Content Strategy is one of those phrases that gives me goosebumps.

But I know not everyone feels that way. You might not at this point.

Especially if it feels like you’ve been blogging forever but have yet to see the ROI (Return on Investment).

When new brand voice development and copywriting clients come to work with us at The Voice Bureau, some of the questions we usually hear are: You’re going to tell me to blog more, aren’t you? and I think I need a content strategy but how will I have time to like, do my actual business, too? and What if my Right People don’t use social media?

There are answers to all of these questions, and while the answers lie in the nuances, here’s the big thing we always point our clients back to: You have to know your Right People. Understanding them tells you what you need to know to design content for them.

For us, content strategy is the truly exciting work of building out your brand conversation in the world. Helping you design an effective content strategy for your business helps you get answers to these questions:

• What does my brand talk about?
• How can I become a sought-after participant in the online conversation that’s already ongoing around this topic? (Or how can I pioneer a new thread of the convo through what I’m bringing that’s original?)
• What can I offer that’s fresh and needed, in just the way my Right People are ready to hear it?

And most of the time, we hear from you that you want to know where YOU can and should come into your content strategy. You want to understand your own fine line between total authenticity in your content and showing up like an expert, a teacher, or an advisor (especially if you don’t always feel like one). 

Let’s get you straight to the matter with three mini case studies of (fictional, yet based on actual) clients who’d be great candidates to learn to design content strategy. These values-based business owners are all of the mind to meet the needs of their Right People, their business goals, and their brand objectives.

Elena, a retired professional ballet dancer, owns a classical ballet studio. It’s a rigorous training environment for students ages 5-18, and high school age students must audition yearly to keep their places in the pre-professional training company.

The school and its performances are partially funded by student tuition (which is necessarily steep) and partially funded by a huge grant from a wealthy benefactor. The benefactor’s grant, which she’s been drawing from for the past 12 years, is dwindling, and the town where the ballet school is based is mostly working class and has been hit hard by the economy. Her students don’t come from wealthy families whose parents can pad the coffers. And government grants are few and far between and only stretch so far. Elena needs a content strategy and a social media presence that will increase her performing company’s visibility in the eyes of potential supporters; ardent art supporters who will help spread the good work, or cultured people with money to donate who’d be willing to drive in from the mid-sized city 45 minutes away for performances. Her dancers are good — among the best in the region by far — and her reputation is competitive. She knows that if more people saw them perform, she could raise better donations. She wants a content strategy that will allow her to stretch her marketing dollars, represent the school’s good name well, and generate interest (and donations) in the work she and students do.

Harriet is a money-and-chakra coach who works virtually. Her small but devoted clientele lives everywhere — from the northernmost reaches of Canada to Hong Kong to the South of France and back to Kansas, U.S.A. She met most of her first loyal clients in person — that 20% who consistently pay her bills each month — when she attended a big name, popular conference in the States that pulls in business owners from many industries. It was a great starting ground for her to drum up initial business, but referrals have not been particularly strong (all of her clients say they think of her as their “secret weapon” or “silent partner”) and she needs to branch out and get herself and her point of view in front of some new eyeballs. Harriet is ready to start sharing with more people what she knows about money and the chakra system, but isn’t sure what “somebody out there” would want to know. She’s especially not sure what would make anyone hire her after never having met her in person. (She’s a big believer in intuition and resonance and fears that the internet can’t replicate what happens in person.) And the idea of using Twitter every day makes her feel anxious around her heart center. She has a niece who’s pretty tech-y who’d be willing to help her blog, but she’s just not sure how blogging fits into the big picture of earning a great living — which is most certainly her goal. After all, it’s part of what she teaches her clients!

