Just the mention of the buzzword content will send businesses aflutter, promoting its significant role in the digital world.  As more and more marketers consider how content can work for them, the line seems blurry between two very distinct disciplines: content strategy and content marketing.
While it may seem confusing, content marketing and content strategy are two very different, yet overlapping, specialties.

Content strategy makes content marketing effective.

Robert Rose, of Content Marketing Institute, uses the metaphor, “Content marketers draw on the wall with magic markers, while content strategists use fine pens.” Essentially, content marketing is a type of marketing strategy, using content to build relationships with customers.
Rahel Bailie’s view of content strategy simply states it as, “…the planning aspects of managing content throughout its lifecycle, and includes aligning content to business goals, analysis, and modeling, and influences the development, production, presentation, evaluation, measurement, and sunsetting of content, including governance.”

Two disciplines working together

Content strategy embraces auditing, analyzing, creating, disseminating, and governing content in a myriad of channels. Without a strategy, content marketing becomes a series of statements and exclamations. “We need a blog.” “Why are we not on Instagram?” “Make sure to set up the Facebook page.” Content strategy is the why to these demands. Developing a strategic foundation, a structure, an analysis of resources and needs, and a system in place to measure results, gives purpose to the content you are creating.
Content marketers are empowered to tell stories and engage their audience. The fact that it appears so effortless is thanks to a strong content strategy.
Our team at MJ2 Marketing understands how important a solid content strategy is to effective content marketing.
Building relationships isn’t easy, but it is what we do best. Do you need assistance with your content strategy? Give us a call; we would love to sit down, share some coffee and help you nail it down.
Speaking of content, read our article, “The Power of an Infographic” to see how powerful visual content can be in building relationships with your customers.