How to Refresh Your Content Strategy

By Sian Yewdall
Woman Rising Magazine

Do you look at your content and feel like there’s nothing left to say, it’s all been done before?
You know the importance of communicating with your audience and developing connection via stories and valuable content, but over time, after months (if not years) of endless content creation you’re losing motivation. Does your marketing strategy still pack the punch it once did?
If you’re at your wits end and need to refresh your content marketing and communications plan, here are three ways to challenge yourself and your marketing strategy to make it work for you – instead of doing the same ol’, same ol’ and wondering if you’re even hitting the mark.

1. Are you telling stories that resonate with your audience?

Assuming you know your target audience inside out and you have produced an ‘ideal customer avatar’, try to find real stories from your career, life or business that showcases how you have experienced the same issues they are facing and how you figured it out. Story telling is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience because it’s real, relatable and honest. It’s also not necessarily related to business and puts your key message in to an everyday situation.

It could be as simple as, “Five years ago I found myself lost without direction because I’d left a job I thought was the role of my dreams, but it turned out the grass wasn’t greener on the other side…”

This is much more engaging than:

“When it’s time to transition from one career to another, follow these steps simple steps…”

Depending on your brand’s tone of voice and content strategy, writing in first person may not be necessary, so you could alternate that with a client case study. No matter which way you go, remember, content marketing isn’t a one-way conversation, it should be about developing an empathetic understanding with your audience. What makes them think, laugh, cry or feel understood?

2. Is your content marketing strategy broader than your standard social media posts?

You’ve identified stories and are working hard to develop an editorial plan (hopefully!), so why not mix your strategy up a little and think outside the box on placement and distribution to broaden your message?

Instead of creating a content calendar that just lists a date, name of story/article and medium (think newsletter, social media post or website), why not consider editorial opportunities for pitching to local media or social media influencers, paid opportunities to boost reach or other creative ways to produce the content like video, audio or eBook?

Don’t limit yourself to the same distribution method and breathe life in to new activities that could expand your audience and attract new customers (not to mention strengthen your authority in the market).

3. What can be reused or updated?

Revisit past content from over the years and look at how you can tweak it to refresh it for today. Have there been changes in your industry, developments or trends that impact older content?

Previous content can always be refreshed if you think of ways to make it relevant for what’s happening today.

Again, have a think about new ways you could communicate your message over the standard written format. Design. Create video. Host an event or offer an experience. Develop an infographic or gif. Consume other digital content and find ways others are making content that tells stories and can translate them across various platforms to build your audience.

Sian Yewdall
Woman Rising Magazine

Sian Yewdall is the vibrant, fun-loving Founder of The Woman Rising Network and Editor-In-Chief of Woman Rising magazine.
After 15 years of developing her PR & Marketing career in Sydney, Brisbane and London Sian moved back to her childhood home of Townsville in 2015 to raise her family.