If you’re new to online business, you may be noticing all the experts saying, “You have to have a ‘strategy’ for your content.”
“If you don’t have a strategy, you’ll just be spinning your wheels.” 😕
“If you don’t have a strategy, you’ll burn out.” 😖
“If you don’t have a strategy, your content won’t land you clients or make you money.” 😑
So yeah… It sounds like a good idea to have one of these nifty content strategies, right?…
But what does it actually mean?
Is it a list of platforms you should show up on? A content calendar? The number of times daily/weekly that you should post? (Spoiler: Nope. In my opinion, it’s none of these things.)
In this post, I’m going to define and demystify the term “content strategy” for you.
By the time you’re done reading this — instead of just hearing the term thrown around and wondering how you’d go about having one — you can take the first steps toward establishing a profitable content strategy of your own!
I know you’ve been waiting for this… so let’s dive in! 👇
What is a content strategy – for an online coach or service provider?
Let’s dive head first into this with a simple definition.
When the experts say, “You have to have a content strategy,” they mean you need a thoughtful, deliberate plan that uses content to achieve your business objectives while addressing your audience’s needs.
It’s not just about producing content for content’s sake — just to be visible. In fact, it’s the opposite.
It’s about crafting valuable, purposeful content that builds demand for your offers, demonstrates your expertise, deepens their trust in you — and ultimately, increases your profitability.
The way your strategy increases profitability is by “pre-selling” your offers — like your coaching packages, courses, consulting, or ‘done for you’ services.
Let me explain…
A proven approach to content that makes you money:
I approach and teach content strategy based on this philosophy:
There are certain things that your audience needs to hear, learn, and understand more deeply — to feel ready to buy your offers.
Having (and following!) an intentional content strategy is about:
(a) identifying what those things are; and
(b) systematically creating content that shows your audience those things.
When you think of it like that, it’s actually pretty simple.
There are certain pieces of content that you need to “pre-sell” your offers… (i.e. to be sure some of your people are ready to say “yes” when you extend an offer to work with you.) You need to create those — if your goal is to make sales.
(I teach you exactly what those are — through my ‘9-in-2’ Content Pillar system — and provide a step-by-step method for systematically creating those pieces of content effectively, inside my program, High-leverage Content. You can learn more about the HLC program here.)
Coaches and service providers go wrong, though, when they either…
(a) haven’t taken the time to identify those things… and/or
(b) they don’t spend the majority of their content creation time on those things, once identified. (This usually looks like “winging it” or only creating what feels fun in the moment.)
Which is why having a clear, documented content strategy and plan is crucial…
It keeps you focused on systematically creating those most important messages — the ones that will motivate your audience to take action and generate the sales and clients that you want.
To bring this to life for you, let’s look at a real-life example inside the business of a nutrition coach I worked with…
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A Content Strategy Example: A Nutrition Coach
A past client, Talia, came to me with a content strategy that wasn’t really working.
She had a six-month, 1:1 coaching package for women who keep kosher and want to lose weight. She was publishing content regularly on her own blog, Pinterest, and Instagram. She was also guest-posting regularly in specialized publications for her ideal client.
But, despite all the hours and love she was pouring into her content, she struggled to sign clients.
She got a lot of praise for her content (“I loved that recipe! I make it weekly now. Thanks!”).
She also got a lot of “I’d love to have you as my coach… Maybe after the summer / after the holidays / after I get organized” etc…
But she never had more than two 1:1 clients at any given time (always from referrals). And she really needed a roster of 4 to 5 to reach her income goals and make her business sustainable. (i.e. to NOT have to go back to her 9-5!)
When I asked Talia what her “content pillars” were, she said identified these:
- Recipes
- Nutrition information and hacks
- Spiritual and motivational quotes
(*Note: Content pillars are essentially the categories in which you create content. When chosen well, they are the backbone of your content strategy, providing a clear focus for what you will be discussing or sharing with your audience. More on that below.)
So when I heard Talia’s pillars, I knew right away what was going wrong.
She had no real content strategy.
She was just creating what she thought felt fun and helpful — and what she was most comfortable creating.
She was NOT creating content that shifted people’s thinking around kosher or low-carb eating, weight loss motivation, coaching as a means of staying accountable…
She wasn’t using her content to answer even the most obvious, frequent questions her audience had about her offers, either.
She wasn’t thinking of “call to action” first — and then building content around that. (Instead, she was just trying to be helpful and inspiring — and she was just tacking CTAs on randomly at the end of her content… which doesn’t work well.)
I told Talia she needed new content pillars — because she was literally missing (almost) every single thing that her ideal audience needs to hear, to feel ready to hire her.
I introduced her to my ‘9-in-2’ Content Pillar system — the system I teach inside High-leverage Content.
(These are the nine types of content you need to make sales faster… And btw, they are NOT the stale, circa-2017, “Educate, Entertain, and Sell” buckets. My system is waaayyyyy more powerful than that! 😎)
After a few coaching sessions, in which we identified what those critical things were, she started systematically producing content that went much deeper than tips and tricks.
Within four months, she had four clients and was still getting more applications.
She reported that every single one of her sales calls had converted during that time, too. The prospective clients who got on those calls already knew they wanted to hire her — because they had consumed her highly-strategic content…
And because that content now reflected those key things that people needed to hear/understand — to feel ready to buy.
Talia’s story reflects how important it is to be intentional with your content strategy — if your goal is to use your content to land clients.
It’s crucial to understand what a content strategy actually is – if you want to sign clients.
The term “content strategy” can certainly seem like a buzzword that’s thrown around often in the world of marketing, but it’s critical to understand what it is — and what it’s not.
If you’re a coach or service provider and your goal with your content is to land more clients… then your content strategy isn’t just about where you’ll post or how often.
And it’s certainly not about overwhelming yourself with countless platforms or an intense posting schedule.
It’s actually all about being deliberate and intentional — and then focusing on your plan.
It’s about identifying exactly what your audience needs to hear and understand — to feel ready to hire you…those key things that build trust and demand.
And then, it’s about staying focused, and spending most (not all maybe, but most!) of your content creation time on those key things.
So next time you hear an expert say, “You have to have a strategy for your content…” I hope you feel 1000x more clear on what that means — and how to have one!
You can learn and follow my Content Strategy system: High-leverage Content.
If you’re feeling like you need a better strategy — or if parts (or all!) of Talia’s story are sounding familiar…
You’ll want to check out my signature program, 🎯High-leverage Content.
Inside, you’ll learn how to create the *right* content… the nine types of content that build trust and demand fast – so you can convert your audience to clients in half the time.
When you join, you get lifetime access to:
🎯 My HLC content strategy (This is where you learn what your audience needs to hear and understand more deeply — to be ready to hire you.)
🎯 Plug-and-play content outlines
🎯 ChatGPT prompts for each numeral of each outline
🎯 Profitable content creation curriculum
🎯 Powerful worksheets to guide your process
🎯 Checklists to keep you on track
🎯 Private, student-only Facebook group
… and more.
