When embarking any content marketing on social media, it’s good to have a marketing strategy. This will help to give you some structure, ensure you are clear about what it is you are trying to achieve, and that you are getting the right message out, at the right time, to the right people.
Content themes can provide a great foundation when building a social media strategy. Once you have established several themes to focus on, creating your content marketing becomes a lot more straightforward.
But just how important are they and why should you be using them?
Why are themes important in content marketing?
Content themes add structure to the delivery of any marketing strategy. It helps to unify the content as well as link it to the brand and your business objectives. If your brand has certain messages and values to promote, you’ll likely want this reflected in your content marketing.
What you should find is that in choosing solid content themes, these values will come out naturally anyway. When your content feels organic and not forced, it’s always going to resonate more. Plus, you can help to build up an authentic audience.
Establishing content themes can also help to build social plans if you’re feeling a little stuck. Some will choose to focus on one theme a month while others will rotate themes throughout.
This is a great initial step because it will allow you to assess just how much content is required (and what). For many, even having a rough idea of what they need to talk about can really help budge a creative block and assist with the creation of a core campaign of activity. When you are clear what your themes are it also becomes easier to identify events or news relevant to these on which you can create reactive content or make topical comment.
Sticking to these themes allows you to cover your key messages and reach your key audience. At the same time, themes can direct certain targets for a business. Allow your content marketing to take your business to the next level using this method.
Choosing themes that reflect your values will see them naturally fall into your content.
They can add more structure to your content marketing strategy for social media.
Organic content in your marketing strategy is a great way to build an authentic audience.
How to come up with themes for social media
So, how do you come up with content themes? These will, of course, differ between sectors and companies. There may be overlap but for the most part, they will be personal to your company’s beliefs, values, and goals.
A great place to start is by narrowing down exactly who your audience is. That’s because one of the most effective content marketing tactics is to put yourself in their shoes. Ask yourself three things:
What’s interesting to them?
What is a point of pain for them?
What help or solutions are they seeking out that you can provide?
Apart from experience, the best way to find out the answers is to look at content you’re already producing. The most powerful tools any marketer has are their insights and impressions. What’s working currently and what isn’t? When did the change occur? Is there a common pattern in which themes and categories perform well? This might be your first insight into what your audience is enjoying.
This is also a great chance to do a bit of a refresh. Does your content marketing on social media still align with your marketing strategy? Or does it miss out on vital new services? Have your audience and their needs shifted?
How to incorporate themes into your marketing strategy
How you choose to incorporate content themes within your marketing will be different to others. What is working for your competitors may not work for you.
One thing is for certain — reusing content themes doesn’t equate to using the same old content. Look for innovative and interesting ways of approaching similar key issues. Using different mediums such as video, blogs or images can keep things fresh. Another way to do so is to link the content theme to something timely and topical. Is there a relevant news story? How can this relate to your audience?
Occasionally, new themes come along in accompaniment to new marketing campaigns. This is a great chance to start from scratch and refocus your social media and its content.
One of the campaigns that we’ve undertaken at DCA was for our client Cornwall Apprenticeships called ‘#JoinTheJourney’. This campaign was created to highlight apprenticeships as an opportunity for business owners to keep on their seasonal staff full-time. It’s an option some businesses may not have considered or even been aware of before. Running over the six-week summer holidays, it saw the social content pivot.
One overarching theme remained and that was the focus on how businesses benefit from hiring an apprentice.
DCA created brand new assets which differed from the previous content. There were new graphics as well as animations in order to mix up the content. Relevant links for businesses or potential apprentices were featured on every post. This allowed both audiences to find out more information about taking on an apprentice.
Digital marketing at DCA
At DCA, we are experienced in developing marketing strategy and content marketing for social media. If you need help establishing your brand’s voice or presence online, let’s see how we can help. Whether it be by phone, via email or through one of our social media channels, let's start a conversation.
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