Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business

Chapter 3. Insight Inspires Originality: Who Do You Want to Attract?

When Ann was in journalism school, she learned the fundamentals of a good news story—that every article should answer the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. The idea, of course, was to tell a good story accurately and make it relevant to the reader.

Just like good journalism, good content strategy focuses on the story you have to tell and the audience you are trying to attract. These fundamental five Ws will help you focus on your customers, their needs, their preferences, and so on. Unlike journalism, though, your content strategy should begin with the why:

1. Why are you creating the content you're creating? (What are your goals?)

2. Who is your audience? And who are you?

3. What do you want the content to achieve?

4. When and how are you going to develop the content?

5. Where are you going to publish?

Question 1. Why are you creating the content you're creating?

What are your goals? What do you hope to accomplish? The cornerstone of any content strategy is to match what you want to produce with your business objectives and strategic goals. The key here is to answer this question: How will your content strategy integrate with your other strategic efforts?

Question 2: Who is your audience? And who are you?

Who are the members of your target audience—customers or prospects? What are their preferences? Are they offline or online? What types of media or which platforms best resonate with your customers or your prospects? What are ...