Does the content you write for your customers (or the content they write) underperform? Are you struggling to convince others that content strategy goes beyond merely “writing copy”? If you are not practicing content strategy at your agency, you might be missing conversions, clarity, and cohesion across all your customer projects. And if you don’t have a strategist on your bench, you’re leaving strategy gaps that no designer, developer, or project manager can fill.
The Strategist’s Role Goes Well Beyond Words
Your content strategy is a delicate symphony of parts that work together to engage, persuade, and convert audiences. You need the right pieces in place for the greatest impact. A digital content strategist bridges the gaps between vision, structure, content, and experience.
They will carefully assess your objectives for each client and devise a roadmap for putting the right content on the right platforms to achieve results. Today’s digital realm includes multiple online platforms. Potential customers will likely interact with your brand through multiple channels.
A digital agency integrates your messaging across these channels to give each potential customer a consistent experience with your brand. At Odyyc, our management team has worked with agencies for years. We offer an embedded experience that complements your team without the overhead of a full-time hire. Not every agency needs a full-time strategist, but every agency should have access to one.
What Makes a Great Content Strategist?
Great content strategy drives high-impact content that converts. A quality content strategist is someone you can trust to design and implement this strategy on your behalf. Choose someone who:
- Listens empathetically
- Considers multiple approaches to problem solving
- Is methodical, multi-disciplinary, and highly collaborative
- Is skilled at teaching and motivating
- Can translate user behaviors into solutions that meet business goals
- Can jump into any project across industries
- Is a multi-tasker familiar with the languages of UX design, SEO, web development, and other aspects of your content strategy
Additionally, your digital content strategist should be flexible and willing to adapt based on results. Instead of becoming attached to a set content strategy, they will pivot when needed to appeal to your customers in an impactful way.
How a Website Rebuild Showcases Strategy in Action
Let’s explore how partnering with a content strategist at Odyyc would work through a step-by-step look at the example of a website rebuild. We can offer this service, among others, to your agency to generate more qualified leads or assist you with client-specific projects.
1. Workshops and Research
Our strategist is here to accompany you and your customers in developing a content strategy. We start and build our program on workshops and research. Workshops bring us closer together and involve interviewing your marketing and leadership teams to assess your business, project, and user goals.
Then, thanks to our interactive workshops through card sorting, tree testing, and persona/customer journey mapping, our content strategist learns how your ideal customers engage online, along with their preferred types of content. This step includes multiple interactive sessions with your team to:
- Understand the user experience
- Identify touchpoints on the customer journey
- Comprehend what makes your company stand out from the competition
- Understand your ideal customer
Our strategist’s next step is to compile data on your current content and digital marketing efforts. This involves assessing your SEO strategy, performing keyword research, and segmenting your target customers. Our strategist also researches competitors to see how you stack up.
After looking through the analytics, our strategist is ready to map the customer journey to identify user intents and match touchpoints to content.
2. Content Architecture
With your goals defined and a clear picture of ideal personas across the customer journey, our strategist will evaluate your existing website content to see how it helps your SEO and other digital marketing goals. They will also identify which pieces of content are performing well and assess your most successful digital channels. We might recommend content for optimization and help you edit your copy for improved results.
Armed with analytics, our strategist can identify your strengths and challenges along with content gaps and potential new opportunities. They will recommend a content structure and information architecture (sitemap) to attract more high-quality leads.
Information architecture:
- Organizes content into categories, subcategories, and hierarchies in a logical way
- Establishes consistent content-labeling standards
- Helps you make your website design more intuitive
- Enhances the user experience
Finally, our strategist will propose creative guidelines for core messaging and brand voice and tone.
3. Execution and Integration
Once you and our strategist have agreed to a set of final recommendations, it’s time to execute. They won’t leave you with a strategy to implement on your own. Instead, they will offer content templates with semantic guidelines so your marketing team can develop impactful content right away. Our strategists see beyond traditional SEO. We focus on the whole picture, from user intent to the customer journey. Each piece of content is made to resonate with your ideal customer based on their needs and expectations.
We handle wireframing and zoning for your UX team. We will also align content development and editorial planning and develop strategies that enable your team to collaborate across their content management system (CMS). Our strategists are familiar with traditional and headless CMS systems and develop collaboration guidelines that work for either type of system.
4. Performance and Iteration
Even the best content strategy will need tweaks from time to time. We measure impact through key performance indicators and user behavior. Our strategists will monitor analytics for content across digital channels and evaluate how it’s impacting your SEO, lead generation, and other goals. These results will inform SEO, search engine advertising (SEA), and social media strategies.
Our strategist will own your editorial calendar and identify continuous content opportunities to heighten brand awareness and build your customer base. We will improve and adapt our strategy based on how your new content helps you meet your business goals.
Why You Need a Digital Content Strategist
Modern customers, whether B2C or B2B, expect a seamless journey with each client’s brand. No matter how they engage with you online, they expect consistent messaging that feels relevant to their needs. Because digital marketing involves coordinated efforts across channels, content strategy is no longer “nice to have”; it’s a must-have.
A strong content strategy aligns your agency’s talent and your clients’ needs to produce shared success. It keeps your clients’ messaging consistent to solidify their brand image with each potential customer. At Odyyc, we offer a white-label service with the experience you need when you need it so every journey ends in impact.
Are you ready to level up your next build or project with a strategist who sees the whole picture? Let’s make content work harder for your team and your clients. Schedule a meeting with Odyyc today and learn more about how we can help you plan and execute your digital strategy without adding a full-time position.
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