When I discuss scientific marketing with my clients, we start by identifying the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good: your business objectives, usually you know where you want to go in the short and long term (if not, that’s a different story).
The bad (or rather the “not so bad”): all the marketing ideas you already have or we can brainstorm together.
The ugly: how content supports those business ideas, or rather, how it doesn’t.
Now you might say, “Wait… ugly? Why?”
Ugly not because it’s wrong, but because it’s not ready yet. Almost like Cinderella before the fairy godmother: there’s great potential, but it’s not yet ready for the ball.
You may already have great ideas and even strong content, but without a clear strategy, your efforts can’t perform as well as they could.
Communication is not only about saying, “Let’s do a LinkedIn post, a blog, or maybe a short video.”
It’s about making your content work for your business goals with a real content strategy and a tactical roadmap.
In this blog post, I’d like to share with you ten important initial thoughts to consider when you start working on your content strategy and tactical roadmap, to help your content contribute to your business objectives efficiently.
- Know your “why” before your “what.”
A content strategy defines your “why”, while the tactical roadmap describes your “what” (and how).
Before you even think LinkedIn post, blog, or video, be clear about your business objectives.
- Know your target audience
Still my favourite topic: know your audience.
To translate business objectives into content tactics, you need to know exactly who you’re talking to.
The message is very different if you want to sell a knife to a hunter or to a school cafeteria, even if the product features are the same. Isn’t it?
- Choose your core themes
Don’t get buried under too many messages. Choose a few clear priorities and main topics.
This keeps your story coherent and helps your audience follow your logic.
If you don’t know why you’re talking about topic one and topic eleven, how can your audience know?
Make sure every piece of content serves a purpose.
- Define your content objectives
Before you start, define your goals: do you want to generate leads, raise awareness, or increase website traffic?
These objectives will shape your next decisions and how you’ll measure success.
- Be able to measure your success and define your KPIs
You want to know whether your content has any influence on your goals? Of course you do, so do I.
Define your goals clearly from the very beginning, this will help you evaluate performance and see whether you’re heading in the right direction, or if it’s not working at all.
It might take a while to find the right indicators. If industry standards exist, they already give you a good direction.
For example: if your content objective is to raise awareness, your KPI could be increasing website traffic by 15% within the next quarter.
If your goal is to generate leads, you might aim for 20 qualified contacts or five demo requests from a campaign.
- Turn your strategy into an actionable plan
Now it’s action time (or at least action planning time).
You’ve built the foundation, now create your roadmap.
Define what content to create, where and in which format to publish it, and when.
Build your calendar but make it realistic.
- Clarify team roles and validation loops
To avoid bottlenecks, anticipate who does what and when (to avoid “Mary still needs to send me Prof. Schnuck’s citation, oh no, I’ll never make the deadline!”) and who reviews what and by when (and not have an “If George doesn’t give feedback by noon, I won’t have time to edit”). -> This needs to be part of your roadmap.
Manage your calendar like any other project, the more people are involved, the more complex it gets.
- Plan your workflow realistically
This goes hand in hand with the previous point. Avoid overplanning, but build flexibility into your process. Don’t let deadlines silence your creativity.
If you plan carefully and stay flexible, you’ll deliver what you promised… on time!
- Keep stakeholders aligned and informed
Communicate regularly and clearly with your stakeholders (for me, this is a key part of the job, I always plan regular alignment meetings so my clients can follow the progress).
Short summaries and simple visuals help everyone see the big picture and stay focused on shared goals.
- Review and align
Your strategy isn’t a one-off document, it’s a living framework.
Regularly review your results, compare them with your KPIs, and adjust your content and priorities accordingly.
Some content formats work well, others less so. Some messages are great today, but not tomorrow.
Online platforms change, markets evolve, and audiences shift. KPIs are not there to say, “You didn’t make it, your content is crap.” They exist to help you make it a better fit for your target audience, platform, and distribution approach.
Schedule a quarterly or biannual check-in to realign your strategy with your business goals and keep your content relevant and credible. I do this project-specific on a regular basis
Well, for now, these ten thoughts are a good starting point.
However, building a strong content strategy takes time, structure, and experience.
If you’d like to review your current strategy or develop a roadmap that supports your scientific and business goals, I’d be happy to help.
Get in touch and let’s create content that serves a purpose.