Jessi makes screened tee shirts. She hand-draws the designs — which are of woodland animals (rabbits, bears, foxes, squirrels, owls) performing unlikely activities (making an omelet, sketching next to the Seine, getting fitted for a brassiere). Her ex-boyfriend’s screenprinting company puts them on high quality, organic, ring-spun cotton tees in a variety of on-trend colors, including basic black, white, and gray. Her sizes range from juniors to plus size and most of the artwork is unisex, although she offers a variety of modern cuts that she’s found to be universally flattering. Each style is named after one of her friends, i.e. the Lexa, the Grace, the Evie. She loves her work and even scored a small write-up with a photo once in Glamour magazine, after which she had a rush of business to her site for the next two months and a steady thrum for the four months following that. Then business settled back into its normal rhythm of slightly profitable but not really life-changing. She knows people dig her stuff, but she can’t figure out how to use the internet to keep her stuff top of mind. She dreams of getting enough business to her online boutique so that she can finally out-earn what she makes at her day job (a marketing person at an arts non-profit in a major U.S. city) and go full-time self-employed. She currently sells her tees wholesale to three independently owned shops and would like to expand to more resellers, without having to set up booths at pricey trade shows, which she knows can be expensive, time-consuming, and often disappointing (especially for first-time vendors). She’s no social media newb; she has a blog and a halfhearted presence on Facebook, Pinterest, and InstaGram, but she really wants to figure out what to blog and post about besides “hey, look at this new design I’m working on!” She’s tired of feeling like she’s competing for sales with fly-by-night Etsy sellers and major brands like J.Crew, Old Navy, and Abercrombie for market share. (And is she actually competing with them at all? She has no idea how that works and how her potential buyers stack her up against other options.) She’s more than happy to be active in her online presence if she could determine the ROI.

Do you recognize yourself in one of these scenarios?

If so, it may be time for some Content Strategy therapy. At The Voice Bureau, we love helping clients design a workable, smart, yet non-grueling content strategy with their Right People at the center. Using an empathetic approach that considers your Voice Values, we figure out how YOU can position yourself to be an expert, a go-to person, and a sought-after conversationalist around the issues and topics that are important to you and your business.

Having a strong Content Strategy means more than blogging twice a week, ad infinitum (Spoiler: it can often be less!) and haunting Twitter 24/7 (because we don’t think that’s often a trait of a healthy, well-balanced person). You’ll learn how to decide which social media channels work best with your Right People’s consumption tendencies, and highlight your strengths as a content creator. You’ll learn how to consider what message you want to bring to the table, and how it aligns with a convo your Right People are already having (or want to have). And — yep — you’ll learn techniques for finding your Right People are online. (You know how everyone says, “Figure out where your ideal client is online and go hang out there”? Yeah. We’ll teach you how to figure it out, so you can be a fly on the wall if you want to be. Spoiler #2: There’s not a giant pool of your Right People just all hanging out somewhere online together, waiting for you to pop up and start regaling them with your genius. That’s a myth.)

Our new DIY Content Strategy course is open for registration, and we’d love to see you in there. Our beta group of 20 participants will receive ample support from Tami and me via weekly Office Hours in our private community, as well as on weekly calls that will keep right on going even after the beta is over. Plus you get lifetime access to the content as it’s continually iterated and improved, and as one of our original beta participants, you get to influence how DIY course content is delivered to future buyers.

Want more info? Check out The Voice Bureau’s Content Strategy DIY Beta here.

In the comments, we’d love to know:

What part of Content Strategy boggles your mind the most? What would you like to learn when it comes to designing a brand conversation that meets the needs of your Right People, and feeds your enthusiasm, as well?

[Image credit.]

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Our readers and clients ask the BEST questions — and we want to answer them! Dear Abby (& The Voice Bureau) is a regular feature in which we take on a commonly asked question from one of our readers or clients (sans identifying information, of course) and give our whole community a chance to hear our response, then add their perspective in the comments.

Help! My competitor just launched her website and she’s bringing the exact same message to the same Right Person.

Dear Abby (& The Voice Bureau) —

Someone I really like (and respect) just launched her new website, and we have the same. Right. Person. I couldn’t have expressed my message better myself! My brand voice will probably sound a little different from hers, but not much.

I’m not sure quite what to do about this. I don’t want to copy her AND she is feeling like a long lost soul sister who manifested almost exactly what was in my head, heart, and soul. I’m moving forward into writing the copy for my site, and I need some perspective here.

Signed,

Mirror Image Message

Abby (& The Voice Bureau) Says

Dear Mirror Image Message —

Here’s the best way to look at this: in this phase of bringing your new brand online, it’s best to NOT look around at peers, colleagues, or competitors. Just, as they say, “do YOU” and focus on learning more about your signature mix of Voice Values and how they meet the needs of your Right Person. (If you work with The Voice Bureau on web copy, you’ll learn more about your Right Person in the Creative Brief we’ll craft to guide the project.)

There will always be other brands and providers who are serving the same Buyer Type as you, and even delivering a solution that’s in the ballpark of what you do — but no one else will do it exactly the same way you do. The online world is vast, and there’s room for all!

We won’t look at your competitor’s stuff as we move forward. Our focus is entirely on getting to know your Right Person and why she would want to buy from YOU — and then expressing that in the copy so she can see herself there: unmistakably, and authentically.

