All businesses need content to bring in new customers, traffic and sales. Content strategy is the process of developing and distributing content to achieve the company's goals and it's critical to optimized content marketing. Whether through blogs, tweets, or articles, a company needs to think about what it wants to accomplish, and devise a plan for using the content to achieve objectives. There are several types of content writing strategies a company can uses to get results.

The Importance of Content Strategy

Most well-managed companies have detailed long-term goals. Content strategy determines what types of content are needed for the website, and then creates and publishes the content by hiring freelance writing professionals. The content must be useful and relevant to the reader, easily accessible and in alignment with the company's goals. The content is a mechanism to get a business in the position it wants to be in such as being seen as an industry leader. By carefully planning and selecting the content, the company uses words to convey the message it wants to project to its customers, vendors and the media.

5 Content Strategies

1. Analysis. With content strategy analysis, each piece of content is scrutinized for search engine optimization (SEO.) Do keyword research to find the best keywords for each web page. The right keywords or phrases can improve a web page's ranking in the search engines. By rewriting or revising content for SEO purposes, a company increases its rank.

2. Curation. Content curators read through all the company's communications, newsletters, blogs, presentations, videos, and then choose the information to repurpose. A company presentation can be turned into a video, or a blog post. An article can be made into a slide presentation.

3. Bank-links. With back-links you increase the website's rank with the search engines because other sites are linking back to the website. The easiest way to do this is to leave comments on blogs, forums and articles that are relevant to your business. Some businesses hire freelancers to do this. After adding a meaningful bit of information, give a link to the company website or blog. Other ways to get back-links is with company profiles on Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp. Another option is to post content on article directories like Ezine Articles.

4. Social Media. Once you have published the content, use social media outlets to promote the content. Twitter is one method, but you can also use Digg, Stumbleupon, AddThis and similar networking tools. Again, some companies hire content writers for this work.

5. Visuals. For every piece of content you place on the Internet have a photo or photos. Visuals are very important for getting peoples' attention. Videos, slide shows and attractive graphics also help to increase the likelihood someone will read the content. Pictures of customers using the products or of employees making the products are also helpful images that add more meaning to a product. As part of content development, you also need to have images that help to tell the story.

These are the basic elements of content strategy. For more topics, and more advanced advice on content strategy, keep moving forward in Scripted's digital marketing course.