Why Your Business Needs a 12-Month Content Marketing Strategy

Learn how a strong content strategy can set you up for success when marketing your business or organization.

You are doing really good work. You have some really good things to say about it. But you need help figuring out how to tell people about this awesome work you’re doing. Sound familiar?

Marketing is an essential part of growing your business and raising awareness of your mission. By crafting quality content to distribute through your website or social media, you can engage your audience and drive revenue–at a lower cost than most traditional marketing methods. In fact, content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads.

A 12-month content marketing strategy is your golden ticket to success. But where do you start? Keep reading to find out.

What Does a Strong Content Strategy Look Like?

A content strategy is a comprehensive, 12-month plan that guides the development and distribution of content, such as social media and email, with the ultimate goal of building trust with your audience, strengthening your brand and driving business results. A meaningful content strategy will touch on all of the major goals you have as an organization, while focusing on building connections. To really work its magic, content marketing requires quality and consistency. 

Successful brands tell stories that ignite empathy and inspire action. Regarding quality, you’ll want to strike the right balance between providing meaningful information for your audience and communicating the key offerings of your business. It’s important to share the impact that you are making or the value you can bring. First build that connection with your audience before you ask them to participate in that work.  

Regarding consistency, while you may not be ready to crack the code of social media’s ever-changing algorithms, you can help your business stay top of mind by posting on a frequent basis and listening for social media trends. In the case of Instagram, social media management platform Hootsuite recommends posting three to five times per week to the Feed and posting at least two Reels per day to maintain high visibility and engagement. 

By proactively putting a 12-month strategy in place, you’ll have solid groundwork for a year of on-trend, goal-oriented content that aligns with your messaging. You’ll also have a clear idea of what, when and where you’re going to post—making it easy to roll out social media campaigns and other content smoothly.

“Every brand and business has a story to tell. But balancing algorithms and content production can feel like an uphill battle,” says Yakkety Yak CEO Ashley Logan. “A really detailed strategy will help you be true to your brand mission, while also reaching your broader business goals.”

Craft Social Media Templates to Keep Your Branding Consistent

Visual identity is just as important as consistent messaging when it comes to telling your story. Incorporating the core visual elements of your brand–including your logo, imagery, colors and fonts–in all your digital assets (your website, social media, email, etc.) will help you maintain the tone of your brand and paint a cohesive picture of the story you’re telling, which, in turn, will strengthen your brand recognition and credibility.   

Creating social media templates on a beginner-friendly graphic design platform like Canva is an easy way to ensure your brand elements stay consistent across all social media posts you plan out in your 12-month content strategy. The amount of templates you make will depend on the range of content you post (for example, a template for an educational post would look different than one with an event promotion), but a good place to start is 10 templates, which will give you two different options for each weekday. Your templates should include your logo, brand colors, fonts and imagery that aligns with the tone of your brand. 

Optimize Your Website for Growth

As the main content hub for your brand, your website is an important piece in the content marketing puzzle. It’s where your audience can find the information and services you provide and build a stronger relationship with your brand by connecting the dots between your messaging, offerings and mission to see the bigger story at play.

To ensure your website users make these connections and have a positive experience with your brand, your content strategy should include a website audit that identifies issues or areas that need improvement. While performing an audit, you’ll want to look out for indicators of poor website design that can turn users away, such as confusing navigation, faulty links, a weak visual identity (for example, your logo or brand colors aren’t present on every web page) or outdated content. Once you have a list of actionable changes to make, outline a plan of attack in your 12-month content strategy so you can complete them in a timely fashion. This blog can help you evaluate your website and advocate for a new one with your leadership team or board.

Let Us Create Your Content Roadmap–So You Don’t Have To

A solid content strategy weaves your story across marketing channels so you can consistently build awareness of your services and drive your audience to act. If you’re feeling out of your depth with marketing work and need some guidance on what content to post, where to post it and when, Yakkety Yak can give you a clear roadmap through our content strategy sessions.

When you sit down with the Yak Pak, we’ll ask you about your audience (e.g., customers, members or clients) to understand their pain points. This helps us craft goals for your content and bucket ideas tailored to your audience’s specific needs. Then, our team will map out a 12-month editorial calendar, incorporating advanced keyword research and compelling storytelling ideas. The editorial calendar also includes a posting schedule, making it easy for you to begin posting content and marketing messages consistently.

Yakkety Yak’s team of talented graphic designers will create a visual identity toolbox that includes 10 different branded Canva templates, a Canva how-to guide, and recommendations for how to use them in alignment with your social media calendar. These templates will incorporate your brand colors, logo, fonts and other elements to ensure your visual identity stays consistent across all the different platforms you use to engage your audience.

Also as part of our content strategy sessions, Yakkety Yak’s web team will evaluate your site to identify any issues that might be holding you back: Is your website optimized for search engines so your content shows up in search results? Can users easily navigate your website and quickly find what they need? When users read your content, are they clicking on links that are now broken? Is your branding and messaging consistent across every page? Our website audit will identify any areas for improvement, so you can address anything urgently needed to keep your site online and user friendly.

Are you ready to take the content marketing yak by its horns? Schedule a content strategy session today and come hang with the Yak Pak!