In the digital age, content isn’t just a part of marketing; it’s the heartbeat of a brand’s engagement with the world.
A content strategy is the master plan that ensures this heartbeat is strong, steady, and synchronized with the audience’s needs.
But who ensures that the content’s rhythm matches the tempo of your business objectives?
Enter the content strategy consultant—the maestro orchestrating your trademark’s story and company’s vision across all marketing channels and formats.
What Does a Content Strategy Consultant Do?
Content strategy consultants analyze, advise, and set up a company’s content plan. They shape a trademark’s content direction and tailor blueprints that transform business objectives into a cohesive narrative told across various types of content.
Content consultants help businesses create content that achieves their goals. Whether attracting new customers, increasing website organic traffic, boosting brand awareness, or improving sales.
To hit these goals, they work closely with clients to develop a customized, goal-oriented plan, which includes everything from researching the target audience and analyzing existing content to planning, creating, distributing, and tracking the performance of new content.
Research and Content Analysis
Before crafting a single word, a great content strategy consultant dives deep into research and content analysis to diagnose problems with your existing content strategy.
Content marketing consultants use tools like content audits to scrutinize what’s working and what’s not, persona research to understand who your business users are and what they want, and competitor research to pinpoint other players in the field.
Professional consultants also focus on audience research. They conduct user journey analyzes to map out a user’s experience on your app, website, or newsletters, and content gap analyses to find missing information from your platforms that your audience might need.
With their findings, content strategists can identify weaknesses and areas for improvement, use these outside perspectives to revamp your existing content, or build content from scratch if you’ve yet to do so.
Content Planning
Armed with this research-based data, content consultants will work with you to plan your content strategy.
Content planning is like making a roadmap for your online content. It means placing each piece of content at the perfect point along the user journey.
Like planning a road trip, content planning helps businesses decide:
- Where they want to go: what topics they want to cover in their content, what format (e.g. blog post, video, meme, infographics), and what platform they want the content shared (e.g. social media, company blog, LinkedIn, YouTube channel, and so on)
- Who they want to take: understanding the target audience and the type of content they would find interesting
- When they want to visit: scheduling when you’ll create and publish the content
Content strategy consultants use all this information to craft a custom content calendar in advance. This calendar ensures all your content seamlessly connects across your digital marketing channels, working together to achieve your goals within a set timeline.
Content Production and Distribution
Veteran content strategists take the planned content and guide businesses through each step of the content creation process, from helping them identify their trademark’s unique voice to ensuring content captivates readers from start to finish.
Full-time consultants will teach you to write clear and compelling calls to action. They are prompting your readers to take the next step, whether buying a new product or subscribing to your newsletter.
Aside from content production, content strategists develop comprehensive systems for organizing and tracking all your content. That way your company can efficiently distribute months’ worth of videos, blog posts, photos, social media posts, and other content pieces across various platforms.
Tracking, Measuring, and Optimizing Content
In content marketing, if you can’t measure the content you produce and distribute, you can’t improve it.
Professionals establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the success of content marketing efforts. They use these metrics to perform data-driven adjustments, ensuring that every piece of content captivates and converts.
Content strategy consultants mentor businesses on how to make these adjustments properly so that their content continuously converts or attracts not “just any random visitor” to their platforms but those likely to become qualified leads whom they can then nurture into becoming loyal customers.
10 Ways a Content Strategy Consultant Can Help Your Business
A content strategy consultant guides entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even established companies through this complex digital landscape where every click, like, and share counts using proven frameworks such as…
1. Establishing Clear Business Goals
A content strategist doesn’t just sprinkle magic dust and hope for the best. They are in the business of setting “SMART” goals:
- Specific,
- Measurable,
- Achievable,
- Relevant, and
- Time-bound.
From amplifying brand awareness to nurturing leads, sparking social media conversations, optimizing email marketing efforts, increasing sales, and enhancing customer retention, these consultants masterfully lay down a strategic path that pinpoints and achieves your business objectives.
2. Defining Target Audience
A business without a target audience is like a compass without a needle: directionless.
Failure to identify the right audience can result in wasted resources, low engagement, and ignored content.
An experienced marketer specializes in demographic analysis (i.e. breaking down a population by its characteristics, age range, income levels, family situations, and education levels). This data helps businesses understand who the group is and what they might need or want.
Additionally, professionals use psychographic profiling (i.e. figuring out people’s interests and habits) and behavioral insights (i.e. why people do what they do) when defining a target audience. This way, every piece of content a company publishes speaks directly and powerfully to those most likely to engage, convert, and remain loyal to your brand.
