Did you know that 60% of consumers enjoy reading relevant content from businesses? Another 82% feel more positive about a company after reading custom content? 7 out of 10 consumers feel closer to a company after reading their content. A good content strategy can absolutely make or break your online presence. For formulating a full proof content strategy, you need to understand where your business stands in the AIDA model.

• Awareness stage: By carrying out this step, there will be some information that will be dispersed into the minds of unaware audiences. However, they are not yet ready to try the product.

• Interest stage: Sufficient interest encourages the buyer to start researching more. They may have shown interest in your business through a lead of any form.

• Desire stage: In this stage, the consumer moves from the ‘liking it’ phase to the ‘wanting it’ phase. As you are giving them the information to increase their interest further, they make better and more informed decisions.

• Action stage: This last step of the AIDA model is all about getting your consumer to initiate action in favour of your business. The advertisement/post designed, keeping in mind the action stage, should end with an attractive Call to Action (CTA) option. This prompts the consumer to act immediately, in most cases. You can even include urgency through the content, which would make the consumer take quicker action, as it would make it more attractive.

So, what can you actually determine by the AIDA model? Each buyer persona falls under a step of this model. A buyer persona is how you would define a particular buyer, who would then stand as a sample for an entire set of the target audience of your business. The description ranges from demographics, psychographics and behaviour of that particular buyer which would be generalized for the target audience. A business can most definitely have more than one buyer personas. Defining the target audience like this gives a clearer idea as to how one would promote their content to a particular type of audience. By formulating good content, you will be able to push the audience further to the next stage till you convert them into a buyer.

Once you have determined the buyer persona, you should identify the media platforms they are most active on. This will tell you where your content is most needed and consumed. Promotion of content can be done both organically and by running ads across platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Ascertaining where your target audience is present is very important as pushing content on platforms, otherwise, it is a waste of time and resources. Once you do that, there is a wide array of content types you can choose from. You can range from blog posts, podcasts, surveys, memes, videos, contests/challenges, live videos and even Instagram stories. Choose a good mix of different types of content depending on your audience and you’ve already won half the battle. 

A collection of content is called a content bucket. A content bucket helps you define what content your brand will use for maximum effect of the purpose. These content buckets make it so much easier for a content manager to sort their content strategies. Here are a few examples below to help you understand better.

Entertainment:

The types of content you can churn out for entertainment is as follows:

• Memes
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Jokes
• Contests and Challenges

Promotion of a Product:

Here, the type of content you will choose will be different from what you’d choose for entertainment:

• Emails
• Discount Coupons
• Testimonials
• Product Brochures 
• Influencers
• Webinars
• Consumer Reviews 

Conversation Starters:

• Surveys 
• “Caption this” posts
• Questions 
• Polls
• Posts about trends on social media platforms

As shown above, different content buckets have different mixes of content. Usage of these combinations helps the business push the audience forward on the AIDA model. A content bucket isn’t always defined. There can be a personalized mix of content types for a variety of campaigns that serve the same purpose. It depends on your brand and your business at the end of the day. It majorly depends on the tonality of your brand. If a brand, say, BMW or Mercedes, starts churning out content like memes and funny videos for their product promotion, the audience will not connect to it as BMW represents class and poise. It has branded itself as mature. Similarly, if Netflix shifts to subtle advertising of their shows and movies, they will not tap the audience’s attention. 

Another way to sort your content strategy is to use a content calendar. A content calendar is an organized, strategically laid out schedule for your social media platforms. It helps you remember what to post, when, and where, and is usually made on an Excel sheet. An example of a content calendar is given below:

A content calendar helps you with the following:

• Deadline discipline 
• Allows you to be consistent
• Helps you find your ideal content mix
• It is easier to keep track of the results

As mentioned earlier, producing content that is personal to your brand is very important. You must tell the story behind your business through your content.  The story should be about how your business came into being, why are your products and services more unique than the already existing ones, how it makes a consumer’s life better and how much value your product adds to your brand. It should resonate with the audience and must be relatable. This makes it more enjoyable for the audience and they keep coming back to your brand/business. 

In conclusion, content is key. In today’s day and age, having a presence on social media is very crucial. Strong and influential content is the way to go. Keep it to the point, crisp and personal and that it! You’ve cracked the code!