regular publishing indicates that your business is thriving.
The same is true for email. Emailing consistently keeps your business top-of-mind, whereas inconsistent emails are more likely to get ignored.
Target your content
Content is most commonly categorized as “top-of-funnel” (ToF)—and content marketing is very powerful! But don’t get stuck in funnel mode. The combined value of your content pillars is great enough to support a digital content strategy that reaches a broad, diverse audience of brand-new prospects and existing customers.
For every piece of content you create to target new prospects, ensure that you’re also delivering content that holds value for your current customers. Some content can even satisfy both audiences simultaneously!
Three Pillars, One Digital Content Strategy
Anyone can develop a singular strategy for one pillar: blog or email or social media. But you’ll attain optimum impact with a cohesive strategy that leverages the strengths of all three pillars: blog and email and social media.
With help from Every Little Word’s content creation services, you can develop and execute a content strategy that draws new customers, strengthens existing relationships, expands your network, and shines a light on the best of your brand.
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