Keyword research is the foundation of a successful data-driven content strategy and content plan. A well-considered keyword research document identifies how potential audiences search online for information, products and services. Keyword research will provide specific data points for how customers and potential customers are actively searching—typing phrases into a search bar or using voice search—and will provide a quantifiable snapshot into an audience’s state of mind when they are thinking about your company.

MSPC’s keyword research includes recommended core phrasing and target topics for all identified audiences, specifying terms to be included in messaging. We will also create a high-level customer journey messaging framework, identifying the phrasing customers and potential customers use when they become aware of and engage with your company.

Our content team will use keyword research to determine content topic areas where your company can inform its members and potential members, appear in search results and develop brand authority.

Editorial insight is incorporated into all keyword research, providing suggested categories and recommended use for all major keyword categories. Good keyword research will align your core brand and editorial messaging with your audience’s vocabulary, complementing existing brand style guides with customer-focused language.

Our strategy team dives deep into social channels where potential customers may be active, including social networks where communities interested in your products and services may gather.

When our deep dive is done, we provide actionable recommendations on where to post content and what topics to cover and align with keyword research to ensure that we are prioritizing content and channels that will make an impact on building community and reaching new audiences.

Our technical and content assessment provides a close look at how to make an impact with website content, including audience outreach or owned educational materials. We will also conduct a light analysis of any direct competitors, identifying how to better grow and connect with your company’s community. Through a variety of business intelligence tools, we identify potential avenues to reach your target audiences with content across digital channels.

Using the above data, as well as information from stakeholder interviews (see next section), we will create a custom framework for measuring content performance. Our team will identify visibility, engagement and conversion KPIs that match your business objectives throughout the customer journey, moving beyond impressions and page views to create a sophisticated understanding of how members and prospective members use content and act on what they see.

This measurement framework can take a variety of forms, but will always clearly align content publishing and planning to specified business objectives.

MSPC will conduct on-site interviews to immerse ourselves in your business, identify differentiation and focus on key challenges. These can be one-on-one or in groups. In addition to the marketing team, potential interviews could include:

• Executive leaders/board members
• Department heads
• Community relations
• Programming and events people
• Customers
• Partners

MSPC will review past content created by your company, website content and a variety of other materials deemed important to your business success. This step is the cornerstone of a strong content strategy.

This qualitative analysis assesses needs, shapes content governance and assists in determining the feasibility of future initiatives. It identifies:

• Problems in content and content gaps
• Opportunities for content repurposing
• Recommended future content approach and structure
• Opportunities for optimization and maximizing conversions
• Places to enhance usability

Deeply understanding your audiences will allow us to be more effective at reaching them, connecting with them and making a meaningful impact on their journey. Utilizing information from the interviews and your brand guidelines, MSPC will editorialize any existing personas using psychographics and anthropological characteristics. We will do this to identify the most impactful messages and platforms that will begin a highly resonant approach to member and prospective member communications. We will outline not only who each person is, but how messaging can be personalized for their needs.

During this step, we will describe key audiences in detail: How do they intake information? How does their state of mind impact how they interact with content? What tone and voice will they respond to? What will lead them to a desired action?

When there are multiple audiences, you need to ensure you’re speaking to each one in the right style and with the appropriate context. To do this, we will build on your brand guidelines, establishing your content’s voice and tone, and look and feel standards.

Voice and tone are critical to creating relatable, authentic and effective content. They will drive content creation for your company across all channels, from videos and social posts to long-form articles and infographics. Voice tells the reader who’s speaking and stays consistent. The appropriate voice will set your company apart. The tone is the feeling the reader gets from a piece of content. It can change depending on the type of content.

Look and feel are the visual representation of the voice and tone. Visuals for your content need to reflect the essence of the messaging on any channel. Look and feel are integral to creating a finished content package (the sum of the parts). Strong visuals can stand on their own and tell their own story. They act as an entry point, pulling the reader into deeper engagement with the content.

Together, the voice and tone, and look and feel will be the editorial representation of your brand, and they work to convey its personality and its attitude toward members and prospective members. MSP-C will create guidelines for each audience that still adhere to an overall brand story and style. For example: Content for a millennial mom will be different than content for a baby boomer grandpa, but it should be nuanced—not glaring—and always sound and look on-brand.

We will define a high-level vision statement for your content marketing, which supports business goals and objectives, to guide content development. This could take the form of a manifesto. More than a mission statement and complementary to a marketing creative brief, MSPC’s manifesto summarizes all elements of the messaging and articulates the content strategy. Key messages bring this manifesto to life, providing a foundation for all future content.

MSPC will develop actionable recommendations on how to best reach targeted audiences and what topics can be adapted into marketing and sales collateral, aligning with keyword research to ensure we are prioritizing content and channels that will make an impact on the bottom line.

This will include creating a plan to incorporate platforms, types of content, processes and goals, and KPIs across all relevant channels—ensuring we share the right message at the right time with the right people via the right means, and that it all works together.