The idea of having a content strategy has been around for a long time. But in the past few years it’s been getting increased attention as more and more people and organizations are blogging. Blogs have become so commonplace that businesses and individuals are using them as a way to sell their products and services, which led to the concept of “content marketing.” This means there is even more of a need for a content strategy.
A Little History
Let’s take a look back at the evolution of content strategies.
Back in the early days of information technology, say the 1990’s, having a content strategy applied to the organization of technical material created to support software and hardware. It went by different names back then, such as “information plan” or even just “outline.” As technology moved forward and companies started having websites to promote themselves and showcase their products, successful web developers created complex organizational charts to design their website’s structure.
Fast forward to around 2004 when blogging became more mainstream. At that time, it wasn’t exactly easy for most people to create a website in order to have a platform for their blog. However, around the same time a few platforms were evolving that made it easier for a non-technical user to quickly and easily create a hosted or self-hosted website. Among these are WordPress,org, WordPress.com, Blogger, and others. At first these platforms required more technical expertise than they do now. But as time moved on, these platforms added more and more features and became easier and easier to use.
Now pretty much anyone can be up and running with a blogging platform in less than an hour. Or even in a matter of minutes if you know what you’re doing. It’s hard to get an exact count, but as of early 2017 there were over 300 million blogs in existence. These blogs aren’t just from businesses, but are also from individual people wanting to share about themselves, their hobbies, and their knowledge.
A Blog Needs a Content Strategy
A content strategy is important to any blog, whether it’s a small personal blog or a large highly-polished corporate blog. For businesses of all sizes, a blog is a serious and important part of developing and maintaining the business’s brand and image. It helps attract and keep followers—which can become customers. For it to do this, a blog has to have a content strategy so information is easy to access and so readers know what to expect when they visit a blog. And most importantly, so they want to come back to the blog in the future.
At its most basic level, a content strategy is a plan that gives your audience the content they need, when they need it, in a way they expect it. In a nutshell, this boils down to what, when, why, and how a reader consumes content. This can mean different things depending on the size and audience of a blog.
Interested in learning more about content strategy? Visit our other posts in this series:
- Content Strategy—What Is It?
- Content Strategy—Do You Know Why You Need One?
- Content Strategy—It’s Part of Effective UI/UX
- Content Strategy—Who’s Your Audience?
- Content Strategy—Types of Content
- Content Strategy—Terminology
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