Talk with you soon.

Abby (& The Voice Bureau)

In the comments, we’d love to know:

Have you experienced something similar to Mirror Image Message? Have you watched a competitor, colleague, or peer come forth with a very similar message in a way that reminds you of how YOU’D deliver it? How did you react? What did you do? Share with us in the comments so we can learn from you.

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The Voice Bureau ♥s Pinterest.

Full confession: I was NOT an immediate Pinhead. I did NOT jump on the Pinterest bandwagon back when everyone else did. I was NOT an early adopter. In fact, when Pinterest first came around, my feelings for Pinterest ran more along these lines.

What the actual eff? I’d privately muse as my peers and colleagues merrily filled up my Facebook home feed and Tweetstream with images too lovely to be snapshots of somebody’s real life. I figured this new social media channel was little more than a fantasy bastion for what I think of as The Cupcake-Making Ladies, the teastain-everything-and-then-stamp-it-with-a-vintage-French-crown set, and, well, this chick (whose storytelling ability is actually quite brilliant).

Thank goodness for Tami Smith, my collaborative partner, who clued me in on how Pinterest could not only be incredibly useful as part of a content strategy, but FUN.

This is NOT a How To Use Pinterest for Business post. Nor is it a step-by-step post on how you can work Pinterest into your brand’s content strategy. Rather, it’s a look at how we’re doing it at The Voice Bureau, which is a service-based creative business. If you’re a coach, a consultant, a writer, a designer, or another type of creative who renders services just as often (or more than) products, you’ll want to keep reading and see how YOU can adapt what we’ve found to work for your own purposes.

It’s easy to see how a product-based business can use Pinterest to heighten potential customer’s desire for their products. Check out how Canadian tile art designer Sid Dickens curates pins that showcase their products and inspirations. Jayson Home, in Chicago, does a beautiful job of highlighting their own finds and furnishings, along with other moody inspirations. And boutique eyeglass retailer Warby Parker kills it with not only product shots, but on-location photo shoots, scenes from their doing-good Class Trip Visits, and related lifestyle boards.

But how about service-based creative businesses?

How can we use such an image-heavy channel to tell a story about what, how, and why we do what we do, and most importantly, who we do it for.

When I first forayed into Pinterest, I started by finding my visual footing.

I set up boards — as many as I wanted — that told stories about my personal tastes and aesthetics. These boards are all public, and give you a chance to get to know the personal ‘who’ behind my brand (that’s me, for the most part).

Here are a few of my favorite personal boards:

• Home Enthused — or, what my house might look like had I unlimited funds
• I’d So Wear It — a peek inside my fantasy closet
• Writerly — inspiration for keeping the pen moving across the page
• Vegan & Vegetarian — as a self-identified Pesco-Vegetarian with Vegan Tendencies Who Also Eats Ethically Raised Eggs, I get a lot of culinary mileage from this board

My personal pinboards taught me how to use Pinterest. I quickly realized that stuff I’d pinned in my early days of use didn’t seem quite as irresistible 100 pins later — and so I could delete it without missing it.

Essentially, personal pinning taught me how to tell cohesive stories through each board — and that’s what Pinterest is more or less about, no matter whether you’re using it for business or for personal stuff.

You don’t have to know what story you’re telling before you start pinning. Unless you want to. Remember: there are no hard and fast rules here. Just what works best for you and your Right People.

After I found my rhythm and my pinning ‘style,’ I turned my attention to how I could use the wild world of Pinterest to support The Voice Bureau’s brand conversation.

For starters, I looked at our core methodology — the tools we invent and invest in that help us deliver the results we do.

For us, that’s my Voice Values paradigm for branding.

I wanted to show our audience visually what the Voice Values look like in action. And so I created a pinboard for each of the 16 Voice Values. Here are a few of them, to get you started. You can view all 16 Voice Values pinboards at once by visiting the landing page for our profile.

• Enthusiasm
• Power
• Intimacy
• Accuracy

Beyond our methodology, I wanted to use Pinterest to curate resources from around the web that could support our Right People in the work they’re doing with branding, copywriting, and building out sustainable, values-based businesses. I love the idea of curating some especially great resources right on a sub-page on a website, but even more than that, I love using the interconnected web of Pinterest to do it. Here are some boards we made to support you in your extra-branding, business-building efforts:

• Brand Development Resources
• Typography
• Creative Studio

Finally, we use Pinterest to support our 2-to-1 and group work with clients.