3. Diversifying Content
Content diversification—mixing up content types—leverages the correct format to tell your story effectively.
A professional content advisor identifies which formats will best engage your target audience.
- Eye-catching infographics?
- Compelling videos?
- In-depth blog posts?
- Vibrant photos?
- Or snackable short-form videos?
As your business delivers a diverse content portfolio to your target audience, you’re able to increase relatability and stand out against competitors.
4. Improving Content Relevancy
High-quality content is now a baseline expectation, not low-hanging fruit.
To truly break through the noise, content must be well-crafted but also entertaining, informative, engaging, and, most importantly, relevant to your audience.
A content strategy consultant ensures that every piece of content resonates with your audience, captivates their interests, and adds value to their lives.
5. Ensuring Compliance with User Data Security and Privacy
Trust is the foundation of any relationship, including the one between your brand and your audience.
With stringent data security and privacy regulations, a content strategy consultant ensures that all content complies with the latest laws.
Safeguarding user data prevents legal repercussions and fosters continuous brand loyalty by showing your audience that you care about their privacy and well-being.
6. Boosting Audience Engagement and Loyalty
The pièce de résistance of any content strategy consultant’s repertoire is the ability to forge strong bonds between your brand and your audience.
Engaging content is the currency of loyalty in our digital world.
Marketers know how to create content that draws people in and encourages them to stay, interact, and advocate for your brand.
When content clicks, loyalty follows, and with it: increased business exceeds any individual campaign.
7. Benefitting from Cost-effective Content Production
Content strategy consultants build content plans that balance freshly written and strategically repurposed content.
Content repurposing—reusing existing content in another format or platform—helps keep production costs low while maximizing value and reach.
By recycling, updating, and retargeting existing content, they help squeeze every drop of value from your investments.
8. Getting Results with Content-Based Marketing
Many businesses struggle with marketing efforts that don’t yield results.
A content strategy consultant takes a results-oriented approach. They know how to assess your current content marketing strategy, identify where it’s failing, and implement a content-based game plan that drives measurable growth.
9. Receiving Flexible Support when Scaling Content
Content strategy consultants are not just partners in planning; they’re allies in growth. They understand that business needs fluctuate with cycles. Additionally, they can offer more intensive support during peak phases or scale back when things are steady.
This flexibility allows you to manage resources effectively without losing momentum and synchronize your content production with your business growth.
Whether it’s upscaling to match an ambitious business plan or optimizing what you have, a consultant adapts to your pace and helps propel your business forward.
10. Providing Expert-Level Content Marketing Without Building a Team
These experts’ skills extend well beyond strategizing content. They’re the Swiss army knife of digital content marketing, with technical skills in copywriting, branding, keyword research, consumer behavior, and other traditional marketing concepts. With a content strategy consultant, you can access a breadth of marketing expertise without the overhead of an entire in-house team.
Things to Consider Before Hiring a Content Strategy Consultant
Selecting the best fit for your business and values is a critical decision that profoundly impacts your content initiatives’ success.
To increase your chances of enlisting a consultant who will truly align with your brand, conduct a thorough vetting process and consider these three things:
Are They Asking the Right Questions?
Skilled strategy consultants are inherently curious and will ask numerous questions to immerse themselves fully in your brand’s world. They should be eager to learn about your business, target customers, marketing goals, brand voice, and expectations.
If a consultant isn’t asking the right questions, it’s a sign they might not be the right fit.
What Services Are Included?
Clarify service offerings when you plan to hire a content strategy consultant.
Do they just provide advice? Or do they deliver an all-in-one solution?
Both consultation-only and packaged content plans can benefit most businesses. However, to ensure the consultant you choose can meet your specific business goals, understand exactly what their services include before committing.
Have They Worked in Your Industry?
Expertise within your specific industry can be a game-changer.
A seasoned content strategist with experience in your field brings relevant experience and insights. They can hit the ground running with a content strategy based on industry-specific latest trends, challenges, and opportunities.
Closing Words: Content Strategy Can Make or Break Your Marketing Efforts
A capable content strategy consultant can be instrumental in defining and reaching your marketing goals. Their job goes beyond mere advice to customized solutions encompassing every facet of content—from its creation and distribution to measuring its success.
With experience in your industry, a consultant can craft strategies with precision, ensuring that every move is calculated and every piece of content excels.
If your organization is poised for growth and looking to make a significant impact in the digital space, consider hiring a content strategy consultant to turn “content that merely exists” into thriving assets that drive engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your content marketing?
Schedule a candid conversation with us to discover how our content strategy consulting can accelerate your success.
