If you want your business’s content to thrive, it’s vital to engage content strategists throughout the process. But “content strategy” is a broad term; the field has evolved to encompass several different sub-specialties.
In this series, we’ll explore the different types of content strategy roles so you can determine the best fit for your organization. When most people envision a content strategist, they’re thinking of a front-end content strategist. Let’s begin there.
What is a front-end content strategist?
Front-end content strategists specialize in the editorial side of content strategy and creation. These are the folks who make sure your content aligns with the customer experience and focuses on the right topics for attracting and converting your target audience. They also help see to it that you have the optimal workflow, tools, and people in place for executing your strategy.
How can a front-end strategist help your business?
Clarify your content goals
A front-end content strategist works with you to determine why you’re interested in creating content for your target audience and assists you in developing measurable goals.
Maybe your main goal is to drive sales or you’re looking to engage your customers on social media. Some other common goals are to boost brand awareness or increase website traffic. Your strategist helps you clarify which KPIs you’re going to track and ensures they are in-line with your business goals and content marketing efforts.
Develop buyer personas and map customer journeys
Many companies make the mistake of producing tons of content for everyone…which is similar to creating content for no one. Some people won’t have any use for the content you write, which means you won’t experience any conversions.
A front-end content strategist tells you exactly who you should be writing for and how you can attract those people to your website. They nail down your target audience by studying and maybe even interviewing your existing customers. From there, they create buyer personas that detail the age, gender, demographic, career, and other personal information about your ideal customers.
It’s important to know the desires and challenges of your buyer personas to create valuable content that solves their problems and piques their interests. After gathering this information, a front-end content strategist maps customer journeys to determine where your customers hang out online and which channels you should target.
Choose which types of content to produce
Once they’ve documented your target audience and goals, a front-end content strategist starts evaluating the types of content you should make.
Your content strategy should focus on producing content that is valuable, actionable, and shareable. This could be blog posts, videos, webinars, ebooks, checklists, or whatever type of content is best suited to your goals.
Streamline and organize content creation for your business
Once your front-end content strategist decides the 5W’s (who, what, when, where, and why) of your content strategy, they make sure your team is prepared to execute your content marketing efforts.
Not unlike an editor in a busy newsroom, the strategist may be responsible for securing resources to develop your company’s content and ensuring that you have the right tools in place. They also help you decide on the most effective workflow for your team and the best way to accomplish it.
Could your company use a front-end content strategist? Reach out to us today, and our team of experts will get started on a custom, performance-minded strategy for your business.