Elements Of Association Content Strategy

Content, content everywhere but not a strategy in sight! OK, maybe content would not have made it into the final draft of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but the sentiment is true. Associations produce incredible amounts of content. And much of it is high quality, thoughtful and relevant. But it is often hard to find and is surrounded by other outdated and off-topic content that muddy the waters. For associations interested in spending less energy and resources to produce content that aligns with your member’s needs, content strategy is a must.

The following are the seven essential components of a content strategy. Your association may have already embarked on one or more of them but optimal success comes when you address all areas.

Content Supply Chain:

Developing a content supply chain means instituting a systematic approach to creating, managing, distributing and tracking content against your association’s mission and business objectives.

Content Topic Monitoring and Modeling:

Topic monitoring and modeling involves the overlay of multiple data points and inputs to determine topics that will differentiate your association and support member satisfaction and recruitment.

Content Experience:

Understanding the content journey of your key member segments and using this to guide the types of content you create and curate.

Content Marketing Strategy:

Creating campaigns and thought leadership programs that use content to differentiate your association and enhance its brand equity.

Content Discovery:

Content discovery includes optimizing the discovery of your content through emerging paid and earned channels so as many members and non-members as possible see your content.

Content Roadmap:

The content roadmap is more than a schedule for content creation. It defines the development cycle for filling content gaps, refreshing existing content and creating new content assets. In addition, it aligns the association and resources to deliver the content roadmap.

Content Analytics:

Tracking your content and understanding how it is shared and who is interacting with it provides insights for honing the association content strategy and better understanding the needs and interests of both customers and prospects.

The good news is you don’t have to tackle all of these aspects at once. And any one of them will make an immediate and lasting impact on your association’s content. Not sure where to start? We are here to help. Our loyal readers know that earlier this week ComBlu released its new eBook: Taming the Content Vortex. The eBook will help you embrace the content value proposition, create a plan to overcome pain points and successfully implement your content strategy.