Key points:

• Most digital marketing features (personalisation, A/B testing, marketing automation) require multiple different sets of content to be effective
• It is essential to have a content marketing plan
• Start small – think about resources required, brainstorm for quick wins
• Test and learn
• Focus on high value, low implementation effort
• Regardless of personalisation, a content calendar is essential to drive traffic to your website
• The content calendar should include the type of content, which channel it will be posted to (e.g. website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter), bearing in mind the target audience

It is a worn-out cliché, but “Content is King” still resonates when it comes to digital marketing.

Whilst the phrase may be true, there is another that is equally as important: your content strategy is a critical advisor to the King.

You may have the greatest content in your field, but without a realistic content and distribution schedule, that content may never reach your audience.

Start small – creating good content requires a serious amount of thought and effort.

Test and learn. Don’t be afraid to fail.

A content calendar is critically important to the success of your content strategy. It must include the type of content (written, image, video etc), which channel it will be posted to (website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter etc), bearing in mind the target audience.

Ideally a yearly content plan can be developed, but for some organisations this may be unrealistic, and a shorter timeframe required.

Your content should be a combination of content that can be used at any time, and reactionary content that is time-critical. You need to have content created in advance to use across the calendar, but you also need to be able to react to changes in circumstances.

If there is a major announcement in your industry then you must be able to generate content and get it live as quickly as possible.

I was lucky enough to be heading up the Richmond Football Club’s digital team in 2017 when the club won their first AFL premiership in 37 years. An impromptu performance by Richmond star Jack Riewoldt with The Killers to sing Mr Brightside generated millions of video views, and led to a string of content that will remain amongst the most engaging, highest reach content the club produces. The outcome? A massive increase in followers on all social channels, growing the known audience that the club can engage and transact with in future

A word of warning – high levels of personalisation will require a large volume of content. This must be taken into account with your internal and/or external resourcing.

Ultimately the best digital content strategy will take into account the effort it takes to produce content to generate a positive ROI. By following the above recommendations you will have a head start on your content marketing journey.