If you want to get started effectively in creating content on the internet in the medium to long term, you first need to define an editorial strategy. What are the stakes, what is your target, or how to deploy it, are just as many questions that it is good (even vital) to ask yourself in order to display an effective and efficient editorial strategy . In this article, we give you the pros and cons to consider when setting up your editorial strategy.
Definition
An editorial strategy or content strategy is the central pillar of content
marketing. It is she who behind the
scenes, pulls all the strings and thus governs each of your publications : how
they will be carried out, for which target, at which stage of the sales cycle
(discovery, evaluation, decision), which title, which word -key, and when to
publish.
An editorial strategy, as its name suggests, is a strategic
process that will allow you to define
your future content marketing actions in the short, medium and long term . At
the antipodes therefore, posts published on the fly without a specific goal and
without any real objective.
The development of an editorial strategy revolves mainly
around these 5 phases:
• Creating
your personas
• The
research phase: SEO of course, but it is also knowing the words and queries
that your customer avatar uses in the field and online.
• Developing
your publication schedule: which publications to post, on what day, at what
time and on which network.
• The
creation of your content
• Dissemination
and promotion of these
Advantages
Setting up an editorial strategy has several advantages , we have listed a few of
them:
A) Establish a framework and a guideline
A solid online presence requires consistency, rigor and
harmony in the publication of your various content.
Your digital strategy thus allows you to set these
milestones, and to define upstream the guideline to adopt.
By establishing your strategy, you have a clear idea of the
goal to be reached and have a precise vision of the future actions to be
implemented to get there. All your posts must therefore meet a useful objective
for your business with regard to relevant KPIs that will allow you to monitor
your results.
B) Plan, organize, get ahead
An editorial strategy is designed for a very specific
period. For example, you will define your 96 article titles (8 per month, or
two per week) to publish over the year but also your videos, podcasts or any
other web content .
Once your article titles have been validated, all you have
to do is take out your project manager hat, and relay between your teams and
your service providers to publish your content throughout the year.
It is therefore a luxury: that of being able to plan,
organize and get ahead . Did your copywriter deliver articles to you in
advance? Why not integrate them and plan them directly?
A well-conducted editorial strategy is therefore the
assurance for you to say goodbye to rush phases, to rushed posts, or to your
endless promotional posts from Monday to Friday: you are in control of your
content. because you have a head start.
C) Support the prospect
throughout their buying journey
A prospect consults on average 3 to 5 contents of a company
before taking action . In light of this statistic, imagine how much you improve
your chances of converting your Internet users if you offer them content:
• addressed
to them directly,
• that
meets one of their needs,
• which
brings added value,
• which
demonstrates that you understand the issues and challenges of your audience.
I said imagine? To tell the truth, it work, and it is a
reality . To prove it, find our case study and see what happens when you sport
an effective and relevant editorial strategy for your target market coupled
with powerful tools such as CRM , marketing automation and lead nurturing.
Add a good dose of expertise and this gives, among other
things, the best inbound marketing strategy in France, for Teralta ( one of the
clients we have been supporting since 2016):
D) Creates trust and
influence
We told you above: regularly distributing free content that
helps your audience will allow you to establish a closer relationship and thus
improve your perceived value . Your prospects will therefore be more inclined
to buy from you. In short, give more to receive better.
E) Personalize your speech in
relation to your audience
We are in the time of personalization. More than a product
(or a service), the customer is now looking for a unique experience . Your
editorial strategy must therefore work in this direction and will strongly
participate in this proposed experience.
We have all had this type of thought at least once: "I
prefer to go to such and such a place, it may be more expensive or further
away, but the service / product is much better". Your digital strategy is
there to generate this type of reaction.
F) Position yourself better
in search engines
Google loves content that delivers value. Relevant content
that generates engagement and arouses interest will improve your SEO and therefore mechanically increase your
visibility.
G) It works
The ROI is very
measurable and positive.
We have supported and created many editorial strategies for
our clients. The finding? It works ! And you know what ? It's not really
surprising ...
Indeed, Internet users (your customers, you and me) are
looking for information. We want to be reassured, and to understand. More than
a product or a service, we want to be in line with the values of a company
before buying. Today, it is the relationship that you will maintain with your audience,
your prospects, your customers that will make the difference.
Example: I am looking for headphones with active noise
reduction because I work in an open space, a rather noisy place.
If you are a salesperson of headphones, and you have been
able to identify this need in your customer avatar, you will be able to use it
in your various content (blog articles, website pages, product sheets, emails,
publications on networks etc).
If during my research phase, I come across your blog article
which explains to me, how to choose an open space audio headset and that
through this article, I perceive that we are speaking directly to me and to my
problem while offering me a solution (your product): there is a good chance
that I will buy from you. This is the strength of an effective editorial
strategy.
Some disadvantages all the same
While establishing an editorial strategy has many
advantages, there are still several disadvantages that it is good to take into
account:
A) It's long!
Indeed, the fruit of your efforts will only be visible after
several weeks at best , (especially if you start from zero) if there is volume
and quality (see below). In reality, it takes several months to see the
benefits of this essential groundwork. Connecting with your audience takes time
and will happen little by little as you post. It will therefore be necessary to
produces a minimum volume of content to hope to obtain results.
B) It requires consistency
and rigor
As with social selling, one of the keys to a successful
editorial strategy is consistency. We must therefore maintain a sustained rate
of publication. If you decide to post twice a week, you'll have to stay the
course and stick to it! If you stop putting gasoline in your vehicle, it stops.
Simple.
C) The need to have a good
copywriter
If you plan to create your own content and blog articles
yourself: forget about it ! Often, and with rare exceptions , we minimize the
skills and time involved.
Indeed, it may seem paradoxical, but being an expert in your
profession does not make you the best person to talk about it. Why ? Because
writing articles is a profession.
Generally, hiring a professional writer who can absorb the
required knowledge related to your topic will be much more effective than
writing yourself.
For example, you must be able to popularize technical jargon
, and be able to write according to a set of parameters (the objective of the
article, to whom it is addressed, at what phase of the sales funnel, etc. ...)
for your customers.
It therefore goes far beyond simply presenting the technical
characteristics of your product.
And even if you are able to write according to these
principles, you will have very little chance of keeping up. We also create
editorial strategies of 72, 96, 120 articles per year. Would you be able to
write them all in the allotted time? Not so sure...
This is why we strong recommend that you hire a qualified
writer. However, a good copywriter is not necessarily a good editorial
strategist, specialist in web marketing and natural referencing (SEO).
The optimal configuration is therefore for us to outsource
your content creation by integrating a digital marketing specialist who will
take care of both the creation of your personas, your digital strategy and the writing
and promotion of your articles.
Cala is one of the services we offer. If you want to know
more, we invite you to make an appointment here.
D) Have sufficient skills and
resources
This echoes the previous point, hiring a writer for your
blog posts, a cameraman / editor for your videos, a graphic designer to
highlight the background, will require financial resources of course, but also
time . Once your strategy has been established and your first content in
production, it would be silly to backtrack because you did not anticipate these
points.