I've been fortunate to work on a number of brands, large and small over my time.
From building content and personas from scratch to using a creative idea and translating into print and online media, a well thought out content strategy can not only drive your core KPIs, but also helps to build out your marketing calendar and ultimately gives the business a steer for what's to come.
When devising a content strategy for a brand or campaign, there are three main starting points:
Who are you speaking to?
Where do they spend their time?
What do you want to achieve?
CASE STUDY 1
A significant investment in creative for a TV & Radio campaign needed to be utilised across all consumer touchpoints for an online gambling brand - Paddy Power Bingo
Resource Available: Design & Digital Execution Specialists.
Who are we talking to? C2DE 70% Female.
Where do they spend their time? Facebook, at home during the day, later adopters of technology, 70% mobile browsers.
What do you want to achieve? Maximise ROI opportunities from creative investment as well as media, to justify initial expense.
The Execution: Build a cross-functional working group to execute campaign content across Paid Social, Display Advertising, Organic Social, CRM, Direct Mail and Interactive Content.
The Outcome: A top-down plan to take initial concept through to print & digital channels, sympathetic to platform execution. A segmented approach to Social Media channels was exercised - with Twitter and Facebook being the key channels for this brand. Key frequency & content repetition was planned alongside the formats that work best across the differing audiences and KPIs for each.
The Result: Proven increased 12 month LTV and volume to drive positive ROI. Overall brand reach growth and insight that those that both interact on social + are paying customers had a 1.4x LTV vs those that did not. Increased cross-functional collaboration and reduced siloed ways of working in the business.
CASE STUDY 2
Clear proposition for a new at-home service beauty brand.
Resource Available: Limited design and execution resource.
Who are we talking to? London-based females, majority 25-55, working.
Where do they spend their time? Online and out and about in London. Social & Tech Savvy. What do you want to achieve? Support a new and emerging brand with a defined content strategy to support brand trust and grow social engagement. Social had been run with a very specific personal tone of voice and without measurable business objectives.
The Execution: Conduct consumer research for early adopter customers and engaged social media customers to build a state of play customer profile. Match this with brand profile and create Personas to utilise across all communication touchpoints.
The Outcome: Create 3 x personas for testing against use cases: -
The Young Professional - 20-30 year old female, Instagram & Brunch Generation. Savvy and deal-driven. Weekends & Events motivate her. Led by Group Bookings. Blow Dry, Make-Up & Manicures with occasional splurges on more expensive services. -
The Established Professional - 30-40 year old female, Instagram & Facebook user, deal savvy but with more income, time poor, interested in affordable quality and luxury. Maintenance services (ie manicures, massage, waxing). -
The Power Woman - 40-50 year old female, Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin User, relies on personal recommendations, time poor but high spender & quality driven.
The Result: Build a content strategy and calendar to drive product verticals aligned to personas, supply and spike demand. Roll out across relevant channels starting with content theme and idea and roll across CRM & Social Platforms. CRM hugely successful in driving sales - increase in 40% demand from content led email execution rolled out across relevant channels.
CASE STUDY 3
Building out a Content Strategy for a new hybrid estate agent - real & experienced agents with unique data.
Resource Available: Limited design and execution resource.
Who are we talking to? 35-60 year old home owners in Southampton, Portsmouth & Bournemouth
Where do they spend their time? Locally, local independent stores and working. Online & 70% on mobile.
What do you want to achieve? Support a new and emerging brand with a defined content strategy to support brand trust drive front of mind awareness when homeowners want to sell their home. Stop customers choosing established brands without thinking.
The Execution: Utilise tech platform & local insight and expertise to become the thought leader for local homeowners & home sellers.
The Outcome: Mine the local expertise and data to create a content series based on use cases: - First time buyers (and those selling to them)
Buy To Let Landlords
Mature homeowners looking to downsize
Families looking to maximise their existing family home’s sales potential.
The Result: Slow uptake due to the emergence of challenger brands and a new model for people to wrap their heads around. Learnings show that streamlining the offering to fewer geographies and use fewer, but more expertise on a specific area built traction more sustainably.