Meghan Casey says, ““I got this content strategy thing,” you may think. You know your voice and tone, you know what formats and channels you’re going to create content for, and you know how often you’re going to publish or share content.

Great! Except that’s not a content strategy. It’s an editorial plan.

Don’t get me wrong. Content marketers need an editorial plan, especially if they’re regularly creating new content. At the same time, you need to figure out lots of other things before you plot your content ideas on a calendar.

Enter — you guessed it — content strategy.

What is content strategy, then?

Here’s how I define content strategy:

Content strategy helps organizations provide the right content, to the right people, at the right times, for the right reasons.

When any one of these strategic components is missing, your editorial plan likely won’t get you the results you need. Examples:

  • Not the right content. If your content isn’t right (not useful or irrelevant) for the people you hope to reach, those people won’t read it — let alone act on it.
  • Not the right people. If you haven’t defined and prioritized your audiences, you can’t get your content to the right people because you don’t know who they are or where to find them”.

Why You Need Content Strategy Before Editorial Planning

Content Marketing Institute

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