We create mood boards for the Right Person of our clients working through our Empathy Marketing methodology.

You can take a look at some of them here. Note how very different are the vibes and styles respective to each board. Each one paints a strong and cohesive portrait of the worldviews, interests, aesthetic inclinations, core needs, and developmental desires of a particular Buyer Type and a singular Right Person.

• Client HJ
• Client JH
• Client RB
• Client LM
• Client AL

So that’s how The Voice Bureau gets it done on Pinterest. How about you?

In the comments, I’d love to hear:

How are you using Pinterest to support your business and brand conversation? Anything working really well for you? Anything you’re going to try after reading this piece? Let me know!

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Voice Notes is an occasional special feature. We take you inside the online brand presence of a business owner we think you should know — through a dozen evocative sentence-starters.

Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:

The first time I heard Laura Simms’ business name — Create As Folk — I said, Create as WHAT? And then the very next second, I loved it. There’s something so crafted, organic, grounded and well, folksy-feeling (it’s the new, modern folksy) about the work Laura does with people who are looking for their great work in the world. And if her message wasn’t compelling enough, her lovely and well-organized website is a delight to spend time exploring.

Although we’ve never yet met in person, I consider Laura a kindred spirit and a friend. She’s leading the Career Homecoming movement, by believing that making a living and making a life should go together. I love this quip, from her About page: “By purpose-driven, we simply mean that we want our work to make a difference. Money is important, to be sure, but it’s not what springs us out of bed in the morning. We want to do something meaningful, be who we are, and wrap it up in cash (if we could carry it home in an Anthropologie bag, we would).” Oh, my kind of woman.

Now she’s come out with a new book exploring how to make the leap from the “Boomer Blueprint” into a purpose-driven career. It’s called The Purpose Paradigm, and you can get your own copy right here.

Friends, I give you our Q&A —

Laura Simms, Creative Career Coach

Laura Simms helps purpose-driven people find careers that feel like home. She’s the leader of the Creative Homecoming movement and the author of The Purpose Paradigm.
→   Find Laura on: Twitter; Facebook; Pinterest; Instagram

MY TOP 3-5 VOICE VALUES ARE:

Intimacy, Depth, Audacity, Playfulness, and Power

(Note: Discover your own Voice Values when you subscribe to The Voice Bureau’s Insider Stuff e-letter. Look for the sign-up box in the upper righthand corner of the site.)

Personality typing? Why, yes! I’m:

An INFJ, also known as “The Protector” or “The Foreseer Developer.” (Abby’s note: Me, too! Although INFJs are said to make up less than 1% of the population and are the rarest of the 16 Myers-Briggs types, The Voice Bureau seems to attract a disproportionately high number of them as clients, readers, and friends!)

I do the work I do because:

I love being part of a person’s shift. Lest you think coaches are just a bunch of selfless do-gooders, many of us are hooked on the high that comes when a client realizes she can do what she previously thought was impossible. I LOVE that.

An unlikely source of creative inspiration for me is:

Acting. It’s not unlikely to me because I was an actor for a decade, but most career-centric professionals don’t have a history with auditioning for Cirque du Soleil and on-camera flirting with Joe Mantegna.

My brand is all about:

Being at home. In your work and in your own skin.

One thing I know for sure about my Right People is:

They are down to earth — all people I’d want to hang out with at a cookout.

On social media, I find I get most triggered when I see:

Female entrepreneurs reassuring me that their newsletters are just “Hey, girl!” emails and shouldn’t be considered promotional in the wake of Gmail’s new tabs.

I find the richest social media conversations take place:

In private Facebook groups because: the members have self-selected, they are united by an interest, and are there for conversation more than promotion.

The next big business challenge for me is:

Reaching more people while staying true to my Intimacy and Depth Voice Values.

If my clients only hold onto one piece of advice from me, I hope it’s:

To trust their intuition.

If I couldn’t do the work I’m doing now, I’d:

Run an otter rescue farm. (Abby’s Note: I can honestly say I never saw that coming.)

I can never get enough:

Of cuddly mammals. Cats, dogs, rabbits, otters . . . does it have fur? Then I want to pet it and rub it on my face. Which is, incidentally, how I discovered that I’m allergic to hairless rats. So I’ll even break the fur rule for critter cuddle.

My favorite question to ask people is:

“Have you ever seen a ghost?” No matter what they say, good conversation always ensues.

In the comments, we’d love for you to:

Tell us what having a purpose-driven career means, or would mean, to you. We’re all ears and we look forward to saying hi in the Comments.

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